Since the last United States (US) presidential elections, there has been a raise in hate speech and crimes, frequently by right-wing parties and often directed towards Muslims, there has also been an emphasis on ISIS propaganda (Lewis, 2017). The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, is an offspring of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) which is a branch of the group al-Qaeda. The Islamic State, aka the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or in Arabic Da’esh, is a Sunni Salafi-jihadist militant movement and unrecognized quasi-state as it once controlled 10 million people (see Figure 1). As ISIS is a descendent of al-Qaeda, in order to outline its birth, this paper will explain the origins of al-Qaeda and the history that leads up to ISIS. Primarily done through a literature review, this paper will look at historical events, periods and their deeply rooted issues that led up to the formation of al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in Iraq and more importantly ISIS starting with the Ottoman Empire to the 21st century. This is the history of the rise of ISIS to what it has now become.Rise of ISISIt is perceived around the world that al-Qaeda is a terrorist group that conducted or has inspired many horrible acts of violence since the 21st century including a series of car bombings and shootings, 9/11, and more. Although, ISIS is also known as a terrorist group, a key difference between al-Qaeda and ISIS are their enemies, al-Qaeda engages in a war with the West, while ISIS is more involved in the Middle East (Lister, 2015). This has caused the war on terror, which include international military campaigns, particularly by the United States, as we will discuss. Although, some attacks have been inspired by ISIS in the West, the organization does not advocate for such actions or war on the West, unlike al-Qaeda who conduct 9/11 style attacks, ISIS usually does not participate in major terrorist attacks against the West (Lister, 2015). ISIS is rather reluctant to engage with the West directly or to ‘take on’ the West, this can be seen through the refusal of attack Israel, as it is a US ally nor did it openly pick a side in the Israeli-Palestinian War (Lister, 2015). In spite of this, they are still a terrorist group who conduct horrendous acts of violence and cruelty such as the use children soldiers, kidnapping and sell women as sex slaves or force them to marry their fighters, murder praying Shiites, and sell organs on the black market, all in the name of Allah. Furthermore, ISIS is known to use Sunni resentment[1] against Shiites in their fight and recruitment as they are a Sunni group.ISIS is a Salafi[2]jihadist militant movement with great power; by 2014, the group embodied 31,000Muslims fighters who have joined its rank from nine different countries (Hassan, 2016; Lister, 2015). Many of these ISISfighters join for religious reasons, other believe that the group offers someanswers and a purpose to their anger towards Shiites and Westerns (VIDEO). Theircommitment to establish a unitary state or caliphate with no borders in theMiddle East and wish to extend this to India (Lister, 2015). Ottoman Empire & Colonial Era Duringthe time of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, the Tanzimat, which is thereorganization of the Empire, brought about the development of an elite andliberal nationalism with the goal of independence from colonial powers, butsaving the beneficial characteristics of these Western states and their markets(Hazbun, 2015). This reorganization caused power to centralized and thebureaucracy to modernized and that opened new markets. This challenged thenational identity, sovereignty, self-determination and security of MiddleEastern countries, but also created different groups with a common interest in thesecapitalist economies, which the need for specific political representation(Hazbun, 2015). While supporting the modernization of the upper class, thesereforms also caused lower social classes to become populist[3]and develop a radical nationalism as they wished to oppose these developments(Hazbun, 2015). This internal separation occurred until Sykes and Picot[4],British and French diplomats respectively, divided the Ottoman Empire andcreated new territorial borders (Hazbun, 2015). The collapse of the OttomanEmpire, thus, started British rule and French rule in the Middle East. These newstates (and borders) were rejected by, “Arab nationalist and social-reformistideologies territorial nationalisms, Islamic solidarity and tribal identity”(Hazbun, 2015). This gave rise to populist protests and revolts forindependence across North Africa, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq against theimposed leaders from the recent protectorates (Hazbun, 2015). When independenceoccurred, there was still a dependence on external powers, which caused a morerecent rise of middle class of urban professionals that led “radicalArab-nationalist, socialist, labor and communist movements that sought tochallenge both the colonial states and the Arab elite who had inheritedpolitical power and economic privileges” (Hazbun, 2015). These movements soughtchange through the modernization and socio-economic reforms that themiddle-class could identify with. The institutionalization of inequality in thecolonial-era resulted of the Sykes and Picot agreement and led to the socialdiscontent of Middle Eastern society