When not employing the description ‘death cult’, Prime Minister Tony Abbott prefers to use the name Da'esh because the group ‘hates being referred to by this term’.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The terrorist group now calls itself Islamic State, but the many names by which it is known reflect both its own evolution and the deliberate choices others make in how they refer to it.
New Zealand citizen Kadhem Chilab Abbas paid with his life by answering Iraq’s call to arms against Islamic State.
One News
The death of a New Zealand citizen who returned to Iraq has led some to query his status as a refugee. We need to be clear about what it means to be granted asylum and the rights of citizenship.
Families cross the Euphrates River seeking the relative safety of Baghdad as Islamic State fighters advance with the goal of creating such violence that people turn from the government to any force capable of restoring peace.
EPA/Ahmed Jalil
Islamic State is a project built on solid foundations by jihadist theorists with decades of experience. The savagery of terrorism precedes the next stage of a caliphate that delivers longed-for order.
Spot the heavyweight.
Pete Souza, via Wikimedia Commons.
A century since chlorine gas was used at Ypres, beginning the era of chemical weapons, controlling lethal agents is harder than ever.
Under the leadership of both Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda has failed to reproduce an event that has shaken the international order since 9/11.
EPA
Islamic State’s rapid successes in Syria and Iraq stand in stark contrast to al-Qaeda’s efforts at global jihad over the past decade.
Iranians, who celebrated in the streets of Tehran following this month’s nuclear agreement, are keen to rebuild relations with the West.
EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh
By reaching out to Iran, Australia can help end a long stand-off with the West that prevented solutions to many of the world’s most dangerous problems, including Syria’s civil war and Islamic State.
Shaping how the war is perceived through disseminating communiques has become a key feature of the Syrian conflict.
EPA/Youssef Badawi
While social media was the main forum for Syrian demonstrators to confront Bashar al-Assad’s media machine in 2011, FM radio is now the battleground for Syrian hearts and minds.
Syrians in Jordan protest ongoing chemical attacks.
EPA/Jamal Nasrallah
Months after Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed, chlorine attacks are continuing – and there’s little sign of any war crimes charges materialising.
The flows of refugees from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria are yet another driver of demographic changes that are threatening to destabilise other states long regarded as strong and democratic.
The audio message has been attributed to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
It’s propaganda for sure but getting the Nigerian group on board does the caliphate no harm.
Lack of rain and poor management of land and water caused the most severe drought in Syria in 100 years and led to a mass migration to cities that contributed to country’s civil war.
Khaled Al Hariri/Reuters
Tony Abbott says the troop escalation in Iraq marks “the next phase” of Australia’s contribution to disrupt, degrade and ultimately defeat Islamic State.
The continued focus on aerial bombardment of Islamic State’s military and economic assets risks alienating Iraq’s Sunni population.
EPA
Thousands of Jordanians - including the country’s Queen Rania - took to the streets of the capital Amman February 6. They were protesting the burning alive of the Jordanian fighter pilot Moaz al-Kasabeh…
John Cantlie has been producing video content and aricles under duress.
Futurenet1977 - Photograph taken by a friend Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
On February 9, Islamic State propagandists uploaded the latest video to feature captured British journalist John Cantlie. In the film, From inside Halab (Aleppo), an expectedly unkempt and slightly dishevelled…
Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University