Al Emid - What You Need to Know About ISIS: Terror Religion War and the Caliphate

A Choregus Productions Book

Copyright 2016 by Al Emid
Choregus Productions

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To the readers of What YouNeed to Know About Isis: Terror, Religion, War and theCaliphate :

Developments in the ISIS crisis happen daily.For the latest updates and analysis, go to www.alemid.com .

AL EMID is a professional journalist andbroadcaster, Moderator of the Canadian Association of JournalistsFreelance List, Co-founder of the Communications ProfessionalsEconomic Stimulus Group and occasional college professor. Hespecializes in business and financial matters in internationalmarkets, currently writes for publications in Canada, the UnitedStates and the Middle East and is author of several books on thatsubject. What You Need to Know about ISIS: Terror,Religion, War and the Caliphate is his fifth book.

In his first book, What Ihave Learned So Far and How It Can Help You (co-authorPaul Bates; ISBN 978-1-897-526521, 2010) he spoke toindividualsmany of them well-known about life crises and thesolutions they found and shared with readers

In Financial Recovery in AFragile World (Co-authors Evelyn Jacks, Robert Ironside,ISBN 978-1-897-526521, 2012), he explored recovery from thefinancial crisis by individuals, corporations and countries.

In Investing in Frontier Markets: Opportunity, Risk and Role in anInvestment Portfolio (Co-author Gavin Graham ISBN978-1-118-55632-0, 2013) and Frontier Markets forDummies (Co-author Gavin Graham, ISBN 978-1-118-6159-8,2014) he researched and developed investing ideas and cautionsinvolving frontier markets.

In this book and with nearly half a centuryof experience in communicating ideas, he offers a uniqueperspective on the ISIS crisis, drawing on sources from around theworld and explaining complex issues in clear language for thereader who wants more insight than is usually found in themainstream media. As a business and financial journalist hecontinues chronicling business developments in parts of the MiddleEast as well as at home.

Al Emid lives in Toronto, Ontario and can bereached via his website at

Why tackle a topic thiscomplex?

Some things never really change. Prehistoricman 32,000 years ago documented important events, present andanticipated, with cave paintings and hoped to convey a significantstory. Scribes in biblical times had the same motivation, as domodern-day authors. The tools and processes have changed, but thewriters motivation never really changes.

I decided to write this book much to theaffable chagrin of some friends and colleagues who wondered why Iwould tackle a topic so complex because the story of ISIScontinues as one of the more important narratives now occupying ourthoughts and our media. I wanted to go deeper than the restrictionsof tonights newscasts would allow. As a career journalist andbroadcaster, I have nothing but the greatest respect for theprofessionals who report in these newscasts on the ISIS insurgency.Most of them provide valuable chronicles under incredible anddangerous pressures, including threats to their personal safety.But I hope to underpin and complement their reports with insightsdrawn from expert sources located around the world as a means ofunderstanding this evil that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in2014 but whose beginnings I trace back to 632 A.D.

Where did ISIS come from? How did they escapeour notice for so long? How are they bankrolled? How can weunderstand their nation-state? Do we have to worry about them on aday-to-day basis? If so, how much? Have they redefined terrorism?Why are they so seductive and appealing that would-be jihadistsslip away from their comfortable homes and try to join them?

In other words, what matters is not justwhat happened? What matters includes how and why it happened,what happens next and perhaps most importantly, why we need to takeall of this very seriously.

And we do have to take it seriously.

The story of ISIS continues as I write thisbook. Nobody knows the final chapter yet, but I conclude with somepossible scenarios for the near future. I also believe that in thebig picture of global terrorism of which ISIS has become thelargest and most visible part terrorism has become more of athreat than ever previously, with some of the threat driven byISIS, some by its acolytes such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and someof it by unrelated groups. I further believe that the costs incombatting terrorism can only increase: starting with the blood ofour armed forces, treasure of our governments and going right downto the aggravation of constant security checks at airports andborder crossings

I hope here to provide something more than or at least different from the newscasts. To accomplish this, Ihave consulted with a global roster of experts who very graciouslylent me their time and insights during interviews and what musthave seemed like interminable back checking and updating. If thisbook helps you to grasp one of the greatest threats of our time, itis because of their shared insights and patient analysis.

In writing this book, I have deliberatelyavoided what I call the alphabet soup trap. That is, the urge bysome responsible for a book or film to include everything from A toZ and therefore run the risk of losing focus. Put more bluntly, Ido not throw in everything including the kitchen sink. Clear focusis always crucial in any book or article on any topic but becomesever-more crucial when dealing with an exceptionally complextopic.

For the sake of that focus I have excludedmany tangential considerations including more detailed examinationof the global terrorism scene which would more coherently fit intoa different book at a different time rather than confuse the issuehere.

Al Emid

September 2016

I would like to thank the large number ofindividuals who gave me so freely of their time and insights duringthe writing of this book. Political communications Professor RalphHamlett of Brevard College in North Carolina explains how ISISrepresents a new form of terrorism and how it has changed even ourconversations about terrorism. An Africa-based journalist drawssome interesting parallels between ISIS and the Nigerian terroristgroup Boko Haram, which has declared its allegiance to ISIS.Dubai-based journalist Mark Townsend sounds a warning about thepotential impact of ISIS elsewhere in the Middle East, a predictionwhich must now be extended to several parts of North Africa. Iraqanalyst Adam Choppin examines the extent of ISISs real power inIraq and how they got to that point. Paul DeSisto at M&RCapital in New York provides his thoughts on the very limitedimpact of ISIS on investments. I have also relied on the work ofHuman Rights Watch for the material on human rights and thebrutality of ISIS.

I would also like to thank the individualswho, for their own very valid reasons, asked that I not includetheir names in the book. You know who you are and what youcontributed and I hope you know how grateful I am for yourconfidence and insights which helped me tell this story.

I would also like to thank Judyth Mermelsteinfor the cover design, Don Loney for his editorial assistance andguidance and Suzen Fromstein, friend and publicist, for herprofessionalism and smoothness.