The Three Phases of Jihadism
... to Al Qaeda which was pre-millenarian. By the same token, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi independently developed a form of jihad that was mostly sectarian. He was far more focused on killing Shias than westerners, targeting the heretics before the real infidels. He ... ... and persecuted. With this support, they established a network in Syria and Iraq which eventually became the Caliphate. The third phase of Jihadism did not take place on the stage of satellite television,... ... This allowed them to build a mechanism that would lead to the Islamic State and to the Caliphate which was proclaimed in June ...