From terrorism to totalitarian insurgency: An academic view of ISIS

Nahla Abdelmonem

The dramatic emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to the international stage continues to shock the West, even years after the death of ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Terrorism specialists in Europe still try to understand the reasons behind the success of an outlawed group in capturing massive swaths of land inhabited by millions of people in the Middle East.

In his book, “The Islamic State from Terrorism to Totalitarian Insurgency”, Ondrej Filipec, an assistant professor at the College of Social Sciences at the University in Trnava, Slovakia, offers what he calls an academic view of ISIS.

Filipec says ISIS had never been a state or a semi-state.

It was only an organization that tried to construct a political entity that failed, he says.

This political entity was nothing but totalitarian, he adds in his book.

Failed entity and international terrorism

Filipec refers in the introduction to his book to the capture by ISIS of large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq and imposing a strict system based on twisting religious interpretations.

He referred to the July 2014 appearance of Baghdadi inside a mosque in northwestern Iraq where he tried to introduce himself as the caliph of Muslims.

This scene, he says, marks a departure from traditional shows by international terrorist organizations.

Filipec says ISIS promoted itself as a state, even if it was one that lacked legitimacy.