Ji-Had a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam.
"he declared a jihad against the infidels"

• the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin.
  Officially in March 2013, the Islamic state was born, separating itself from the main jihadist group that it pledged with, Al Qaeda. Many of us have become familiar with these groups such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezboullah etc. These groups have gained such popularity recently through the most infamous attack on 9/11 as well as countless bombings and killings throughout the World in the 21st century. Even though just hearing the words ‘’Jihad’’, “Holy Fighters’’ and ‘’Holy Wars’’ are fairly new, they have been boiling since the 1920s. Through many different groups in the early 1980's through 1990’s to present time 2025, these groups have been tearing through and brainwashing their communities in Syria, Iraq, Iran as well as spreading and conjoining with terror groups in Africa. Injecting extreme jihadism and propaganda to the rising generation of young kids in these parts of the world forming into more violent and extreme jihadist fighting alongside their fathers, mothers and siblings, but where did this start and who is the one or many fueling these groups with guns, mens and machines? The answer truly lies within our own borders, in 1979-1989 the United States along with other countries  backed the infamous group ‘’The Mujahideen’’ referring to the Islamic guerrilla fighters gaining prominence in the Soviets and Afghan War. This War had originally started with the intervention of the Solivets in and close to Afghan borders and communities. Afghanistan's own government presented many coupes and ultimately overthrew the government at the time with the resistance fighters (Mujahideen) or at the time the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Now at this time there isn't much known about other jihadist groups that present violent tendencies in this region but for the story we are closely following the Mujahideen which through the years turned into Al Qaeda and then separating to our main group covered in this story the Islamic States which from all accounts goes directly against the true founding fathers of Jihad and resistance fighters to Arabs Holy Land. The true origin of the Mujahideen and Jihad fighters were Ahmad Shah Massoud, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Abdul Rasuf Sayyaf, to name some of the many leaders, but in these lines a huge problem. In the late 80’s and into the 90’s there were vast amounts of these residences groups all over Afghanistan some estimated to have to up to 90 different religious groups all falling under the Muslim religion and all yes fighting each other as well as trying to kick out the Soviets who at the time just assassinated Afghanistan's president,  Hafizullah Amin on December 27, 1979. This happened due to the Solivets fearing he would go against them, which then ultimately started an ongoing 46 year long wars and conflicts in this region. 

