The caliphate was abolished by Kemal Ataturk in 1924, triggering the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Jihad was to be a tool to impose Shari’a on any Muslim society branded as renegade.
The Brotherhood set up its own secret organization in the ’30s to destabilize the regime of King Farouk and then tried to assassinate Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Militants later founded radical organizations such as “Takfir and Hijra” whose members would go on to set up Jihadi movements such as al-Jama’a al-Islamiyyah, which assassinated president Anwar Sadat.
It was the latest development in attempts to revive the caliphate, which had started with violence in Egypt and expanded to Arab and Muslim countries with the intent to destabilize their regimes through terrorism.
It continued with al-Qaida, which launched terrorist attacks in the West to destabilize and weaken regimes.
It now had access to natural resources with its confiscation of Iraqi oil, abundant financial resources through the levying of taxes, controlling banks, and selling said oil on the black market, and it could recruit and train fighters, as well as develop weapons.
It set up branches in Libya and in Egypt while conducting terrorist operations throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States.
Through its sophisticated communication apparatus, it managed to broadcast its message and acquire the prestige of a victorious organization, drawing thousands of young Muslims from all over the world.
The West reacted slowly, but decisively, and the Islamic State is now crumbling under the assaults of the US-led coalition; the rise of Kurdish militias in Iraq and Syria; a reconstructed Iraqi army; and Russia’s intervention in Syria to save the Assad regime.
Al-Baghdadi may have been misguided when he adopted a territorial basis, making Islamic State an easier target for the many forces bent on destroying it. His actions also weakened the Muslim Brotherhood, which was trying to destroy the West from within through massive Muslim immigration to gain power “by democratic means.” Today, several countries, including the UK and US, are considering branding the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
Al-Qaida and Islamic State are just the better-known parts of a global Islamist movement to restore the caliphate. Dozens of other organizations are working toward that goal, differing only on the background of their founders or they methods of action, such as al-Shabaab of Somalia; Boko Haram of Nigeria; Jemaa Islamiyah in Southeast Asia; Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines; and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Though initially based on Saudi Wahhabism, they have the same objective.
Western media has been wondering what Islamic State fighters would do after the collapse of the group. No doubt they will easily find a home within those organizations and do their utmost to intensify their terrorist operation to demonstrate that they are not abandoning their goal.
The result would be an “Islamic Syrian organization” that would welcome other Jihadi groups trying to penetrate Assad’s Alawi region – an ambitious project considering Russian support for the Syrian leader.
In other words, with the disappearance of Islamic State as a geographical entity, new coalitions will be made to keep the fight for an Islamic regime through a variety of means that probably will come as a surprise.
Didn’t Abu Sayyaf Islamic just take over a city in the Philippines and promptly proclaim an Islamic emirate? The army is still trying, with little success, to drive them away.
The writer, a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.