The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS and/or ISIL, is an extremely violent Islamic group that has increased significantly over the past decade across the Middle East. This group is also called Da'-ish in Arabic. The rise of this barbaric group was one of the most disturbing events to occur in history. The unexpected explosion of violence and attacks by this group in 2014 was shocking and took the international community by surprise. With only a few hundred soldiers, ISIS managed to conquer Iraqi territory and defeat its heavily US-trained military. However, this extremist group did not appear out of nowhere. To understand ISIS, you must first dive into the details of its horrific past and where it emerged from. This article will examine the early history of ISIS and how it came to become one of the most feared terrorist groups in the world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Beginning of ISIS Before understanding ISIS, you need to investigate the history of Al-Qaeda because it was a big spark in the formation of this group. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, approximately 20,000 foreign fighters traveled to help the Afghans fight the Soviet forces. This is where the appearance of Osama Bin Laden takes place. Bin Laden recruits other radical Islamists like himself to form Al-Qaeda. In 1988 the Soviets withdrew, but this did not end the war. A year later, a Jordanian man named Ahmad Fadhil Nazzal al-Khalaylah joins their training camps and changes his name to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. What we didn't know is that this man would create what is now known as ISIS. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi: Al-Zarqawi grew up in a low-income neighborhood located in Zarqa, Jordan. He did not have the opportunity to go to university and did not have a stable job in his country. He was known to be a criminal and thug involved in street gangs that committed horrific crimes. In and out of prison during his early adolescence, Zarqawi was frankly the opposite of religious. He was known as "the Green Man" because of the ink that covered the skin on his body from all the tattoos he had. His radicalization process began in prison. Zarqawi was a supporter of the Palestinian cause and had planned to blow up Israeli checkpoints in Jordan, which led to his arrest and imprisonment. It is there that he met Abu Muhammed Al-Maqdisi, a writer, who soon became his religious mentor. His impact was so great on this young criminal that when the time came for Zarqawi to leave prison, he emerged a completely different man. He had become radicalized and started following a jihadist ideology. In 1989, Zarqawi travels to Herat, Afghanistan, a place well known for training jihadist groups, including the infamous group called Al-Qaeda. Instead of joining bin Laden's allegiance, Zarqawi forms his own training camp and recruits fighters mainly from the Sahel and the Levant, areas with which he is familiar. Zarqawi's group was made up of uneducated, lower-class men just like him, while Bin Laden and his fighters were from the upper middle class with university degrees. Abu Musab had a much smaller scheme than Bin Laden's movement. His first goal was to create an Islamic state in Jordan and he was also interested in creating a movement that would help the Palestinian cause. Bin Laden had a much larger agenda and that was the United States. Zarqawi's mission was notsignificant enough to attract the attention of Al-Qaeda. In some ways, Bin Laden believed that this much smaller group was inferior to him. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi returns to Jordan and forms his own group called Jama'at al-Tahwid wal-Jihad (JTJ), in 1999. His mission was to overthrow the Kingdom of Jordan which he believed to be un-Islamic and transform it into an Islamic state . This was the group that would later become ISIS. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, many foreign fighters and extremists entered the country, including Zarqawi's group. Iraq was destroyed and was left in chaos. When they entered the country, they were greeted by Sunni militants and officers left unemployed after the invasion. Fearing the growth of the Shiite community, Sunnis in Iraq formed an alliance with Zarqawi's group and joined their movement. After its significant growth in Iraq, JTJ caught the attention of Al-Qaeda. In 2004, Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, becoming the country's most powerful and significant Sunni terrorist group. The benefits of joining Al-Qaeda forces were access to the funds they began to raise and the hosting of large numbers of fighters. AQI was not only fighting the Americans, but also the Shiite community in Iraq, bombing their mosques and executing civilians, which sparked the Shiites' wrath. This caused a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Zarqawi's methods of force were so extreme and barbaric that even Al-Qaeda sent him a warning to calm him down. Completely ignoring these warnings, AQI begins to take control of large Sunni areas in Iraq. Sunni tribal leaders were fed up with the lifestyle they had under Zarqawi's rule. They decided to take up arms against this extremist group because of how dangerous and harsh their lives had become. They started an insurgency against AQI called Awakening in 2006. US troops have also increased their presence in Iraq fighting this extremist group. That same year, Zarqawi was killed by a US airstrike. By 2009, AQI's presence had declined immensely. Iraq had reached a point where it was quite stable compared to the past. They have formed good relationships with their different communities from different cultures and backgrounds and their level of security has increased. However, due to Iraq's frantic domestic politics, AQI was able to resurrect itself easily. Noori Al-Maliki had destroyed Iraq's progress by causing division within the country, using extreme violence. He provoked the Sunni community by favoring and privileging the Shiite majority of the population. This only greatly aggravated Iraqi sectarianism. The internal political division in Iraq literally spawned the emergence of AQI quite easily. “Pure political sectarianism in Iraq was the primary causal factor in the rise of ISIS,” explains Fred Hof, who served under the Obama administration in 2012 as special adviser for the transition in Syria. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has found a new leader called Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Under his leadership, they began recruiting former Sunni fighters who had a background in Saddam's army. These challenged officers represented the ideal solution to form a larger fighting force for AQI. AQI extends to Syria: In 2011, protesters in Syria roamed the streets calling on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down from power. That's when the Syrian regime began executing protesters, sparking a civil war. Assad released a large number of extremists from prison in 2011. His plan to create an extremist opposition was quite devious. He knew exactly what he was doing.