UNDERSTANDING
the ISIS/ISIL
PUZZLE
By
Dr. Gary Frazier
As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his
disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What
massive stones! What magnificent
buildings!” “Do you see all these great
buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone
here will be left on another; every one will
be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on
the Mount of Olives opposite the temple,
Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him
privately, “Tell us, when will these things
happen? And what will be the sign that
they are all about to be fulfilled?” Jesus
said to them: “Watch out that no one
deceives you. Many will come in my name,
claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.
When you hear of wars and rumors of
wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must
happen, but the end is still to come.
Nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom. There will be
earthquakes in various places, and
famines. These are the beginning of birth
pains. Mark 13:1-8 (NIV)
If you belonged to the world, it would love
you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to
the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world. That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not
greater than his master.’ If they persecuted
me, they will persecute you also. If they
obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours
also. They will treat you this way because
of my name, for they do not know the one
who sent me.
John 15:19-21 (NIV)
A Spiritual war with an ultimate goal:
The annihilation of Israel and the Jews!
A Brief Timeline of Israel
Romans- 70-325
Byzantine Period-325-614
Persian: 614-634
Arab: 634-1072
Seljuk: 1072-1099
Crusaders: 1099-1291
Mameluke: 1291-1517
Ottoman: 1517-1917
British: 1917-1948
Israel: 1948-present
The First 2 Covers of the Slick Recruiting Magazine of
the Islamic State
Who Are They
Muslims who feel they have
a command from allah to
continue the centuries old
fight for world domination
and the reestablishment of
the Caliphate that had
stalled due to regional
dictators who had fallen prey
to western ideas and
abandoned the Koran.
What Do They Want
• To kill any and all who will not submit to their
understanding of the Koran and Hadith.
• To merge the religion of Islam with political
control and take the world back to the 7th
century and the rule of Sharia law
A map of the world at the Caliphate's height
This is a rough political map of the world in
750 AD, at the height of the Omayyad
Caliphate ("caliph" means the ruler of the
global Islamic community).
This is to give you a sense of how vast and
powerful the Muslim empire had become,
barely one century after the founding of the
religion that propelled its expansion. It was a
center of wealth, arts, and learning at a time
when only China was so rich and powerful.
This was the height of Arab power.
750 AD
The Ottoman Empire is named for Osman, its first
ruler, who in the early 1300s expanded it from a
tiny part of northwest Turkey to a slightly less tiny
part. It continued expanding for about 500 years —
longer than the entire history of the Roman Empire
— ruling over most of the Middle East, North Africa,
and southeastern Europe for centuries. The empire,
officially an Islamic state, was spread by violence
and forced conversions. It was the last great nonEuropean empire until it began declining in the mid1800s, collapsed after World War I, and had its
former territory in the Middle East divided up by
Britain and France.
Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk
Father of the
Turks
1923
What the Middle East looked like in 1914
This is a pivotal year, during the Middle East's gradual
transfer from 500 years of Ottoman rule to 50 to 100
years of European rule. Western Europe was getting
richer and more powerful as it carved up Africa,
including the Arab states of North Africa, into colonial
possessions. Virtually the entire region was ruled
outright by Europeans or Ottomans, save some parts of
Iran and the Arabian peninsula divided into European
"zones of influence." When World War I ended a few
years later, the rest of the defeated Ottoman Empire
would be carved up among the Europeans. The lines
between French, Italian, Spanish, and British rule are
crucial for understanding the region today – not just
because they ruled differently and imposed different
policies, but because the boundaries between
European empires later became the official borders of
independence, whether they made sense or not.