that sparked disruption that can be seenas the root revolutionary groups.Arab-Nationalism Duringthe 1950s and 1960s, the region was occupied with disruption and change, whichsome call the Arab Cold War due to the series of uprisings and conflicts (Hazbun,2015). As the radical Arab-nationalist groups challenged the Western influencein the area; Arab politics were also altered by ‘street politics’[5],an ideological shift and social movements (Hazbun, 2015). These groups ralliedenough support to promote Arab-nationalist leaders that opposed the West, suchas Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian President. Even though, many Arab-nationalistrevolutions were accomplished with military coups, the objective was to takeover a state and claim sovereignty over its resources (Hazbun, 2015). DuringPresident Nasser’s government, Egypt became the first Arab regime to have statepower and encourage “self-determination and modernization” and grew to be aregional force (Hazbun, 2015). In the mid sixties, the basis of theirconfrontation with the old system was gone, as their modernization of welfare,programs and development could not be done without external support (Hazbun,2015). This made governments turn to autocratic means of social control and thesuppression of conflicting views. The same people that encouragedArab-nationalist leaders, such as Nasser, now were the same people “whoprovided the social bases for the rise of the radical Islamist movements thatchallenged the legitimacy of the rulers of the secular modern Arab states”(Hazbun, 2015). And the governments need for external help led to foreignintervention and dependence which continued opposition domestically, regionalcompetitiveness and conflict (Hazbun, 2015).Arab-Israeli WarIn 1967, the Arab-Israeli War was fought bySyria and Egypt to regain occupied territory taking by Israel[6]and other Middle Easterncountries competed for control. An accumulation of factors above lead tothe definition of regional politics in the Middle East to be described in termsof conflict and feuds. The oil Crisis of 1973 produced an even larger dividebetween the Middle East with oil-producing countries (such as Iraq) gainingmore wealth and influence while non-producing countries were heavily onintervention and aid (such as Syria) (Hazbun, 2015). By the 1970s and 80s, the inequality inArab states grew to new heights that made societies and citizens dissatisfiedand caused resentment towards the government, and its top officials, due to thelessening of protections and corruption (Hazbun, 2015). Therefore, governmentsrestrained mobilization and political expression, and they relied more heavilyon international support, from foreign nations such as the United States. Thissupport allowed leaders to keep their power and security while facing domesticthreats of discontent. It is through this social repression, governmentexhaustion and an authoritarian regime that helped emerge militant Islamistmovements, which ideologically challenged the “modern secular-nationaliststate” (Hazbun, 2015). These movements and groups used violent means in orderto overthrow regimes in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia (Hazbun, 2015).Among Islamic jihad actions were the assassination of Egyptian President AnwarSadat and numerous tourists’ attacks. During the Cold War, in 1979, the SovietUnion invades Afghanistan with intentions of defending the authoritarian leaderagainst rebels (VIDEO). For many of these rebels, they were fighting for areligious struggle, called the mujahid, and some developed extremist views (VIDEO).One of the rebels who did so was Osama Bin Laden, a well-educated Saudi, whichlater created al-Qaeda and was executed by the US forces in 2011 (Stern & Berger, 2016). Another rebel was AbuMusab Al-Zarqawi, uneducated Jordanian and former gangster, who later createdISIS (Fishman, 2016; Stern & Berger, 2016). These fighters subsequently used the civil unrest and discontent totheir interests and founded their own militant groups. Al-Qaeda was founded in 1988 with recruitfundamentalist soldier that fought against the Soviets earlier on; theterrorist organization became a network that defended the struggle againstIslam’s enemies (Riches, & Palmowski, 2016). United States Foreign Policy in the Middle East and itsEffects As the US does not work orencourage terrorist groups, by the late 1960s, they had abandonedrational nationalism’s progressive reforms and modernization (Hazbun, 2015).Instead, they created closer ties with the Israelis and practiced containmentpolicies of radical Arab states (Syria for example) and invaded Lebanon inorder to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization[7](PLO) (Hazbun, 2015). In order to help the US interest and development a MiddleEastern strategy, they kept close relations with growing authoritarian regimesand “backed their efforts to suppress social and political mobilization” (Hazbun,2015). The support of authoritarian regimes for national interest, as well as, disregardinghuman rights and American values of democracy and freedom has become arecurring pattern in US foreign policy. In the late 1980s and 1990s, policy makersin the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations wanted to use US powerto contain instability and lead the regions into the modern world (Hazbun,2015). This led to an even greater difference between societal and national rhetoricof insecurity that led to the