Depending on your favourite variety, the Islamic State is either the creation of Iran, Bashar al-Assad, Israel's intelligence agency the Mossad, or the United States. Annahar, once widely considered the best Arab newspaper, even ran a story recently that claimed former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, had admitted to masterminding the group. (The story was based on a faulty column written in another Arab newspaper, it turned out.) There is an idea here, among the populace of a group people who are often politically helpless, that the powerful actors of the world are behind the scenes pulling the strings. It makes sense to them that a foreign power can act as a puppeteer to a foreign group because they feel powerless in their own political process. The logic often goes along the lines of a "who benefits" type of thinking. The truth is, as is often the case, more nuanced. The Islamic State of Iraq's founder is credited as the Jordanian national Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi. This is the group that has slightly evolved into Abu Bark al-Baghdadi's Islamic State. Zarqawi traveled to Afghanistan in 1989 to fight against the Soviet Union. At the time, countries like Saudi Arabia and the United States were funding religious fundamentalists in order to oppose Communism. It is well documented that the United States funded the Taliban in Afghanistan, a group that would later spiral out of American control and declare Islamic rule in Afghanistan. This process was repeated of sorts in 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq. Many jihadis travelled through Syria and into Iraq, often known but overlooked by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at that time. Many had come from around the Islamic world, including places like North Africa and the Levant. Many were reportedly Syrian who returned home in 2004-2005 and occasionally caused trouble by shooting at security forces. As protests in Syria began in 2011 and picked up in intensity, Assad tried to make reforms but many were not comprehensive or deep enough. He then gave amnesty to a number of political prisoners associated with Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamic State of Iraq shortly after sent a group of men led by Abu Mohammad al-Golani into Syria to form Jabhat al-Nusra. If we connect these incidents we have a clearer picture of how groups like the Islamic State have such support. First off, to fight communism, countries like Saudi Arabia used to fund anyone that would fight against it. In the early 1970's Saudi Arabia funded Lebanese right wing Christian nationalist group, but put an end to that shortly after the breakout of the Lebanese civil war as the Christians were killing too many Muslims in the Saudis' eyes. They often would fund fundamentally religious groups. One example was in Pakistan while the Afghans were fighting the occupying Soviets. As Saudi sometimes carelessly threw money around the region, and the United States funded certain fundamentalist groups themselves, certain interpretations of Islam became more prominent. Pair this funding, which can be traced back at least around 40-50 years, with the mistakes western powers and their Arab allies have committed in foreign and local policy, and the face of groups like the Islamic State start to become clearer. The Islamic State is a reaction, it would seem. It is the result of irresponsible foreign policy, reckless and at times blind financial backing for groups or leaders who support a fanatical version of Islam, and a concoction coming from poverty, hopelessness, and a lack of a future. In one of Tripoli, Lebanon's poorest neighborhoods called Mankoubeen, the black Islamist flag, often affiliated with IS and al-Qaeda, is seen regularly. The residents explain their support as the result of "anything is better than the status quo." Add that to the widespread rumors that some Arab countries are sending funding to more conservative, slightly radical imams to push a more hardline version of Islam and support for IS grows as young alienated youth hear passages at their weekly escape from reality in their mosques.
