Theological mindset analysis and primary sources of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)

This study examines ISIS, a contemporary organization that exploited Islamic references to create a globally negative image of Islam. Emerging as a product of political instability and civil conflicts in various regions of the Islamic world, ISIS claimed to have established an Islamic State in the territories it seized in Iraq and Syria. The group interpreted the Qur'an and the Sunnah independently of sectarian methods and according to its ideological aims, redefining religious texts through a Salafi-jihadist perspective. Based on the Salafi-Hanbali tradition, ISIS placed the principle of tawhid at the center of its belief system, labeling all opposing views and practices as shirk and ridda. It interpreted the principle of al-wala walbara as absolute loyalty to believers and complete separation from non-believers, targeting both non-Muslims and Muslims who did not share its views. In the field of jurisprudence, ISIS claimed to apply Islamic law literally but distorted classical jurisprudence by removing it from its historical context, glorified suicide attacks as martyrdom operations, attempted to revive slavery and concubinage, and used hadd punishments as propaganda tools. In its understanding of prophethood, the group defined itself as the only structure that revived the Prophet's method, building a salvation mythology based on apocalyptic traditions and interpreting the conquests of Istanbul and Rome as the realization of divine promise. Politically, ISIS rejected the modern nation-state system, democracy, and secularism, declaring the caliphate in 2014 as the abolition of the Sykes-Picot order and interpreting the unity of the ummah under one state as the manifestation of divine destiny. By relying on an extreme interpretation of Salafi thought, ISIS ideologically redefined the concepts of tawhid, jihad, caliphate, and sovereignty, thus presenting an unprecedentedly exclusionary and destructive example that opposed both the West and other Muslim communities.