1. Welcome to the world of savages: Daesh has presented 21st century’s brutality at its worst, and surpassed the cruelties of Celts, Mongols, Apaches, Vikings, Romans, Aztecs and Nazis.

2. Where has it come from? A militant group, Daesh has a mysterious origin, giving Muslims enough reasons to speculate who actually are behind it. Not any Islamic leanings at least, they assert.

3. Speculation: That it is a breakaway group of Al-Qaeda; some say it’s a ragtag of late Saddam Hussain’s soldiers.

4. At the helm of hell: Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Al-Badri Al-Samarrai, better known as Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, a blood-sucking terrorist, who demands allegiance from the other terror groups like Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda.

5. The empire of evils: In mid-2014 it made a sweeping advance in Iraq, seizing the city of Mosul and swathes of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Anbar and Diyala provinces, currently it has established its writ over 8 million residents.

6. A sad ‘state’ of affairs: Daesh calls the territory a ‘state,’ recognized by no country in the world and claims it to be inspired by Islamic political system — a claim endorsed by no Islamic scholar or country.

7. Brutality beyond logic: Created in the name of faith, Daesh caused mass displacements, slaughter, torture, forced conversion and even slavery. Mass slaughter has become one of its hallmarks.

8. Global response: Daesh’s presence on earth explains either of the two: It has caught the superpowers with their pants down; or it has been planted by them. The international spirit, with which Saddam and Bin Laden were eliminiated, is found missing in Daesh case.

9. Playing with Prophesies: Prophecies are much to do with petty politics or sometimes larger vested interest. Israel was created based on ‘biblical prophesy.’ Daesh wants to end the world citing a prophetic prediction. The idea lured large following in both the cases.

10. What’s in a name: It first named itself as Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), then Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and then as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It however kept calling itself as Daesh in Arabic.

10 things that make its origin dubious

1. Daesh issued fatwa at the start of Ramadan saying, “Make it a month of disasters, defeats and disgrace for infidels everywhere,” which is against the very spirits of Ramadan. This exposes the terror outfit’s evil design.

2. Islam literally means peace and stands for justice. Daesh kills both innocent and unarmed — Muslims and non-Muslims — behead them, mutilate their bodies, rape girls as young as 14 years and terrorize people. It could be inspired or trained by any ideology, faith or superpower in the world today but Islam.

3. Baghdadi is a former US detainee. After he was released from the prison, he gradually rose to capture parts of the Syrian and Iraqi territory and spread his tentacles to other Middle East countries.

4. Daesh confronts Houthis in Yemen, warns Hezbollah and Hamas, fights with Taliban, kills people in prayers, but accepts Boko Haram’s allegiance and refrains from issuing any threat to Israel or US. A calculated move?

5. A former Boko Haram (BH) member, who later “embraced Islam,” detailed how a Christian association in Nigeria planned forming BH, which took no time to put allegiance to Daesh. Any link?

6. A picture that went viral on social media showed Daesh men performing prayers together but facing different directions, giving enough doubt of their Muslim credentials.

7. The Prophet (peace be upon him) never killed prisoners. Daesh killed them in thousands.

8. Why Daesh men are always masked. Are they afraid of their true identity? Are they ashamed of their acts? Who they fear from?

9. If every act committed has a motive, what Daesh is doing is benefitting all the anti-Muslim forces in the world.

10. It is forbidden in Islam to mistreat, in any way, Christians or any people of the scripture. This is what some 100 theologians wrote to Daesh while refusing to accept them as Muslims.

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