ABSTRACT
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has come under various appellations during the initial two years of its existence. The most interesting attempt at statehood is being made by ISIS, against whom a wide coalition of Western and Arab countries has been waging a war of extermination which promises to be prolonged and costly. ISIS also believes that issuing its own coins will hasten the collapse of the US economy and lead to the decline of the United States as a global power and the rise of the Islamic caliphate. The popularity of ISIS runs patently and incomprehensibly against the delegitimation the movement gets from the Sunni establishment in various Muslim states, especially al-Azhar. However, despite acknowledging that ISIS was following a false interpretation of Islam, Azhar stopped short of explicitly saying that the jihadist group was non-Islamic, particularly given the controversy that surrounds talfirism.
