The Surprising Appeal of ISIS

8/9/2019 The Surprising Appeal of ISIS

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THE INTERNATIONALIST

The surprising appeal of ISISIts murderous, intolerant, and dangerous. But the group offersSunnis something rare in the Middle East: a chance to feel likea citizen.

By Thanassis Cambanis | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 29, 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, smashed its way into the worlds

consciousness earlier this month when it seized Mosul and the Beiji oil refinery in Iraq.

Starting last fall, ISIS began imposing its theocratic rule over a wide swath of Syria, then

quickly wrested control of the emblematic Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. With the

more recent attacks, it menaced the government in Baghdad; it also forced President

Obama to reengage with a war from which he thought he had extricated the United

States.

In trying to explain ISISs rapid success, alarmed observers have pointed to the extreme

tactics that drew condemnation even from Al Qaeda: mass executions, beheadings, and

crucifixions. Some see local conspiracies, believing Arab governments allowed the group

to grow in order to justify their own heavy-handed crackdowns. Others suggest that

Shiite Iran indirectly funded the movement as part of its own strategy to divide the

Sunnis from within.
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REUTERS

An ISIS fighter in the city of Mosul last week.

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Most analysts predict that ISISs conduct will ultimately limit its future: They say it has

no meaningful political program or ability to form a state, and its extremist views will

alienate the people who live under its rule.

But that view of ISISs success and prospects overlooks one key element. A look at both

ISISs written edicts and its tactics suggest that the group has gotten one important

thing right: It has created a clearand to some, compellingidea of citizenship andstate-building in a region almost completely bereft of either.

ISISs support comes from a direct appeal to Sunni Muslims as a religious and political

constituency. It has made clear that it expects people under its power to take an active

role in establishing a new Islamic state. And it has enlisted them in a project to assert

the power of their religious community over the Shia, who currently dominate the

territory from Iran to Lebanon.


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Its idea of statehood is far from the modern Western one, to say nothing of its idea of

citizenship; anyone not considered part of ISISs goals is subject to death, the more

grisly and public the better. But the brutality of ISIS can distract from the way it has

offered its constituents something theyve been denied by the despotic regimes of the

region.

During decades of independence, post-colonial Middle Eastern governments have failed

to establish national identities strong enough to counter the attraction of violent,

intolerant groups that promise members a genuine stake in their own futures. Whether

in fractured states like Lebanon, Iraq, and Libya, or strong centralized dictatorships like

Egypt and, before its civil war, Syria, Middle Eastern governments have ruled more by

force than persuasion, eliciting only shallow loyalty from their people. As repugnant as

its tactics are, ISIS offers Sunnis a rare opportunity: a chance, in effect, to be a citizen.
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Irreconcilable fanatics might form the groups core membership, but it has attracted

broader support in the Sunni community. Understanding that appeal is the key to

countering it.

***

THE REBELLIONS that have ripped apart Iraq

since 2003 and Syria since 2011 are complex,

pitting a confusing patchwork of militias

against the regimes in Baghdad and Damascus, and often against one another. Even in

that tortured context, ISIS stands out for its brutality, its uncompromising theology, and

the rapidity of its success.

Originally established in 2004 as Al Qaeda in Iraq, the group changed its name after its

founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by the US military in 2006. Its current leader,

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, took over in 2010, and has steadily expanded the groups power

and reach. (Al Qaeda formally disavowed ISIS at the beginning of this year.)

Olivier Roy, a French political scientist and author of several definitive books on

political Islam, reflected the consensus on ISIS when he dismissed it as a classic jihadi

group. ISIS is an army of militants, not a political party, nor a social movement, Roy

told The New Republic. It succeeds because the others failed; and as everywhere it will

confront a backlash of the civil society.

The extensive paper trail that ISIS leaves wherever it goes, however, suggests a more

complex and deliberate strategy, combining a typical religious-splinter-group playbook

with a genuine interest in building a state and a citizenry.

DISCUSS: What do you think draws supporters to ISIS?

When ISIS stormed into Mosul in June and sent the Iraqi Army running, it did not

begin governing by whim. Rather, it published rules. In a 16-point communiqu signed

by the secretive al-Baghdadi, ISIS stated expectations for the local population that were

clear, direct, and to the point. Women had to dress decently and only go outside if

needed. Muslims must go to prayers on time, and thieves would have their hands cut

off.
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These requirements were placed in a larger ideological context. People tried secular

forms of government: republic, Baathist, Safavids, ISIS declared. It pained you. Now is

time for an Islamic state.

The decree announced that all Iraqi government property was confiscated and could

only be distributed by ISIS leaders. Tribal leaders were warned not to cooperate with the

government. Guns and flags were banned. Police and soldiers were instructed to register

at special repentance centers.

AFP PHO TO/HO/ALBARAKA NEWS

ISIS militants breach the Syrian-Iraqi border, aiming to carve an extremist state out of Sunni-

dominated swaths of the two countries.

In territory under its control, ISIS has followed a methodical script. Once it has

established military dominance, it takes over power plants, factories, bakeries, and food

supplies. Its lawyers draft modern contracts that spell out the Islamic responsibilities of

local organizations that want to work with the displaced. Even its name is telling. Critics

address it derisively by its acronym, but ISIS members call it al-Dawla, or the state.

Like all the movements that have built influence in the region, ISIS asks its constituents

to take active responsibilityenforcing moral codes, reporting crime and corruption,

spreading the call to God.


