ISIS for Dummies

I'm not quite sure when the ISIS hit the headlines, but suddenly I kept finding people referring to it, and I wasn't quite sure what ISIS is. Call me a dummy!

Lihavdil, to differentiate, it seemed like the rise of canola oil, an oil I never went for. In Israel there's the soy oil, which is the standard, like the old American innocuous "vegetable oil." I can see how Americans would go for an oil that has a specific sounding name, rather than the stuff squeezed out of reject vegetables and whatever. Sudenly "everyone" was buying canola but me.

Now for the past few weeks, starting sometime around this recent war, I began seeing frightening references to this ISIS, and this morning I decided that the time has come to find out what everyone is so scared of.

Here's a bit of what professor wiki has to say:

The Islamic State (IS)^[4][6][45] (Arabic: الدولة الإسلامية‎ ad-Dawlah al-ʾIslāmiyyah), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/),^[a] is a jihadist group, widely regarded as a terrorist organisation. In its self-proclaimed status as acaliphate, it claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world^[46] and aspires to bring much of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its direct political control,^[47] beginning with territory in the Levant region, which includes Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and an area in southernTurkey that includes Hatay.^[48][49] The group has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia,^{[50][51][52][53][54][55]} and has been described as a terrorist group by the United Nations^[56] and Western and Middle Eastern media sources.^{[57][58][59][60][61]}The group, in its original form, was composed of and supported by a variety of Sunni Arab terrorist insurgent groups, including its predecessor organizations, Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) (2003–2006), Mujahideen Shura Council (2006–2006) and the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) (2006–2013), other insurgent groups such asJeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba and Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, and a number of Iraqi tribes that profess Sunni Islam...

As of 16 August 2014

     Areas controlled by the Islamic State     Areas claimed by the Islamic State

     Rest of Iraq and Syria

As I read it, I pictured a modern terrorizing version of the Moors, old-time Muslims who invaded Europe via the Iberian Peninsula.

The Moors invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and called the territory Al-Andalus, an area which at different times comprised Gibraltar, most of Spain and Portugal, and parts of Southern France. There was also a Moorish presence in what is nowSouthern Italy, primarily in Sicily. They occupied Mazara on Sicily in 827^[1] and in 1224 were expelled to the settlement of Lucera, which was destroyed in 1300. The religious difference of the Moorish Muslims led to a centuries-long conflict with theChristian kingdoms of Europe called the Reconquista. The Fall of Granada in 1492 saw the end of the Muslim rule in Iberia. (Wikipedia)

As I remember from my old History lessons, this was an attempt by Muslims to takeover the world. From "History of Spain:"

Possibly encouraged to invade Spain in the first place by Hispano-Romans unhappy with the Vigigoths, the Moors came and stayed for around 700 years, leaving a definite imprint on the country, particularly Andalucia. 
The Moors came from north Africa, Muslims,a mixture of Arab and Berbers (the latter from the mountains of Morocco - tribes with their own language that few Arabs would understand). The name "Moors" comes from the name Mauretania, which at the time referred to the part of north Africa roughly now represented by Algeria and Morocco. This was a huge change for Spain - a new language, religion, culture and a new name, for the part of the country under Moorish control was known as Al Andalus. 

The Moors had a vicious way of dealing with enemies and made sure that people knew about it. As a result there was little resistance at first and they took over Toledo, the capital, within a year. Within a few years, they controlled most of Spain (excluding Asturias). Although the Moors fought in Asturias, the remaining fighting locals took to the hills and were left alone. 

We live in very dangerous times. Nothing much is new. Today's Muslims are taking over Europe. Just look at the birth statistics there.

Nowadays, they are using brute force in the Middle East and creeping internal annexation in other parts of the world.

Should we be worried? Of course! Everyone in the world should be worried, because the larger they get the more impossible it will be to contain them.