After Paris: why ISIL is (also) a cult

Issue Alert by Florence Gaub.

The terrorist atrocities in Paris in November 2015 have once again demonstrated the zeal and resolve of the jihadists fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The scale of the violence shows the extent to which the group brainwashes its members: to the point where mass murder and self-annihilation become not only logical, but desirable.

In this sense, ISIL is not only a terrorist organisation with ambitions to become a state, but also an exclusive, authoritarian, religious cult. It is its cultish belief system which allows the group to recruit and retain members from across the globe, excel on the battlefield and inspire franchises to form elsewhere. Consequently, if ISIL is to be tackled, it needs to be fought as a cult, too.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Hollande’s emerging war strategy http://www.europeansources.info/record/hollandes-emerging-war-strategy/

ESO: Background information: Letter to President François Hollande of France from European Council President Donald Tusk on the attacks in Paris / Joint statement of the Heads of State or Government and leaders of the European Union and its institutions on the terrorist attacks in Paris http://www.europeansources.info/record/countries-rethink-commitments-to-accept-refugees/

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