      The Backbone of Jihad, in 2013 a mysterious ghost leader came to power separating himself from the infamous group Al-Qaeda. Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri or commonly known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the proclaimed leader of the Islamic State rose to power claiming his group and allegiance to fighting the muslim holy war. Abu Bakr Baghdadi was born in Samarra, Iraq and received graduate degrees in Islamic Theology. According to supporters, he also gained a PhD at the Islamic State University. Through his early days in the late 2000’s Abu Bakar led his own group ’’Jama’at Jaysh AhI al-Sunna wal-Jama’ah’’ and rose to power as  well as through Al Qaeda climbing up the leaderboard becoming a commander or the ‘’Emir’’ (Male Morach Status symbol) of the group in 2010. Both these groups had worked together after the invasion of the United States. And expand through Syria, Iraq and Iran. The first true sighting of Abu Bakar  to the public came from a now famous video of him claiming to be the new Caliph for Jihad and reading the Quran and talking about his problems with western influence as well as his own personal reason for his jihad to his followers. Now it's good to state here that before this, Abu Bakar had gained many followers through Al Qadea as well as his early teachings and preachings in his hometown of Samarra where he practiced Islam and preached to his few followers at the time. This is how he had any sort of power when claiming the Caliph role and spreading his violent rhetoric to many delusional and senseless followers he had gained. Now it’s important to make this separation in the timeframe where it seemed to take a much more violent route. Even though there had been many terror attacks overseas and other terror leaders like Osama Bin Laden, Abu Bakar took this to a whole new extreme. I think other terrorist leaders in the beginning at least had somewhat of a cause behind them beginning that Western powers had in fact been occupying them for thousands of years. These attacks in the early stages of the War on Terror were in response to many events that had happened with Western influence within the whole Middle East. Where I think the difference lies within the early Islamic/Jihad leaders to the currently so called Jihadist leaders come within their speech and rhetoric towards others especially Western ideology. To play far this isn’t just a one sided idea though, both the United States as well as high ranking extremist leaders fuel this insufferable speech for the whole world to listen to, both side are fueling each other as well simultaneously making eachother suffer more loses well gaining more power at the same time giving there violent language a cause and meaning behind it. Abu Barkar Al Bagdadi translates to the ‘’father of a young camel that comes from Baghdad’’ which is a pseudonym. Like stated before these newer Islamic leader directly cause many of the senseless terror attack happening daily throughout the world since the early 2000’s, Abu is no different and arguably one of the most violent and idiodic leaders the world has seen, did seem to have a lasting impact on the young and growing Islamic population and the many family following in his extremist teachings. It's also important to point out that many of Muslims worldwide disagree with pretty much all of these Extremist ideas and leadership that gain power behind the worldwide religious base. To make this more clear Sunni Musilm’s tend to lean more towards the extremist side only make up about 10% of the worldwide population and mostly, you guessed it, coming from Syria, Iran and Iraq,  well the Shia’s make up about 85%-90% of the worldwide Musilm population leaning more towards traditionally ethics within the muslim religion and not associating with the violent tendencies with the Sunni Side well also living with Western cultures and conjoining there traditions with western traditions living in peace. Or as it seems for now. Remember religion isn’t a one sided issue and this isn’t just a Musilm issue this happens throughout all prominent religions throughout the world. Within religion all contain groups that support different sides  and with those groups there are groups that disagree, it's an endless vicious cycle down the line. There are many younger generation leaders of the Islamic State but many have tried to continue Abu bakar legacy as well as other violent jihadist leaders but most have either been killed or are actively hiding from  governments.  

      Although in 2019 at the young age of 48 years old, Abu Bakar Al-Bagdadi died by drone strike in Barisha Syria. President Donald J Trump ordered the strike and went on the air for a now famous press conference when he calls him out  by name for the whole world watching to let them know as well as the many followers of Abu, that  quote ‘’ Last night the United States brought down the world's number one terrorist leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, is dead’’ This showed how much power Abu had gained from his early teaching in Samarra where now spreading and disturbing the most violent group around the world for the thousands of followers joining his fight for Jihad. He had climbed pass or in other worlds outlived all of his mentors and gained the highest ranking for many terrorist leaders ‘’The Most Wanted Man in the World’’. Just like another infamous extremist leader Osama Bin Laden, Abu had now reached somewhat of the same notoriety as his infamous mentor in the Sunni dominated regions. But what separates him from the rest was the amount of violent follower he had created through his time as the caliph, now it up for debate whether it was Osama Bin Laden, Abu Bakr Al Bandaid or Anwar al-Awlaki as well as the countless extremist leaders who really started this violent switch. From what I have learned I think for the timeline and current events, I have to say Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was one of the most violent and irresponsible leaders that lead to the current violence and views that are shared today within the Middle Eastern region. He had turned what was Al Qaeda and the Islamic State before into a terror and murder hungry gang of terrorists who had no common sense and instead turned to killing and abusing their power within their own region as well as spreading throughout the world involving countless foreigners as well. Although as stated before Sunni only make up about 10% of the worldwide Muslim population, these ideologic ideas and styles of running government have lead to a complete meltdown in this region and as long with the many other extremist leaders, Abu Bakr Al Bangdid hate speech and rhetoric have continue to spread and gain more and more relevance as time pushes on passed his death. I know for 100% his making and thinking have slowly shifted the Jihadist movement into a bloodthirsty organization that stands for nothing but eradication of all Western Ideas/culture.    

     

      ''He died like a dog, like a coward, he will never harm another innocent man, women or child, the world now is a much safer place'' -President Donald J Trump after the killing of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in 2019