In June, ISIS succeeded in expelling Iraq’s armed forces from its northern territories to Baghdad and took control over the large area. This development has caught the world by surprise.

Immediately after, news and reports of ISIS’ violence on its opponents — the Shiite communities, Christians and other minority sects — started to emerge. This news and reports were not obtained from mainstream media sources only, but also from local activists and NGOs on the ground.

On 30th June 2014, Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS made a public announcement of the establishment of a new “caliphate” stretching from Diyala (Iraq) to Aleppo (Syria) and subsequently appointed himself as the caliph. He called upon Muslims all over the world to pledge allegiance to him and to actively assist him in running this new “caliphate”.

These developments have caught the world by surprise and have posed a challenge to the Muslim world namely the world leaders, scholars and intellectuals. There was now a pertinent need to take a stance against the ISIS’ atrocities and the establishment of the new “caliphate”.

…Muhammad Haniff Hassan is Fellow and Mustazah Bahari is Associate Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.