Enter T.E. Lawrence:
Lawrence of Arabia, a British
archeologist and military office who
spoke Arabic, was commissioned to
enlist the aid of the Bedouin tribal
leaders and their clans to do 2 things:
1. provide intelligence and logistics
Thomas Edward 2. fight against the Germans and Turks
in the Sinai/Palestine campaign
Lawrence
(remember Turks are Muslims but not
Arabs)
The Sykes-Picot treaty that carved up the Middle East
You hear a lot today about this treaty, in which the UK
and French (and Russian) Empires secretly agreed to
divide up the Ottoman Empire's last Mid-Eastern
regions among themselves. Crucially, the borders
between the French and British "zones" later became
the borders between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Because
those later-independent states had largely arbitrary
borders that forced disparate ethnic and religious
groups together, and because those groups are still in
terrible conflict with one another, Sykes-Picot is often
cited as a cause of warfare and violence and extremism
in the Middle East. The plan was to keep the ethnicities
fighting and killing each other.
You'll notice that, for much of the last 500 years,
most or all of the region has been under some
combination of Turkish, Persian, and European
control. For so much of the Arab Middle East to
be under self-rule is relatively new. Two big
exceptions that you can see on this map are
Morocco and Egypt, which have spent more of
the last 500 years as self-ruling empires than
other Arab states. That's part of why these two
countries have sometimes seen themselves as a
degree apart from the rest of the Arab world.
The 2011 Arab Spring
It is still amazing, looking back at early and mid-2011,
how dramatically and quickly the Arab Spring uprisings
challenged and in many cases toppled the dictatorships
of the Middle East. What's depressing is how little the
movements have advanced beyond those first months.
Syria's civil war is still going. Egypt's fling with
democracy appeared to end with a military coup in
mid-2013. Yemen is still mired in slow-boil violence and
political instability. The war in Libya toppled Moammar
Qaddafi, with US and European support, but left the
country without basic security or a functioning
government. The Plan then and now is to bring down
local rulers in order to form the new Caliphate (Muslim
Super State) led by the ones with the Nukes, i.e., IRAN!
Law of Unintended Consequences
When America, U.K. and France have assisted in
the overthrow of despotic dictators in Iraq,
Egypt, Libya and Syria (in process) the result
has been the targeted killings of thousands of
Christians!
Either the leaders didn’t foresee this or they
didn’t care!
The Sunni-Shia Divide
The story of Islam's division between Sunni and Shia started
with the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632. There was a
power struggle over who would succeed him in ruling the
Islamic Caliphate, with most Muslims wanting to elect the
next leader but some arguing that power should go by divine
birthright to Mohammed's son-in-law, Ali. That pro-Ali faction
was known as the "Partisans of Ali," or "Shi'atu Ali" in Arabic,
hence "Shia." Ali's eventual ascension to the throne sparked a
civil war, which he and his partisans lost. The Shia held on to
the idea that Ali was the rightful successor, and grew into an
entirely separate branch of Islam. Today about 10 to 15
percent of Muslims worldwide are Shia — they are the
majority group in Iran and Iraq only — while most Muslims
are Sunni. "Sunni" roughly means "tradition." Today, that
religious division is again a political one as well: it's a struggle
for regional influence between Shia political powers, led by
Iran, versus Sunni political powers, led by Saudi Arabia. This
struggle looks an awful lot like a regional cold war, with proxy
battles in Syria and elsewhere.
An Observation
America has been fighting Saudi backed Islamic
terrorists for more than 13 years. During that time, tens
of thousands of Americans have been maimed and killed,
and we’ve spent Trillions of dollars only to see Islamic
terrorists grow in number and strength. How is this
possible? The only rational conclusion is that perpetual
war is the goal.
Why? Tyrants need chaos and war in order to convince
citizens to give up liberty for security. This is not just a
conspiracy theory. For example, Saudi Arabia is a US
“ally” in the War, but Saudi Arabia funds ten thousand
Islamic schools in Pakistan that produce
graduates “perfectly prepared for a career in jihad”.
What should our response be?
Remember: God has a Plan for the Ages!
Remember: the Plan revolves around Israel!
Remember: it is a Spiritual battle!
Remember: Jesus died for all and wants all to be
saved! 2 Peter 3:9
Be informed, Pray intelligently and Engage!