foundations of Arab uprisings (Hazbun, 2015). US foreign policies and actions regardingthe Middle Eastern disruption and violence lead to the invasion of Iraq in2003, which caused an increase in societal insecurities and division (Hazbun,2015). This 2003 invasion was largely opposed to by neighbouring countries asthey did not perceive Syria as a threat, and thus, US went to war with limitedsupport from the region (Hazbun, 2015). Under President Bush, the US allegedthat Iraq had nuclear weapons and the hosting of al-Qaeda members by SaddamHussein (Fishman, 2016). The US secretary of state also emphasized Zarqawi asthe leader of a fatal terrorist network, which made Zarqawi internationallyknown and in doing so, actually recruited fighters (Fishman, 2016). Furthermore,the consequences of the invasion were wide and include breaking civil order,mobilization of Sunni jihadist movements in Iraq and the general radicalizationof Sunnis (Krieger, 2014). Both before and after thisintervention and conflict, Sunni radicalization increased, but more importantlythe US withdrawal from Iraq caused a power vacuum that the group took advantage of(Lister, 2015). Particularly due to the failure of the United States governmentto establish and “leave behind sustainable democratic institutions, awell-trained army, a functioning bureaucracy, and relative ethnic and sectarianharmony” (Lister, 2015). As ISIS’s growth is dependent on the particular military and politicalsituation that has resulted from the isolation of and hostility to the Sunnipopulation by the government and the lack of infrastructure left behind by theUS (Lister, 2015). This lack of permanent and beneficial action in Iraqhappened in Afghanistan and in Lybia, where the US overthrow Gaddafi, but didnot build a new government (Lister, 2015). This lack of action has created ahatred for the US of which ISIShas benefited from (Lister, 2015).Thus,this invasion set the foundations for ISIS, forexample, the Sunni dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, destroyed the nation’sarmy, which led to thousands of angry and unemployed Sunni-Iraqi soldiers whojoined the Sunni insurgency (Stern & Berger, 2016). As jihadist groups saw this as a repeat to the Sovietinvasion of Afghanistan, many came to fight of which Zarqawi (VIDEO). Thejihadist group led by Zarqawi became the most violent group in Iraq andtargeted mostly Shiites, which sparked the Sunni-Shiite civil war. By 2004, Zarqawi was famous jihadi, fighterof the struggle against the enemy of Islam, by that time, al-Qaeda hadweakened and thus an alliance was formed between both leaders which lead toal-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which was created to fight against US forces in itsoccupation of Iraq (Hassan, 2016; Stern & Berger, 2016). Until 2006, Iraq Sunnis stand up to Zarqawi and he was killed by an US airstrike (Fishman, 2016). Then, US leaves Iraq in 2011 as it has stabilizedaccording to them. According to Hassan, “Iraqi Sunnis have been subjected to years ofpolitical and economic marginalisation, state-sanctioned repression,lawlessness and rampant corruption in the hands of Iraq’s Shia-led governmentunder the former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki [and others]. They have rebelledby joining ISIS” (2016). Which leads to the Arab springs in the Middle Eastin 2011, caused by Syrian dictator Assad suppression of protesters that leadsto a civil war (Fishman, 2016). As he fears external intervention (that willoverthrow his dictatorship), he releases jihadists that were supposed to helpsuppress protesters, but instead make them more extreme (VIDEO). In Iraq, the remains of Zarqawi’s groups are still allied with al-Qaeda,but are now known as ISI (the Islamic State in Iraq) lead by religious scholarAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Fishman, 2016). In 2012, Baghdadi sends top ISI deputy inSyria to start a new al-Qaeda branch that will fight along the rebels calledJabhat al-Nusra (Stern & Berger, 2016). In orderto gain strength, Baghdadi strikes prisons and releases former jihadis, as wellas, forming new fighters (VIDEO). A year later, he announces that he is takingover all al-Qaeda forces in Syria, in addition to Iraq, the group thereforeexpands to be known as ISIS to include Syria (Fishman, 2016; Stern & Berger, 2016). The al-Qaeda branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, rejectsBaghdadi’s ISIS and causes civil war (Stern & Berger, 2016). As theoppression and conflict in Iraq allowed ISI to expand, the Syrian violencecaused Baghdadi to expand in Syria (Stern & Berger, 2016). Nevertheless,ISIS grows powerful in Syria, because Assad tolerates its rise (which he doesbecause it divides his enemies within Syria and causes an emphasis of foreignpower on ISIS rather than on himself and his regime) (VIDEO). In early 2014, ISIS had been disowned by al-Qaeda claiming “ISIS is nota branch of the group, we have no organizational relationship with it, and isnot responsible for its actions” (Stern & Berger, 2016).Yet this break in alliance did not hinder ISIS; by summer 2014, ISIS has alarge army within Syria, which invades Iraq militarily and become victoriousquickly due to a corrupt Iraqi army (VIDEO; Fishman, 2016). According toFishman, this invasion of ISIS in Iraq “signalled the emergence of a new forcein the Middle East – a hybrid organisation that combined terrorist tactics,military precision, religious ideology, and