Understanding The Intentions Of ISIS

11:03

November 16, 2015

A promotional image of members of the group that calls itself the Islamic State (ISIS), taken in Anbar province in 2014.(Wikimedia Commons)

Graeme Wood, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, wrote in a cover story earlier this year about how ISIS, also called ISIL, is a dangerous religious group that rejects peace and has a hunger for genocide.

Wood wrote, “We have misunderstood the nature of the Islamic State in at least two ways.” He spoke with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson in February about how understanding ISIS’s intentions – and how they are as distinct from al-Qaida’s – is crucial to efforts to combat the group.

We revisit that conversation, as well as a rebuttal from Mehdi Hasan of Al Jazeera English, who told Here & Now in March that the Islamic State really isn't about Islam at all.

Graeme Wood’s piece in The Atlantic, “What ISIS Really Wants”
Mehdi Hasan's piece in the New Statesman, "How Islamic is Islamic State?"
Related: How To Defeat ISIS

Guests

Graeme Wood, contributing editor at The Atlantic. He tweets @gcaw.
Mehdi Hasan, a presenter for Al Jazeera English. He tweets @mehdirhasan.

This segment aired on November 16, 2015.