The response of Saudi Arabia to the Islamic State has taken many forms. For example, Saudi government agencies have worked with the United States since late 2014 to train and equip Syrian fighters hoping to engage with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants. [1] The challenges of dealing with ISIL is complicated by the fact that around 2,500 militants originally from Saudi territory have left for Syria in order to join ISIL, the destabilization created by the Syrian Civil War having a big effect on the region. [2]
The Saudi people have suffered attacks at the hands of ISIL agents, such as the August 2015 mosque bombing in the Asir area that killed fifteen people and injured nine. [3]
Also known by varying names such as the "Islamic State" or the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), ISIL has an international reputation for brutality and violence, their actions including beheadings and floggings as well as bans on all kinds of perceived un-Islamic behaviors. A campaign of genocide against the Yazidis and set of massacres done in the wake of militant victories have also brought the group widespread condemnation. [1] [2] Muslim religious leaders such as Egypt's grand mufti have condemned the organization, arguing that its actions go against Islam, and leaders both within (such as Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani) and outside (such as U.S. President Barack Obama) the Arab world have vowed to destroy the militants. [1]
According to The Washington Post in 2014, around 2,500 militants originally from Saudi territory have left for Syria in order to join ISIL, this move being a part of the general destabilization created by the Syrian Civil War on the region. [2] In September 2014, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with then Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in the city of Jeddah to discuss ISIL militant battles and related issues. Al-Faisal commented that his nation has "always taken initiatives with regard to a firm position towards terrorists and against them", and he also stated that "there is no limit to what the Kingdom can provide in this regard." [1]
Specific anti-ISIL efforts include Saudi government collaboration since late 2014 with the U.S. to train and equip Syrian fighters hoping to combat ISIL militants. [1] The government has also created a television series titled Security of the Kingdom designed to combat ISIL propaganda while promoting the Saudi perspective on security issues, aiming to foster patriotism. Television figure Mohsin Shaikh Al Hassan stated that he wanted to be "initially concentrating on children in kindergarten" in order to "teach them to love their own country". [4]
The connection between ISIL's campaigns and hard-line Islam more generally in nations such as Saudi Arabia has brought commentary from a variety of journalists and columnists. For example, CNN reporter Elise Labott has asked Kerry about Saudi state support for an arch-conservative version of Islam in the form of Wahhabism. Kerry has responded that the Saudi government's counter-terrorism actions have considerably helped, such as by cutting off money flows to terrorist groups. [1]
In May 2015, Qatif and Dammam mosque bombings, claimed the lives of over 25 Saudi Shia Muslims, and 106 wounded.
An August 2015 attack by an ISIL-related suicide bomber murdered fifteen people and injured nine more at a mosque inside a Saudi special forces headquarters. An Interior Ministry spokesman stated that the militant attacked the Asir area complex during the traditional noon prayers. Saudi political analyst Jamal Khashoggi remarked that the attack could be the largest anti-Saudi action done by ISIL yet, with Kashoggi remarking that "this is shaking us to the ground." [3]
In July 2015, a police raid in the city of Taif ended in policeman being gunned down. According to Saudi authorities, three people were arrested while flags of the ISIL group were found. That same month, a car bomb attack upon a security checkpoint in Riyadh, the nation's capital city, wounded two policemen. The driver perished in the explosion. The attack is believed to be connected to ISIL. [3]
On March 9. 2017, an Islamic State group member attacked and killed a police officer, and was shot dead by Saudi police afterwards. [5]
It has frequently been pointed out that despite these conflicts between the Saudi government and ISIL, the country's religious establishment follows the same ideology, Wahhabism, that ISIL is based on. Allegations of Saudi funding of ISIL [6] have cited an anonymous briefing forwarded to John Podesta by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on 17 August 2014 which includes: "We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to Isis and other radical Sunni groups in the region." However it has been pointed out that this memo was probably written by Sidney Blumenthal and doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. government or Hillary Clinton. [7]
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has mainly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians—Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and a former unrecognised quasi-state. Its origins were in the Jai'sh al-Taifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, which fought alongside al-Qaeda during the Iraqi insurgency. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. By the end of 2015, it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.
Beginning in December 2012, Sunnis in Iraq protested against the Maliki government. On 28 December 2013, a Sunni MP named Ahmed al-Alwani was arrested in a raid on his home in Ramadi. Alwani was a prominent supporter of the anti-government protests. This incident led to violence in Al Anbar Governorate between the Iraqi Army and a loose alliance of tribal militias and other groups fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The Northern Iraq offensive began on 4 June 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, assisted by various insurgent groups in the region, began a major offensive from its territory in Syria into Iraq against Iraqi and Kurdish forces, following earlier clashes that had begun in December 2013 involving guerillas.
Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict from 2012.
Many states began to intervene against the Islamic State, in both the Syrian Civil War and the War in Iraq (2013–2017), in response to its rapid territorial gains from its 2014 Northern Iraq offensives, universally condemned executions, human rights abuses and the fear of further spillovers of the Syrian Civil War. These efforts are called the War against the Islamic State, or the War against ISIS. In later years, there were also minor interventions by some states against IS-affiliated groups in Nigeria and Libya. All these efforts significantly degraded the Islamic State's capabilities by around 2019–2020. While moderate fighting continues in Syria, as of 2024, ISIS has been contained to a manageably small area and force capability.
Anti-Sunnism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Sunni Muslims.
The following lists events that happened during 2014 in Iraq.
The ideology of the Islamic State, sometimes called Islamic Statism, has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, IS defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
The Qatif and Dammam mosque bombings occurred on 22 and 29 May 2015. On Friday May 22, a suicide bomber attacked the Shia "Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque" situated in Qudeih village of Qatif city in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, which killed at least 21 people. The event is the second deadly attack against Shia in six months.
The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, also known as Islamic State in Gaza, is an Islamist militant group affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant that is active in the Gaza Strip. Its goals have consistently matched those of the Islamic State, in that it seeks to establish the al-Sham caliphate. As such, it opposes all forms of Palestinian nationalism while also supporting the elimination of all Jews and other ethno-religious 'infidels' from the region.
Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."
Since 2012, the Islamic State (IS) has produced annual reports giving numerical information on its operations, somewhat in the style of corporate reports, seemingly in a bid to encourage potential donors.
In early 2014, the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured extensive territory in Western Iraq in the Anbar campaign, while counter-offensives against it were mounted in Syria. Raqqa in Syria became its headquarters. The Wall Street Journal estimated that eight million people lived under its control in the two countries.
This article contains a timeline of events from January 2015 to December 2015 related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). This article contains information about events committed by or on behalf of the Islamic State, as well as events performed by groups who oppose them.
Shia Muslims have been persecuted by the Islamic State, an Islamic extremist group, since 2014. Persecutions have taken place in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the world.
The Islamic State – Yemen Province is a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State (IS), active in Yemen. IS announced the group's formation on 13 November 2014.
Collaboration with the Islamic State refers to the cooperation and assistance given by governments, non-state actors, and private individuals to the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, and Libyan Civil War.
The origins of the Islamic State group can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. The other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces. These included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year.
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