ISIS is in the news a lot but do we really even know who they are? A  lot of people have questions like: why are they using such violent tactics, when did they begin, and what’s next?

ISIS has been around longer than last year, but they were part of other terrorist organizations before being established as an independent group.  It was originally part of Al-Qaeda back in 1999.  It then joined smaller groups in 2006, hoping to expand and increase their domination.  Then in 2013, the group had gone under several name changes and finally established themselves as the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”, also known as ISIL.  Then on June 29th, 2014, the group changed their name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  Also on the same day, the group gave itself the governmental status of caliphate and establishing their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.

ISIS is part of the Sunni faction of the Islamic faith.  The Sunni is the largest faction of Islam.  The goal of ISIS is create a single unified state of Sunni muslims, and they have made the first step by declaring their governmental status as a caliphate. A caliphate is an Islamic state led by a supreme, religious leader known as the caliph.

ISIS has also managed to appear in the news because their very public beheadings of two American journalists, two British aid workers, and several Lebanese and Syrian soldiers.  This event was enough to get the US involved in fight.  The US has been using air strikes to combat the terrorists.

Future actions of ISIS are unknown, but a few inferences can be made.  They have been attacking the country of Turkey for the last couple of months, so they will potentially continue that campaign.  They will not stop their war on the world until they have achieved their goal of purging the “infidels” and reaching a state of total unity among Sunnis, or until they are defeated by their enemies, which included the United Nations.