The Atlantic: US Must Understand ISIS Religious Beliefs to Defeat It

The Obama administration doesn't like to say the Islamic State (ISIS) or other terrorist groups are Muslims, but the March issue of The Atlantic lays out the case why it should.

In an article titled "What ISIS Really Wants," author Graeme Wood talks to ISIS sympathizers, including London imam Anjem Choudary and Australian preacher Musa Cerantonio, who explain in eloquent and learned terms over tea how the ISIS caliphate actually is a return to the original form of Islam practiced by its founder, Muhammad.

According to ISIS adherents, a caliphate — with control of land — is necessary to bringing about the end of days, and they intend to do their part. ISIS currently controls a large swath of northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

It believes a large battle with the enemies of the faith will take place in Syria and is trying to goad the United States, Turkey and other Western nations into the fight.

But in their strict interpretation of the Koran, not everyone who claims to be Muslim qualifies. Those who fail to pledge allegiance to ISIS leader and self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are apostate and subject to death.

Wood writes that ISIS is likely trying to lure America and Turkey, which it sees as an apostate Muslim nation, into the fight to fulfill an end-times prophecy of Muhammad that true Muslims will be suffer defeats in battle and eventually be backed into a corner in Jerusalem by the anti-Messiah.

More