The Islamic State Ideology

Recent violence and atrocities to innocent people by the Islamic states have raised concern about the objectives and goals of this jihadist group. Less than five years ago, the Islamic state members have taken a large part of Iraq and Syria creating an organization with their own laws and regulation. Today, most of the policymakers, politicians and scholars around the world are focusing on the ideology that this group wants to bring to the world (Chulov 2). This paper will summarize and evaluate the ISIS ideology based on the article, "How Islamic Is the Islamic State? Not at All". It will also compare ISIS ideology with at least one alternative found in the article as well as argue for the best ideology and suggest its implications.

Summary of the Main Argument Made By the Article about the Ideology of ISIS

The article mostly focuses on evaluating the reasons of ISIS formation and explaining how it have remained active attracting young men and women across the world to join the violent group and participate in fighting. The author of the article starts by analyzing some of the arguments regarding the nature of ISIS. First, he focuses on the discussion by Peter Bergen, who argues that the Islamic state is a perversion of Islam and hence, the group is Islamic in nature (Hasan 3). The argument attempts to make the ideology of Islamic state a religious issue, which most analysts in the article have rejected.

Sagerman, an elite figure in Muslim culture and education, in this article argues that Islamic state is not any form of religion, which it uses to hinder its motives (Hasan 3). He states that Islam does not give the group a legitimate reason for existence, but rather the means to propagate their ideas and motives. He also adds that the group associates itself with the past injustice toward the Muslim nations gaining a lot of sympathizers. Past conflicts give them a sense of moral outrage and emotions creating an identity of the group (Hasan 5).

Barrett, a former MI6 official featured in this article, also argued that the group was increasing its presence across the world through the ideology of identity for political purposes. The religion acts as a channel, whereas its identity unites the group on the common ground of jihadism. They act in the name of Islam to gain legitimacy and hide their real interests in power and money (Hasan 7). He adds that the ideology of ISIS is driven by their political and leadership motives, but is perpetrated trough religion as it is the biggest current issue that most people in the region identify themselves with (Hasan 12).

Summary of the Ideology

According to the article, the ideology of Islamic states is to gather all those who lack identity in their society and give them Islamic religious identity to spearhead own political motives. The idea of the lack of identity among youths is widely spread across the world. Thus, this group is using this gap to attract these hopeless young people and give them hope (Hasan 5). In return, they advise them to fight in a holy war for which they shall be rewarded in the next life. The ideology is strong in bringing together people who are hopeless and give them a purpose in their lives. Thus, they pursue the political objective of this group with a lot of passion and determination.

The Logic and Evidence of ISIS Group Ideology

Following ideology can be logically traced from the times of ISIS formation to the present, when the group has already gained much influence across the world. Particular formation of ISIS can be traced back from the formation of a terrorist group named Al Qaida and led by Osama Bin Laden. After this group collapsed, most of its members and top commanders took majority of the influential positions in ISIS. This is a strong indication that both of these groups had similar motive. The goal of Al Qaida in Iraq was to gain political influence from the Shia government, which was marginalizing the Sunna Muslim (Chulov 4). Similarly, ISIS was formed by Sunna Muslim, who were marginalized both in Iraq and Syria. The logic of political marginalization evidences that the primary ideology of this group is to use Sunna Muslim, who they believe are marginalized, to gain political influence in the region.

Summary of the Alternative Ideology

The article also offers an alternative ideology of the group based on religion. The group is recruiting youths of Muslim faith to spread Islamic religion across the world. In this ideology, mostly discussed by Peter Bergen, ISIS is an Islamic group, which intends to propagate Islam across the world (Chulov 5). They are using past injustice by non-Muslims to justify their action with a primary motive to make Islam the strongest religion worldwide.

The Logic and Evidence of the Alternative Ideology

The logic behind alternative thinking is based on the teachings and laws of this jihadist group. Before youths join the group, they convert to Islam to be accepted as members. The article demonstrates an example of Mohammed Emwazi, ISIS executioner also known as "Jihadi John", who was born and raised in England before converting to Islam and joining the group (Hasan 5). It thus indicates that the group has more to do with religion. The article has also noted that most activities of this group are led by Quran, which indicates that it has a strong ideology of spreading Islam around the world.

The Argument on Which Ideology Best Explains ISIS

According to this paper, the best ideology that fits ISIS is the use of religion to spearhead its own political and economic gains. Based on the two ideologies presented above, this seems more reasonable because there is far more evidence proving ISIS defiance of conventional Muslim laws, namely killing women and children (Hasan 13). Thus, this group cannot be a religious group since it uses religion to gain legitimacy for other purposes.

ISIS performs commercial activities within their territory including selling goods to external economies, which they purport to fight. They also practice some of the commercial activities that are not acceptable within the frameworks of Islamic religion hence undermining their Islamic faith (Chulov 5). Such activities indicate that this group has a stronger motive than just spreading Islam.

The ideology of political supremacy and power is also supported by the past events, which left most of the Sunna Muslim in the region desperate for the better leadership. One of these events includes the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, which left many people angered at the atrocities and damages caused (Hasan 6). Alienation of the ruling Shia government in Syria and Iraq also explains why this group has developed this ideology. It is thus evident that the only way for the alienated and affected group in this region to seek their freedom is to use religion as a powerful tool for spreading their political supremacy goals.

Implications of the Choice

The above ideology entirely changes the way some policymakers have perceived ISIS as a religious faction. Reliable and relevant evidence has been outlined to show that ISIS has a motive beyond religion and thus, the best way to solve the issue is to deal with its actual causes (Chulov 5). Religion as a means of justifying the acts of the Islamic state should be used as an alternate way of solving the issue because there are much deeper primary issues that need to be addressed first.

For policymakers, the issues of alienation, political injustice, unequal money distribution and religious segmentation should be the primary focus. It is said that if the US have not evaded Iraq, then ISIS could not have developed (Hasan 6). The statement can be a good starting point for the policymakers to address the underlying issue rather than dealing with religion. Given issue is rather political and thus, it can be solved with a political solution.

Conclusion

In conclusion, given paper have summarized and evaluated the ISIS ideology based on the article, "How Islamic Is the Islamic State? Not at All". It has also compared the ISIS ideology with at least one alternative found in the article and an argument has been made in favor of the more relevant ideology. Lastly, the implication of the chosen ideology has been analyzed. The paper has argued that the primary ideology of ISIS is to use religion as a platform for attracting desperate youths across the world to assist them in spearheading political and economic goals. The conclusion of the paper is that Islamic state is a political issue that needs political solutions.