8 Stages Of ISIS Analysis

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been on the forefronts of many minds across the globe. After an invasion of Syria, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and Jabhat al-Nursa (Nursa Front) announced its merge as ISIS (Sprusansky, 2014). As they gained territory in Iraq and Syria, ISIS became more powerful and brutal. Even though ISIS derived from al-Qaeda, they are seen as more brutal and more of a threat than AQI. The Islamic State claims their push is to spread their Islamic faith and rid any devil worshippers (Sprusansky, 2014). What ISIS really wants is world domination and just mask their intentions with religious justifications. They have declared a caliphate; an Islamic form of government. In their quest for world domination, ISIS has

The Islamic State progresses, through the 8 Stages of Genocide, including classification, symbolization, organization, dehumanization, preparation, polarization, extermination, and denial (Stanton, The 8 Stages of Genocide, 1998). They classified themselves and their targets by religion; putting them into “us” and “them” categories. Islamic believers being the “us” and the remaining faiths (i.e.: Christian, Sunni Muslim, etc.) being “them”. They paraded around a black flag with white Arabic scripture: “There is no god by Allah. Mohammad is the messenger of Allah” (Gander, 2015). ISIS symbolized their victims by dress, making them wear orange jumpsuits. This was to address the United States’ operation of Guantanamo Bay and antagonize them into conflict (Bennett, 2015). Like the men, women were also dictated dress; made to wear burqas and veils to cover their entire body (Svirsky, 2015). If they are “considered sub-human, [then] there is no sin in abusing them” (Svirsky, 2015). To rebuttal, minority groups created a symbol for a united front. They used an Arabic letter ‘N’, ύ, to reclaim Christianity and show solidarity (Williams, PH.D, 2015). Even through opposition, ISIS has never let up on their strong-arm. They create organization through use of their trained militia. The Islamic State is working towards building up their caliphate and suppressing everyone else. They dehumanize their victims by stripping them of their culture, killing them and associating them as objects. Using decapitated human heads in the place of a ball, dehumanizes the groups by relating them to inanimate objects. It makes a statement that any group opposing them, it not worth life and has the value of a ball to be kicked. Women are dehumanized when they are denied traditional existence. They