ISIS Quickly Surpassing al-Qaeda in Recruitment Drive

State Dept: ISIS a Bigger Threat With a Full-Blown Army

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) saw itself disavowed by al-Qaeda last year amid rising tensions with Jabhat al-Nusra, but the loss of the al-Qaeda imprimatur not only doesn’t appear to have hurt ISIS, but is hurting al-Qaeda.

That’s because ISIS is now in the process of forming what it is calling a “caliphate,” and young would-be jihadists see them as the more effective and more upwardly mobile movement than al-Qaeda, with its stogy leadership and no real territory of its own.

Al-Qaeda remains a force to be reckoned with globally, with significant affiliates like AQAP and AQIM, but ISIS has leap-frogged them both for recruits and for Western officials’ scare mongering.

The State Department is now openly saying that ISIS is “worse” than al-Qaeda, a bigger threat with a “full-blown army,” and with ISIS in control of a nation spanning much of Iraq and Syria, it’s a trend that’s only getting worse.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.