Critical Knowledge: "What Isis Really Wants" in The Atlantic

Graeme Wood's article in the March 2015 issue of The Atlantic explores the complications and contradictions of the group waging their own 'Crusade' (what else can you call it?) in the Middle East, destroying, enslaving and murdering Muslims and non-Muslims alike, with medieval zeal. Their Islamic beliefs may not reflect those of the more assimilated, law-abiding followers of Islam, but make no mistake, writes Mr. Wood, "The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam."

"The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter to its strategy, and can help the West know its enemy and predict its behavior. Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (a group whose leaders the Islamic State considers apostates) than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some 8 million." ...

Full article from The Atlantic here