Why ISIL Is Worse Than Other Terrorist Groups

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Now that the world has finally turned its attention to the carnage sweeping through northern Iraq, many are struggling to place the perpetrators – the death cult known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL – in the context of modern-day terrorism.

Are these guys the new al-Qaeda? Or are they like the Taliban? Or is this movement more like Hezbollah… Boko Haram… Hamas? According to govexec.com, the answer is: all of the above, and then much more.

Led by the self-appointed “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIL is both generic and sui generis. Its rhetoric sounds familiar, because it is delivered in the language (literally and metaphorically) of most Islamist militant groups. There’s much talk about jihad – the modern, malign interpretation of that word, rather than its spiritual meaning – and the desire to attain “martyrdom.” Some of ISIL’s tactics are familiar, too, like the use of suicide bombings, and snuff videos posted online.

But the similarities end at the surface. Delve deeper, and ISIL is a more complex and more terrifying creature. If it helps to invoke other monstrosities to better understand it, I recommend widening the field beyond Islamist militancy, as well as delving into horrors of the past.

Simply put, ISIL is an unholy combination of al-Qaeda, the Khmer Rouge, and the Nazis.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The group sprang from al-Qaeda. Its founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had trained as a mujahid, or holy warrior, in Afghanistan, the forge of so many Islamist militant organizations, including Osama bin Laden’s. Zarqawi formed a terrorist operation in Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003, and then pledged allegiance to bin Laden. But al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQIM), the name he originally took for his franchise, was a new kind of terror. Zarqawi, much like bin Laden, talked about driving Western troops out of Muslim lands, but in reality his operations were mostly directed at fellow Muslims. Iraq’s Shi’ites faced the brunt of his wrath, but Zarqawi also killed fellow Sunnis who didn’t agree with his own perverted interpretation of Islam. Only recently, in Syria and now in northern Iraq, has ISIL turned its attention to Christians and other minorities.