technological and bureaucraticinnovation (2016). And because many Iraqi Sunnis are tired of the Shiiteauthoritarian government, most welcomed ISIS or at least tolerated them in Iraq(VIDEO). Within days of entry in Iraq, ISIS had captured 1/3 of its territoryand a large part of Syria. ISIS’s goal is more audacious that al-Qaeda’s as it wants to revive theancient caliphate and expand it to involve all Muslims (VIDEO). ConclusionIn conclusion, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s origins are found the roots of al-Qaeda particularly in its offspring al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Al-Qaeda and ISIS are said to be ideological twins, but strategic enemies, as they both adhere to the same ideology, yet, ISIS overshadows al-Qaeda due to its control of territory and oil rigs, its large financial resources, its great success in the proclamation of caliphate and its alliance to many Islamic groups that have pledged alliance to it like Boko Haram (Lister, 2015). The development of ISIS and its self-proclaimed Caliph al-Baghdadi was a mixture of societal exclusions and discrimination (both ethnic and religious) that explains the “angry, disillusioned and marginalised Iraqi Sunnis” support for ISIS (Hassan, 2016). Thus, the combination of political and religious oppression and personal circumstances led ISIS to grow strong from the roots of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (Hassan, 2016). In addition, some critics of US foreign policy claim that the US caused the birth of ISIS due to its withdrawal of Iraq in 2010, which left the group with the ‘space’ to expand with limited military resistance.There is a general consensus and hope within scholars that ISIS will be soon defeated, especially with its current size. Recently, ISIS lost its control in Raqqa by its seizure by an alliance of Syrian and Arabs fighters backed by the US after a 3 year hold, which greatly diminishes the group’s power. This is, of course, a watered down and simplified version of the origins and history behind ISIS. AsFishman explains, the defeat of ISIS will depend on how it is defined, meaningthat if it is defined as a cult with a distort interpretation of Islam, itsabolishment would simply account for explaining its false views, rather than ifit is defined through violent actions that need a war to destruct theorganization (2016). “As President Barack Obama observed at the 2015White House conference on countering violent extremism, ‘When governmentsoppress their people, deny human rights, stifle dissent or marginalise ethnicand religious groups, or favor certain religious groups over others, it sowsthe seeds of extremism and violence’.” (Hassan, 2016). “In the modern globalised world, diversity andcultural crossovers are becoming a matter of routine. Hybridity is transformingdifferent Islamic countries and regions into autonomous cultural systems; thusposing a challenge to the conventional categorical oppositions of ‘us’ and‘them’, ‘Muslim’ and ‘other’.” (Hassan, 2016). Please note: Thisis a ‘watered down’ version of historical facts and the origins of ISIS. Allsections discussed could have been discussed in great detail as they arecomplex matter, as well as, more events could have been discussed. Although,for this paper, I decided to give a simple yet far lengthen view of the rise ofISIS.ReferencesLister, C. R. (2015). The IslamicState: a brief introduction. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press.Hazbun, W. (2015). A History ofInsecurity: From the Arab Uprisings to ISIS. Middle East Policy, 22(3),55-65. doi:10.1111/mepo.12143Riches, C., & Palmowski, J.(2016). ‘PLO’, ‘al-Qaeda’, and ‘ISIS’ in A dictionary of contemporary worldhistory: over 2800 entries. Krieger,J. (2014). US Invasion of Iraq in The Oxford companion to internationalrelations.Fishman, B. (2016). DefiningISIS. Survival (00396338), 58(1), 179-188.doi:10.1080/00396338.2016.1142145Hassan, R. (2016). ISIS and the Caliphate. AustralianJournal of Political Science, 51(4), 759–771. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2016.1242115Stern, J., & Berger, J. M. (2016). ISIS: the state of terror (First ECCO paperback edition). New York: Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/al-qaeda-5-years-after-the-death-of-osama-bin-laden http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034FiguresFigure 1. Map ofISIS control. We can clearly see the decrease in ISIS control between January2015 and October 2017. [1] The Sunni and Shiite divide started in … and is caused byideological differences among which ….[2] Salafism is an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam[3] A populist is a member of a political party that representsordinary people and their interests.[4] The Sykes and Picot Agreement divided the former Ottoman Empire whohad been newly defeated by the members of the entente cordiale (France andGreat Britain) into new borders and sphere of influence and control.[5] Street-politics refers to the use of the streets to discuss andprotest their wants from their government.[6] This capture of land by Israelis from the Palestinians is part of along Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is a complex and ongoing conflict inthe Middle East. [7] Founded in 1964, the PLO wants a secular and democratic state ofPalestine, along with the elimination of Israel (Riches, & Palmowski, 2016).Get Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more