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    What You Need to Know About ISIS - Terror Religion War & the Caliphate: TERRORISM
    What You Need to Know About ISIS - Terror Religion War & the Caliphate: TERRORISM
    What You Need to Know About ISIS - Terror Religion War & the Caliphate: TERRORISM
    Ebook156 pages2 hours

    What You Need to Know About ISIS - Terror Religion War & the Caliphate: TERRORISM

    By AL EMID

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    About this ebook

    I decided to write this book – much to the affable chagrin of some friends and colleagues who wondered why I would tackle a topic so complex – because the story of ISIS continues as one of the more important narratives now occupying our thoughts and our media. I wanted to go deeper than the restrictions of tonight’s newscasts would allow. As a career journalist and broadcaster, I have nothing but the greatest respect for the professionals who report in these newscasts on the ISIS insurgency. Most of them provide valuable chronicles under incredible and dangerous pressures, including threats to their personal safety.  But I hope to underpin and complement their reports with insights drawn from expert sources located around the world as a means of understanding this evil that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in 2014 but whose beginnings I trace back to 632A.D.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCHOREGUS PRODUCTIONS
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9789780993726
    What You Need to Know About ISIS - Terror Religion War & the Caliphate: TERRORISM
    Author

    AL EMID

    Al Emid has always worked in communicating ideas and concepts since beginning his career at an educational television network in 1967. For the past thirty years he has had a strong focus on the entire range of financial topics from personal financial planning to domestic and international investing and even foreign business investing.

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      Book preview

      What You Need to Know About ISIS - Terror Religion War & the Caliphate - AL EMID

      To the readers of What You Need to Know About Isis: Terror, Religion, War and the Caliphate:

      Developments in the ISIS crisis happen daily. For the latest updates and analysis, go to www.alemid.com.

      About the Author

      AL EMID is a professional journalist and broadcaster, Moderator of the Canadian Association of Journalists Freelance List, Co-founder of the Communications Professionals Economic Stimulus Group and occasional college professor. He specializes in business and financial matters in international markets, currently writes for publications in Canada, the United States and the Middle East and is author of several books on that subject. What You Need to Know about ISIS: Terror, Religion, War and the Caliphate is his fifth book.

      In his first book, What I have Learned So Far ... and How It Can Help You ... (co-author Paul Bates; ISBN 978-1-897-526521, 2010) he spoke to individuals—many of them well-known – about life crises and the solutions they found and shared with readers

      In Financial Recovery in A Fragile World (Co-authors Evelyn Jacks, Robert Ironside, ISBN 978-1-897-526521, 2012), he explored recovery from the financial crisis by individuals, corporations and countries.

      In Investing in Frontier Markets: Opportunity, Risk and Role in an Investment Portfolio  (Co-author Gavin Graham ISBN 978-1-118-55632-0, 2013) and Frontier Markets for Dummies (Co-author Gavin Graham, ISBN 978-1-118-6159-8, 2014) he researched and developed investing ideas and cautions involving frontier markets.

      In this book and with nearly half a century of experience in communicating ideas, he offers a unique perspective on the ISIS crisis, drawing on sources from around the world and explaining complex issues in clear language for the reader who wants more insight than is usually found in the mainstream media. As a business and financial journalist he continues chronicling business developments in parts of the Middle East as well as at home.

      Al Emid lives in Toronto, Ontario and can be reached via his website at www.alemid.com or at financialnews@alemid.com

      © 2016, Al Emid Choregus Productions All rights reserved

      What You Need to Know About ISIS: War, Terror, Religion and the Caliphate

      Author:  Emid, Al

      Published: September 2016

      Keywords: Caliphate, Daesh, Iraq, ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State,

      Middle East, Syria, terrorists, terrorism, war on terror

      Table of Contents

      A Note from the Author           

      Acknowledgements           

      Introduction           

      Chapter 1:  Who is ISIS?        

      Chapter 2:  Understanding Terror   

      Chapter 3:  The Question of Religion        

      Chapter 4:  The Difficulties of Prediction        

      Chapter 5:  Terrorism and Counterterrorism in Europe and Africa 

      Chapter 6:  Terrorists Are Not All the Same   

      Chapter 7:  How Did Things Get So Bad?    

      Chapter 8:  The New Warfare   

      Chapter 9:  A New Type of Terrorism   

      Chapter 10: The New Genghis Khan 

      Chapter 11: Why a Caliphate? 

      Chapter 12: Some Pressing Issues 

      Chapter 13: The Map of the Middle East   

      Chapter 14: Some Fears Are Valid and Some Are Misplaced   

      Chapter 15: What It Would Take to Defeat ISIS 

      Chapter 16: The Worst-Kept Secret 

      Chapter 17: The Syrian Mess 

      Chapter 18: ISIS Plays an Old Game 

      Chapter 19: Looking to the Future 

      Chapter 20: Some Tough Questions 

      Epilogue   

      A Note from the Author:

      Why tackle a topic this complex?

      Some things never really change. Prehistoric man 32,000 years ago documented important events, present and anticipated, with cave paintings and hoped to convey a significant story. Scribes in biblical times had the same motivation, as do modern-day authors. The tools and processes have changed, but the writer’s motivation never really changes.

