While Muslim leaders ridicule the Islamic State’s pretensions to constitute the restoration of the caliphate, the Islamic State continues to expand and consolidate its power. Ultimately, that is how the question of its legitimacy will be decided: if it can establish and maintain a viable state, increasing numbers of Muslims will accept its claims.
“ISIS Captures Syrian Towns, Key Oil Field,” by Barbara Surk, Associated Press, July 3, 2014:
BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant marched across eastern Syria near the border with Iraq on Thursday, seizing towns, villages and the country’s largest oil field as rival rebel factions gave up the fight, activists said.
The extremist group — which controls large parts of northern Syria and captured vast swaths of northern and western Iraq last month — is now in almost full control of a corridor stretching from the Syrian border town of Boukamal to the government-controlled provincial capital of Deir el-Zour to the northwest.
Led by an ambitious Iraqi militant known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant this week unilaterally declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the lands it has seized in Syria and Iraq. It proclaimed al-Baghdadi the head of its new self-styled state and demanded that all Muslims pledge allegiance to him.
The new developments effectively expand and consolidate areas held by the group — which has shorted its name to the Islamic State — in territory straddling the border between the two conflict-ridden countries.
The majority of significant Syrian rebel groups that have been fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad have rejected Baghdadi’s declaration. The rebel groups, including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, have fought the extremist group since the beginning of the year. Nearly 7,000 people, mostly fighters, have died in the infighting.
However, Nusra Front appears to be losing the war within a war in Syria as fighters allied with powerful tribes in eastern Syria defect to al-Baghdadi’s group.
On Thursday, a video posted online by activists showed a man in the town of Sheheil, a Nusra Front stronghold, reading a statement, saying: “We have decided to declare our allegiance to the Islamic State and the Caliph of the Muslims, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”
Another video showed what appeared to be fighters in the nearby Ishara village announcing that they were ceasing their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
“The clans of the city of Ishara, and the villages around it … and all of the factions in these areas … announce before God that they will cease fighting with the Islamic State,” a man says, reading from a statement as he stands in a courtyard with several other tribal elders. The videos appeared to be genuine and matched AP reporting from the area.
The Deir el-Zour Coordination Committees, a collective of activists in the area, confirmed that militants had entered the town of Mayadeen and Ishara after other rebel fighters withdrew.
Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said some Nusra fighters were still clashing with their rivals at the outskirts of Sheheil Thursday, but added that the al-Qaida-linked group appears close to collapse.
Nusra fighters, who have controlled Syria’s largest oil field, al-Omar, since late last year, abandoned the facility Thursday without firing a bullet, the Observatory said….
el-cid says
This is reminiscent of the Communist “revolution” in Cuba. Prior to the insurgency by Castro and Che Guevara, they already enjoyed the sympathy of the political left in Europe and North America. Notwithstanding their violent actions and total disregard for human rights, they are still revered as “heroes” by the left.
Just replace Communism with Islam, and we see the same phenomenon playing out. The left happily embraces any ideology that promises to release them of responsibility and shutdown personal freedom. Islam is the ticket.
Unlike Cuba, the ability to produce oil can sustain the new country forever.
The end game is that there will be a Sunni Caliphate that is recognized first by the EU and later by the US. They will also be in an endless military conflict with the Shias, both Arab and Persian, and with the Alawites and Kurds, etc. I do not think the Turks will standby and do nothing either.
Unfortunate, the conflict will spill directly into our Western cities since the actions of these fascists will be recognized as mainstream political thought, just like communism and Naziism, as “heroes” go and fight in the foreign wars to return to engage in terrorist attacks at home.
umbra says
middle east circus.
1) isis smash syrian rebels
2) syria, iraq and iran (perhaps with assistance from kurds and some isis traitors) than smash isis.
3) when 2) is completed, everyone in that neighbourhood then go back to their favourite pass time and target again, Israel …
4) … until the next shia-sunni (or in the case of al-nusra and isis, a sunni-sunni love-hate relationship) grudge match begins.
Buraq says
Surely, CAIR’s very own Gay Chevara, Rehab, will be heading off to lend his support to the revolutionary new Islamic world (dis)order. Perhaps Reza will tag along too, writing ditties on the way.
Clowns – all of ’em!
Zimriel says
If you mean Reza Aslan, he is a Khomeinist and therefore loyal to the *other* Islamic State in the region.
Jay Boo says
Thank Hillary for educating us about Islam.
Wow! Who would have thought that all this violence would result from an obscure anti-Muhammad film.