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Cal State University Long Beach Learns about ISIL

Students and professors overflowed the Beach auditorium to hear Middle East expert Juan Ricardo Cole speak about the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) at Cal State University Long Beach on Thursday.

“I’m going to make an argument to you that I think the general journalistic and political reception of these events [of ISIL] is ahistorical,” Cole said during his speech. “People are not taking into account what evoked them or how they developed.”

Cole gave his speech in reference to the growing attention ISIL has received after the beheading of American journalist James Foley in August. His speech informed students and professors of ISIL’s background.

“ISIL has a doctrine, a military technical doctrine, of ruling by using fear and violence to coerce, Cole said. “It’s kind of like organized crime, plus a Sunni Muslim version.”

ISIL, also known as the Islamic State (IS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is an ideological organization. ISIL is a kind of cult, which uses Sunni ideas from Sunni Muslim history and practice, but distorts them, Cole said.

“It’s a guerilla group, and it can operate as a guerrilla group,” Cole said. “Now it has infantry and armor, and sometimes it operates like an army. When it operates like an army you can kill it like an army.”

“I was kind of hoping for a little more action-based answer, but I’m by no means complaining. I think he gave a really great talk,” senior history major Nadia Chan said at the event. “I think now it’s like, where do we take these conversations?”

Cole said that, despite the recent bombings by the United States, which may have helped to contain ISIL in Kurdistan, he does not see an effective military strategy here.

“[ISIL] has a lot of powerful enemies, and it doesn’t seem to be likely that we’ll be talking about this five years from now,” he said.

Cole described the historical context and the aftermath of the evolution of ISIL; he said that protests in these regions by various oppressed groups attracted the Sunni Arab radicals in Iraq and volunteers from the rest of the Arab world.

“People who used to be on top of society [Sunni] with the really good jobs, all of the sudden they’re on the bottom,” Cole said in reference to U.S invasion of Iraq in 2003. “The message to them is the Shiites are now in control, along with the Americans. You used to be an elite, but not anymore, and now you are unemployed.”

He said that, among other rebel groups, ISIL decided to make an alliance with ex-Baath officials to take over Mosul and agreed to have joint rule.

“These tribes, who felt very much oppressed and neglected, marginalized, and being shoved by the Shiite ruled government in Baghdad, in many instances, did a deal with the devil. At some point they went to ISIL,” Cole said.

Cole has studied Muslim religion and history since 1975 and has lived in various parts of the Middle East for ten years. He is also the writer for “Informed Comment,” a weblog on the Middle East with thousands of followers.

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