      I decided to write this book – much to the affable chagrin of some friends and colleagues who wondered why I would tackle a topic so complex – because the story of ISIS continues as one of the more important narratives now occupying our thoughts and our media. I wanted to go deeper than the restrictions of tonight’s newscasts would allow. As a career journalist and broadcaster, I have nothing but the greatest respect for the professionals who report in these newscasts on the ISIS insurgency. Most of them provide valuable chronicles under incredible and dangerous pressures, including threats to their personal safety. But I hope to underpin and complement their reports with insights drawn from expert sources located around the world as a means of understanding this evil that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in 2014 but whose beginnings I trace back to 632 A.D.

      Where did ISIS come from? How did they escape our notice for so long? How are they bankrolled? How can we understand their nation-state? Do we have to worry about them on a day-to-day basis? If so, how much? Have they redefined terrorism? Why are they so seductive and appealing that would-be jihadists slip away from their comfortable homes and try to join them?

      In other words, what matters is not just what happened? What matters includes how and why it happened, what happens next and perhaps most importantly, why we need to take all of this very seriously.

      And we do have to take it seriously.

      The story of ISIS continues as I write this book. Nobody knows the final chapter yet, but I conclude with some possible scenarios for the near future. I also believe that in the big picture of global terrorism – of which ISIS has become the largest and most visible part – terrorism has become more of a threat than ever previously, with some of the threat driven by ISIS, some by its acolytes such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and some of it by unrelated groups. I further believe that the costs in combatting terrorism can only increase: starting with the blood of our armed forces, treasure of our governments and going right down to the aggravation of constant security checks at airports and border crossings

      I hope here to provide something more than – or at least different from – the newscasts. To accomplish this, I have consulted with a global roster of experts who very graciously lent me their time and insights during interviews and what must have seemed like interminable back checking and updating. If this book helps you to grasp one of the greatest threats of our time, it is because of their shared insights and patient analysis.

      In writing this book, I have deliberately avoided what I call the alphabet soup trap. That is, the urge by some responsible for a book or film to include everything from A to Z and therefore run the risk of losing focus. Put more bluntly, I do not throw in everything including the kitchen sink. Clear focus is always crucial in any book or article on any topic but becomes ever-more crucial when dealing with an exceptionally complex topic. 

      For the sake of that focus I have excluded many tangential considerations including more detailed examination of the global terrorism scene which would more coherently fit into a different book at a different time rather than confuse the issue here.

      Al Emid

      September 2016

      Acknowledgements

      I would like to thank the large number of individuals who gave me so freely of their time and insights during the writing of this book. Political communications Professor Ralph Hamlett of Brevard College in North Carolina explains how ISIS represents a new form of terrorism and how it has changed even our conversations about terrorism. An Africa-based journalist draws some interesting parallels between ISIS and the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, which has declared its allegiance to ISIS. Dubai-based journalist Mark Townsend sounds a warning about the potential impact of ISIS elsewhere in the Middle East, a prediction which must now be extended to several parts of North Africa. Iraq analyst Adam Choppin examines the extent of ISIS’s real power in Iraq and how they got to that point. Paul DeSisto at M&R Capital in New York provides his thoughts on the very limited impact of ISIS on investments. I have also relied on the work of Human Rights Watch for the material on human rights and the brutality of ISIS.

      I would also like to thank the individuals who, for their own very valid reasons, asked that I not include their names in the book. You know who you are and what you contributed and I hope you know how grateful I am for your confidence and insights which helped me tell this story.

      I would also like to thank Judyth Mermelstein for the cover design, Don Loney for his editorial assistance and guidance and Suzen Fromstein, friend and publicist, for her professionalism and smoothness.

      And I would be remiss if I did not thank friends and family who supported me and what I am hoping to accomplish with this book.

      Introduction:

      Answering some questions, raising others

      Fear, loathing, apprehension, revulsion and confusion surround both media accounts and our beliefs about the Islamic State (IS) or ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), also called ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and Daesh, (its acronym in Arabic for ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʻIrāq wa-sh-Shām). For consistency and clarity, in this book I refer to ISIS.

      Consider the emotions they arouse:

      Fear – that they will continue to destabilize much of the whole Middle East and continue to attack elsewhere, either directly or through lone wolf type sympathizers. Given their ability to create their state and incite individuals to violence through social media, that fear is justified, though perhaps exaggerated by ISIS for its branding;

      Loathing – of their single-minded onslaught on military and civilian targets and the brutality with which they treat those they capture and even their own members when they suspect unfaithfulness. It is impossible not to feel horrified by the videos of the executions which form an essential part of ISIS propaganda, both as a means of recruiting foreign fighters and a means of spreading terror.  

      Revulsion – at the grotesque videos of beheadings that tormented us on television and in print and online accounts.

      Apprehension – that our nervousness about terrorism has led to greater surveillance of our lives and intrusion into our privacy than ever previously. This apprehension appears justified: a report in the New York Times (October 27, 2014) says that during 2013, the United States Postal Service handled 50,000 requests to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations. The mathematics there come down to an average of nearly 1,000 requests

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