ISIS, the State and Discourses of Recruitment

By Abir A Chaaban

It is quite implausible to assume that ISIS emerged outside a state operation.  Only ten years ago in 2004, King Abdullah of Jordan voiced concerns about the emerging Shi’a Crescent, out of the war in Iraq. ISIS area of operation is clearly defined within the Fertile Crescent, which emerged to become a Christian, Yazidi, Mandani, Sunni and Kurd and not only a Shi’a Crescent.  For ISIS to come into existence a discourse of recruitment must have been put in place. This discourse must be associated with states that are harboring the dissemination, indoctrination, recruitment and mobilization of the militancy. 

Famous nationals of Al-Qaeda, the mother of ISIS, are Jordanian Zarqawi, Saudi Arabian Osama Ben Laden and Egyptian Zawarhi. These nationalities reflect the nation-states that supported and empowered militant organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Egypt of Hosni Mubarak, Jordan of King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia of King Saud, are some of the strongest allies to Israel. ISIS may only be a Zionist-Arab effort to help support Arab domination in the Fertile Crescent under the pretext of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.  This would also give legitimacy and recognition to their ally the Jewish State. 

From within Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the discourse of recruitment of Islamist militancy that would operate in the Fertile Crescent to combat the Persian and Shi’a emerged. These are the states threatened by the emergence of a pluralist Fertile Crescent that does not identify with its Sunni Arab heritage, but of its Persian and Greek, Syrian and Aramaic heritage.