The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known as the Islamic State, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) has swept through eastern Syria and northern Iraq with astonishing speed and has left terror and destruction in its wake. Claiming to resurrect the ancient Islamic caliphate, ISIS’ reign of terror upon its conquered people centers on a brutally fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that seeks to implement a radical interpretation of the Islamic legal code called Sharia law. While ISIS has quickly implemented their interpretation of this legal code, the establishment of an actual polity has proven beyond the Islamic State’s early capabilities.

United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay detailed a prison massacre in Mosul that left 650 inmates dead, one of the many heinous atrocities to have accompanied the rule of the Islamic State. Kurdish Peshmerga forces recently captured the strategic Mosul dam and the United States’ recent airstrikes have increased pressure on ISIS in the region but their military threat in the region still remains.