group called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, commonly referred to as ISIS. But you'd have to be a scholar on Iraqi and Syria to fully understand

this conflict, so we can't explain everything. But we can tell you enough

to contextualize all the news stories you've been hearing lately, so that the next time someone says ISIS,

you can say, oh yeah. I know those guys. They're horrible terrorists.

So, who is ISIS and what do they want?

They are a Jihadist militant group with strong holds in both Iraq and Syria

as you can see on this map. But they are not stopping there.

Their goal is to obtain more lands, so they can create their own nation.

Their dream country will look something like this, and it will be called the Islamic State

In Iraq and Syria or ISIS. So who are the fighting members of ISIS?

Well, that where it gets more complicated. Iraq breaks down into three major groups;

Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, and Kurds. ISIS members are Sunni Arabs, so was Saddam Huessien.

His regime was Sunni backed.

So does that means this is just the old guard taking back power?

No. Saddam Huessien was a secularist.

ISIS, on the other hand, is militant Jihadists group that wants strict Sharia law.

This was not the desire of Huessien's regime.

Although there are science that some of the Huessien's former forces are currently working with ISIS.

It's complicated.

And in Syria it gets even more complicated. Syrian war-crime committing government

is currently fighting a civil war against

various rebel groups.

ISIS is not one of those rebel groups, but ISIS does wanna take over most of Syria.

So they are in some degree of arm conflict with both the Syrian government and the rebels.

It is pure chaos. In short, ISIS has been committing acts of violence, and terrorism

in both Syria and Iraq for a while. And only now make it the news for one simple reason.

They are winning. Militarily speaking, ISIS is the most successful Jihadist group

the world has ever seen.

They are collecting taxes from businesses, setting up infrastructures,

and releasing quarterly reports.

They're gaining strength. They could be around for a long time. And they may be a bigger

threat to the surrounding areas in the long run than Al Qaeda.

What is now your comments and what you think about ISIS.

If you'd like to learn more about the current state of Islam, check out our video on what

the true meaning of the word "Jihad" is. The answer is much more positive than you might

think. Or click on the other box to get up to date information on the current lethal

injection debacle. And remember we post new episodes every single day. So please, please, please subscribe. We're

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