INSIGHTS INTO THE IDEOLOGICAL CORE AND POLITICAL PILLARS OF ISIS

Abstract

This article1 focuses specifically on the ideological core2 of ISIS3 and strives to explain it by showing that ISIS’s ideological core is rooted not merely in extreme Islamist views, such as radical Salafism and Jihadism4 or specifically Salafi Jihadism5 and Wahhabism, but they have also borrowed from certain elements of Arab nationalism. What is more, they have managed to skilfully design effective online information campaigns targeting different audiences. Finally, it must be borne in mind that there are also certain political facets in Islamic fundamentalism that cannot be overlooked. Those political facets, in turn, come with the inter-cultural historical dimension, whereby the changes within an specific religion should be seen in the context of wider cultural and socio-political changes and pressures.