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Its not the old model where the citizen is passive and plays no role, said Brookings

Institution scholar Shadi Hamid, author of the book Temptations of Power: Islamists

and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East. Within certain limits, if you agree to

abide by these strict rules, there is an active role for citizens under ISIS.

In countries where citizens have well-established political rights, this level of

participation might seem inconsequential. But in modern Middle Eastern stateswhere

regimes rule through benign neglect or, worse, by deliberately seeking to keep their

populations passive and disengagedeven the smallest call to action can feel appealing.

Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have

all thrived by mobilizing members around a project and a shared identity. So have

smaller groups led by clerics or militants in Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. Much of

the early enthusiasm behind the Egyptian uprising of Jan. 25, 2011, arose from the

promise that after decades of effective military dictatorship, Egyptians could finally liveas citizens, with both rights and responsibilities.

To Westerners, ISISs combination of participatory, grass-roots governance with total

rejection of pluralism and democracy can be puzzling. But like the Islamic Jihad and Al

Qaeda, ISIS draws from the Sunni jihadi tradition, which has always demanded huge

commitment and involvement from its followers while excluding everyone else. ISIS

takes these concepts to their limits; in its view of sharia, or Islamic law, heretical sects

like Shia Islam should be eliminated. Christians and Jews would theoretically be

allowed to live under ISIS protection as heavily taxed second-class citizens.

That may strike observers as extremism, but in fact, sectarian governance is already the

de facto rule in much of the Middle East. To supporters and fellow travelers, the

ideology of groups like ISIS can seem like a rare acknowledgment of reality: Ruling

parties only pretend to believe in a national identity while actually just enforcing the

power of one sect or clique. Iran holds elections, but only to calibrate the balance of

power within one faction of the Shia clerical establishment. Iraq is a multi-ethnic

democracy that is in practice run by a Shia warlord. Saudi Arabia, the richest and

possibly most influential state in the region, is run as a feudal monarchy by a single

family that enforces many of the same intolerant religious rules as ISIS.

DISCUSS: What do you think draws supporters to ISIS?

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As a result, ISIS has won support, or at least acceptance, from people who would never

identify as extremists. Theyre in control, and theyre no worse than the regime, said

one engineer named Abdullah. He was speaking at the bus station in Kilis, Turkey,

where he had brought his family to escape regime bombing in Aleppo. Some of his

relatives lived in ISIS-controlled areas, others under the Assad regime, and some, like

Abdullah himself, under the less virulently Islamist Free Syrian Army. Abdullah said he

didnt share the views of ISIS but didnt mind them either. Their rules are clear. If theyleave people alone, its not so bad.

***

NIHILIST EXTREMISTS have managed to attract armed followers in corners of the

United States, Europe, India, and elsewhere, but they remain nothing more than a

violent nuisance when countered by an effective state that commands the loyalty of its

citizens. Not so in the Arab world. So far ISIS has bested the armies of Syria and Iraq,which appeared unwilling to fight, and small Syrian militias that have gone head to head

with ISIS but are at a colossal disadvantage in funds and firepower.

ISIS hasnt yet clashed directly with the Shia sectarian militias, like Hezbollah and like

the reconstituted Mahdi Army, Badr Brigades, and others in Iraq, which display a

similar fanatical sectarian zeal and lack of restraint. It already has some advantages over

some of these organizations, however. Unlike Al Qaedas vague vision of a borderless

world run by extremist jihadis, ISIS has a plan to build a viable state right now. In less

than a year it has secured a de facto country, and acquired an arsenal of American

weapons as war booty. It has formed alliances with non-jihadi Sunni leaders, including

Baathist allies of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. And crucially, it has laid out a

blueprint for a viable self-funding Islamic state, drawing a steady income instead from a

commercial tax base and the crucial energy industry it has captured.

Until the Arab states come up with a counter-appeal, groups like ISIS will continue to

rise and peel away the loyalty of their citizens. The obvious solution is a system of

Middle Eastern government that grants genuine representation and a national identity

to people regardless of sect or ethnicity. Two hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire

provided a template that allowed its subjects to live locally within their own religious

and ethnic communities while leaving matters of law and commerce to a transnational

authority. Fifty years ago, governments flirted with Baathism and Arab Nationalism,

both ultimately failed experiments to create a transcendent and unifying ideological

identity.


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As the region has grown more diverse and its population more educated, its

governments have moved in the opposite direction, acting more repressive, intolerant,

religious, and antipluralistic. Today, there is not a single alternative vision of citizenship

being offered in the region, not even a bad one. Groups like ISIS, or for that matter

Hezbollahwhich in all other matters is its polar oppositethrive because they have an

idea of what a citizen should do and be.

Today fragmentation and sectarianism seem to have the upper hand, but the regional

uprisings that began in 2010 bespoke a widely shared desire to break free of the old

categories of identity and the old relationship of omnipotent rulers and passive subjects.

Unless those revolutions bear fruit, the people who rose up will face waves and

counterwaves of domination from two difficult kinds of masters: tyrants who offer no

shot at citizenship, or extremists who offer it to a select religious group on their own

violent terms.

More coverage:

Discuss: What do you think draws supporters to ISIS?

Alan Berger: US shouldnt let Iraq be bargaining chip with Iran

Militants declare independent state

Mass executions claimed in Iraq

Jordan fears expanding home-grown ISIS could take action

Thanassis Cambanis, a fellow at The Century Foundation, is the author of A Privilege

to Die: Inside Hezbollahs Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel. He is an

Ideas columnist and blogs at thanassiscambanis.com.

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The Surprising Appeal of ISIS

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