The difference is that this preacher, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, styles himself not a local emir but a caliph, the presumed commander of all the world’s 1.5 billion faithful. And another difference: his jihad has so far been waged not so much against infidels as against fellow Muslims. But perhaps the most significant innovation is that Mr Baghdadi had his performance filmed in high-resolution video, a slick advertisement both for his band of international terrorists, now titled the State of the Islamic Caliphate (SIC), and for his hitherto-reclusive self.
[A COMMENT] Here's the ugly truth. ISIS is more or less implementing Sunni Islamic law according to unerring, unchanging "holy" prescriptions. They have more radical interpretations than some, but Islamic law always centers around fear and compulsion.
Some will say that ISIS represents a real departure from Islam, but what ISIS represents is nothing new in the Muslim world. There have been many violent, messianic movements before, especially in this part of Iraq. Believing Muslims will never oppose Islamic law openly, but when they feel the oppression of religious enforcement, they find they don't really like it that much.
So they accuse the brutal enforcer of false interpretation and excess and eventually overthrow him. The replacement still has to pretend though to be interested in applying Islamic law in order to quench the rabble's desire for religious legitimacy.
But he rules pragmatically (and necessarily corruptly because there's no liberal constitutional order) eventually bringing forth another zealous challenger who promises Islamic salvation. The same thing happens thus repeating the cycle.
That is why the Islamic world has been stuck in a ditch for centuries upon centuries. The only thing that can change this is improved education and a turn away from literal belief in the written words of "Allah" and "Muhammad". [The Economist] Read more
