What Drives ISIS

Broadcasting brutal murder videos, enslaving religious minorities, training and deploying child soldiers, carrying out suicide bombings at crowded intersections – these are just some of the heinous crimes committed by the Islamic State (ISIS). To a certain extent, such acts mirror tactics employed by other violent extremist and paramilitary groups, but what separates ISIS from the pack is its ideological message and its means of promulgating its message. So the question emerges: what drives the Islamic State?

From a birds-eye view, ISIS’ ideology can be divided into three main components.

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