Adil Rasheed - ISIS : Race to Armageddon

ISIS: Race to Armageddon

By
Dr. Adil Rasheed

United Service Institution of India
New Delhi

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Copyright 2015, United Service Institution of India, New Delhi

ISBN: : 978-93-84464-77-6

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The views expressed in the book are of the author and not necessarily those of the USI or the publishers.

English Translation of the Arabic text on the Cover is The Islamic State of Iraq, followed by the ISIS motto Enduring

Acknowledgments

T here are many to whom I owe profound thanks and gratitude for their guidance, help and assistance in the writing of this book. First, I would like to earnestly thank Almighty God for having showered His blessings upon me every moment of my life. I am also deeply grateful to my mother, Ms Zubaida Khan, for her love, care and support through all the trials and travails and to my father, the Late Major Abid Rasheed (May his soul rest in peace).

I am immensely grateful to the United Service Institution of India (USI) for the wealth of intellectual profundity and strategic insight I gained as Senior Research Fellow in this most esteemed and illustrious research centre of India.

It would not have been possible for me to conduct a study of such critical importance to global security without the keen guidance and support I received from the Director of the USI, Lieutenant General PK Singh, PVSM, AVSM (Retd). His intellectual calibre, profound insights and gracious encouragement proved vital in the successful completion of this research.

I cannot thank enough my true mentor in this project, Major General BK Sharma, AVSM, SM** (Retd), who guided me at every step on the way with his astute knowledge and insights, wise counsel and unflinching support. I would also like to particularly thank Maj or General PK Goswami, VSM (Retd) for lending his support and valuable insights to me during the course of this project.

A very special mention here is for Dr Roshan Khanijo, who stood by me as a friend, philosopher and guide on a daily basis throughout the course of this study. I would also like to thank the sincere friendship and guidance I received from all the researchers and colleagues at the USI, with whom I discussed and gained insights on several aspects of the subject. I would like to especially thank Commodore Lalit Kapur (Retd), Group Captain Sharad Tewari, VM (Retd), Colonel Rohit Mehrotra, Colonel SK Shahi, Colonel Sanjeev Relia and indeed Commander MH Rajesh for their invaluable contributions that are too many to be fully acknowledged and thanked. I would also like to thank my other friends at the USI Naib Subedar Sube Singh, Havaldar Dharambir Singh, Lance Naik Inderjeet Singh, Ms Aparna Roy, Surendra Kumar Tiwari and Rajesh Kumar.

I would also like to mention here the help and support I received from some of my friends and associates outside my place of work. I would like to particularly thank Shweta Desai, Associate Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi, for her valuable insights and suggestions. I am deeply grateful to Mr P. Ramesh Kumar at Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd. (Times Group) for his friendship and genuine support, as well as to my steadfast friends Mr. Ehtesham Shahid, Mr. Mohammed Shiraz and Abdul Naseeb Khan. I have also been very fortunate in receiving support from various research scholars and strategic experts living in West Asia, particularly Dr Ahmed Menassi and Dr Farid Azzi from the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, based in the UAE.

Finally, I would especially like to thank my dear wife Afiya Khan for her love, patience and encouragement and for taking full care of my lovely children, Yousuf and Mariam, even as I was busy writing the book. I dedicate this humble work to my countrymen and to the cause of peace and harmony in the world.

Preface : Black Flags of Apocalypse!

W hen experts on terrorism first declared the ISIS as more dangerous than Al-Qaeda, it seemed an outrageous claim. Many wondered how the very superlative of extremism and terror could be placed below an upstart group in the comparative degree. But the claim did not take long to validate itself. It was explained that the ISIS is not only richer than Al- Qaeda, but is arguably the richest terrorist organization in human history. The rapidity with which the ISIS forces won territories in Iraq and Syria increased its strength by the hundreds of thousands, thus underscoring the disturbing fact that the group had far more militants than the few thousands that Al-Qaeda could muster even at its peak. But then came the barbarity, the like of which the world had never seen, in that it was even more gruesome than that of Al-Qaeda. Videos of the beheadings and burnings of innocent hostages became part of the ISIS perverse public relations campaign to attract global sociopaths to its grotesque cause. In addition, the group openly claimed to be fomenting sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing in Iraq and Syria as part of its nikaya program a strategy of brutally hurting the enemy in order to undermine stability in both countries. In its online magazine Dabiq, ISIS brazenly justified indulging in sex trade and the destruction of the ancient cities of Nimrud and Patra. But these atrocities were nothing compared to its larger design and objective of obliterating nation states (in principle and in practice) in order to establish its dystopian version of a global Caliphate.

But perhaps the greatest threat that has made the ISIS more problematic for global security than Al-Qaeda is its bloodlust and program to instigate a global apocalyptic war between Islam and the West in order to justify its claim of being the Caliphate. The US President Obama came close to properly identifying the ISIS by calling it as a death cult. In fact, the ISIS is more than that. It is a doomsday cult, which is bent on bringing about the the Biblical Armageddon (what it calls in Arabic as Al-Malhama Al-Kubra) in our age. This level of ideological perversity and madness has been characterised as the third generation of global jihad, or Terror 3.0 by former CIA Director General Michael Hayden.

This book highlights the ISIS plans to initiate Total Confrontation with the world from 2016-2020 as part of its Masterplan detailed in the book by Fouad Huseein titled: Second Generation of Al-Qaeda by attacking the city of Rome and the Vatican, in order to begin a global inter-religious war. Unlike Al-Qaeda, Iraq is central to its global jihadist aspirations for the ISIS. It follows Al-Zarqawis thinking of waging and winning a jihad in Iraq as central because if jihad fails in Iraq, the [Muslim] nation will never rise again.

Chapter One of this book focuses on the phoenix-like rise of the ISIS on the global stage in 2014 after its virtual elimination following the death of the dreaded Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi in Iraq in 2006. Chapter Two tracks the growth of political Islam or Islamism in the 19th and 20th centuries, and how its concepts grew distinct from the teachings of mainstream Islam, leading to the Jihadist ideology of Al-Qaeda and the ISIS.