Middle Eastern Terrorist Groups: The Islamic State

Abstract 

The Islamic State is popularly acronymic as ISIS is one of the major terrorist organisation in the world positioning the largest threat to the many countries and world peace. This paper analyses the terrorist group as one of the famous terrorist organisations known in the Middle East. The techniques used by the organisation to increase their recognition, support and power with the people including its associative objectives, mass executions and beheadings are also discussed. Also, its external forces based on their geographical area and religion that help strengthen their goals are highlighted. Islamic State also uses social media to deliver propaganda and their motive to the public. The paper generally discusses the Islamic State as one of the prominent Middle Eastern terrorist group. 

Introduction 

Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) remains one of the most persistent and deadliest threats in Middle East security. The techniques, motives, perpetrators and methods used by this group is constantly evolving with its main interests being inflicting destruction and mass death to the countries among the middle east especially Syria and Iraq (Laub & Masters, 2016). They can strike anywhere, at any time and the group has a widened global range in high grade of skill with sophisticated weapons and strategies. The radical group uses different techniques to increase recognition, support and power with the people. There are also several external forces that have multiplied the strengths of this terrorist organisation. 

The ISIS carries out its terrorist operations based on their associated objectives and goals. The organisation’s main objective is to get recognised worldwide. As such, ISIS’s primary strategy to increase their recognition, support and power among the people is by controlling territory as a way of consolidating and expanding their position. Most importantly, this approach is ideological and inspirational. It is ideological in a way that the people believe the organisation will create a government where all the Muslims are governed under Islamic law. 

On the other hand, the approach is inspirational as the group is focused on creating an Islamic state. With that in mind, most Muslims tend to confidently embrace the group as they all believe in what they are fighting for (Laub & Masters, 2016). Ideally, by controlling territory, the Islamic group can gain more support easily from the people and with more people comes an army. As such, the terrorist activities aim at creating an emotional influence on their target audience enabling the audience to behave in a manner that supports the organisation’s objectives. 

Secondly, to maintain control in their territories, the ISIS uses public beheadings, mass executions and symbolic crucifixions display to install fear among the population and force them into submission (McCants & McCants, 2015). At the same time, the organisation provides minimal basic services to the community earning them some support from the population. Also, the Islamic state carries out attacks with a goal to demonstrate the weakness of a legitimate government leading to an uncoordinated backlash. These attacks are aimed to increase the organisations creditability among the people. 

Also, the Islamic state group has been growing tremendously over the past years making it a major terrorist organisation due to various external forces. The first aspect of external force involved is based on the idea that the Islamic state group differs from other terror groups because its objectives and goals are not limited to religion or any specific geographical area (Atwan, 2015). As a result, the group poses a much more threat to other countries as they believe to be fighting for new world order and the participants do not belong to a particular nationality and come from different countries. 

The second aspect is based on the Islamic state use of modern technology such as social media to attain their goals. With the use of modern technology, the organisation can deliver their propaganda material to a larger audience (Atwan, 2015). Through the use of social media, the group can mobilise individuals to believe in an Islamic state no matter the area they are located. As a result, young people and women from relatively moderate European cultures are more attracted to the Islamic state and willing to change to their way of life. Through increased diversity among the people joining the Islamic state, it is evident that the group's strength cannot be underestimated. 

In conclusion, the ISIS is one of the famous terrorist organisations known in the Middle East. The organisation uses their associative objectives, mass executions and beheadings techniques to increase recognition, support and power with the people. Islamic State also has external forces based on their geographical area and religion that help strengthen their goals. They also use social media to deliver propaganda and their motive to the public. This group has led to thousands of deaths in the Middle East and European countries. 

References 

Atwan, A. B. (2015).  Islamic state: The digital caliphate . Univ of California Press. 

Laub, Z., & Masters, J. (2016). The Islamic State.  Council on Foreign Relations ,  10 . 

McCants, W., & McCants, W. F. (2015).  The ISIS apocalypse: The history, strategy, and doomsday vision of the Islamic State . Macmillan.