ISIS Militants Declare Islamist Caliphate

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Karl Vick @karl_vick June 29, 2014


A member of ISIS waves an ISIS flag in Raqqa, Syria on June 29, 2014.
Reuters
In a move that may attract more followers, the Sunni extremist group claims to
establish dominion over all the world's Muslims
Restoring the caliphate, and with it a measure of the glory that attended
Islams golden age, has been the stated goal of Sunni Muslim activists for
decades, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hizb ut-Tahrir to Osama bin
Ladens al-Qaeda. But al-Baghdadis group is the first to assert it. The time
has come for those generations that were drowning in oceans of disgrace,
being nursed on the milk of humiliation, and being ruled by the vilest of all
people, after their long slumber in the darkness of neglect the time has
come for them to rise, said the statement.
They are saying that they are now the center of gravity in global jihad, says
Hayder Al-Khoei, a specialist on Iraq at Chatham House, a London think tank.
They have leap-frogged in that sense al-Qaeda.
The most immediate tangible effect of the announcement, attributed to ISIS
spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani, was to shorten the groups name. It now
wants to be called simply Islamic State, moving past debates over
transliterations of the former title, sometimes rendered as ISIL, for Levant
instead of Syria, or al-Shams. Social-media sites like Twitter, which the group
has used expertly to amplify its message and sense of a strong following, came
alive with a new #IS hashtag, while Facebook carried posts claiming to
document celebrations shooting in the air from pickups in the streets of
Raqqa, the Syrian city the Islamist group has held the longest.
Any further impact will depend on public reaction. In the immediate wake of
the announcement, skeptics were not hard to find.
ISIS Militants Declare Islamist Caliphate

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kristyan benedict @KreaseChan
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In other news, a new caliphate was announced by #ISIS (now the more
humble #IS ). So there is still hope for a flat earth society reemergence
3:17 AM - 30 Jun 2014
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Himalaya @Himalaya888
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Declaration of #Islamic_State happened. Unless recognized #IS will exist
only on Social Media not in the books, maps, @UN & world bodies
3:32 AM - 30 Jun 2014

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The world, after all, is pretty well organized as nation states, the governing
concept that admirers of the caliphate reject. To me, says al-Khoei, it
sounds like a publicity stunt.
Even if it is, it might pay off. Its not hard to imagine Sundays announcement,
at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, inspiring young Muslims
already inclined toward jihad. If theyre a caliphate now, a lot of people,
possibly living in America or Europe the ones who are already radicalized
and inclined to join them, its more of an impetus, al-Khoei tells TIME.
Maybe the publicity stunt will affect recruiting in that sense. Therell be more
eager, young volunteers excited by the sense that its here now, its a reality
now.
The fact is, a certain nostalgia for the caliphate lingers in much of the Muslim
ISIS Militants Declare Islamist Caliphate

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community and not only among fundamentalists, or so-called takfiri groups
like ISIS that see Shiite Muslims as apostates. Catholics still have their Pope,
these mainstream believers point out, and Eastern Orthodox Christians their
patriarch.
But there are Caliphs and there are Caliphs. And while many, like the current
Christian leaders, preach peace, the summons from the Mesopotamian desert
Sunday was to greedily drink the blood of nonbelievers according to an early
translation posted online:
The sun of jihad has risen The glad tidings of good are shining. Triumph
looms on the horizon. The signs of victory have appeared. Here the flag of the
Islamic State, the flag of tawhd (monotheism), rises and flutters. Its shade
covers land from Aleppo to Diyala.
So rush O Muslims and gather around your khalfah [caliphate], so that you
may return as you once were for ages, kings of the earth and knights of war.
Come so that you may be honored and esteemed, living as masters with
dignity. Know that we fight over a religion that Allah promised to support. We
fight for an ummah [global Muslim community] to which Allah has given
honor, esteem, and leadership, promising it with empowerment and strength
on the earth. Come O Muslims to your honor, to your victory. By Allah, if you
disbelieve in democracy, secularism, nationalism, as well as all the other
garbage and ideas from the west, and rush to your religion and creed, then by
Allah, you will own the earth, and the east and west will submit to you. This is
the promise of Allah to you. This is the promise of Allah to you.