Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria ( Isis ) Profile And...

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS): Profile and Analysis By: John Prola HMLS 302-6980 Professor Rebecca Himes March 29, 2015 University of Maryland University College The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS): Profile and Analysis Prior to September 11, 2001 The United States of America did not have the proper tools to proactively prevent and respond to a major terrorist attack. After seeing the preparation and planning of the attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City and realizing that it happened within American borders, policy makers were left scrambling to come up with new laws and policies to prevent this from happening again. There are hundreds of terrorist groups throughout the world but†¦show more content†¦One of the newest and most dangerous terrorist groups is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS and formerly known as al Qaeda in Iraq. Tracing back to Osama Bin Laden, this Islamic militant group was formed in October of 2006 after several jihadist groups merged together to form what would be known as the Islamic State of Iraq (Al-Monitor, 2015). The group is an Islamic extremist group that follows the Islamism religion. Many Muslims believe that their relig ion should â€Å"guide social and political as well as personal life† but this jihadi group of individuals are extremists (Berman, 2003). There are just over 1 billion Muslims in the world and of them about 10 million are what is known as Salafi jihadists, who believe that through war they will expand the Muslim culture so that the entire world will follow their beliefs (Livesey, 2005). ISIS follows the Salafi jihadist religion very closely and promotes it with violence and instilling fear in ordinary citizens. As of 2010 the group has been led by 44 year old Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who was born in Samarra, Iraq (BBC News, 2014). Since becoming the ISIS leader, Al-Baghdadi was rarely seen until recently. Some sources believe that this is because the leader before him, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, was killed by a U.S. airstrike in 2006 after his whereabouts were discovered. The National Counterterrorism Center currently has him listed as one of their most wanted terrorists with a reward of