THE ISLAMIC STATE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW: AN IDEOLOGICAL ROLLERCOSTER?
Andrew Coleman
INTRODUCTION On 10 June 2014 Sunni extremists of under the aegis of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)—a jihadist organisation captured Mosul, the capital of the Nineveh Province and Iraq’s second largest city. These Sunni militants that now threaten to take over Iraq and Syria ‘rebranded’ themselves as the the ‘Islamic State’ (IS). Nineteen days after capturing Mosul, the leader of the militants, Ibrahim ib Awwad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Badri (more commonly known and referred to in Western media Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) announced that IS had established a Caliphate of which he declared himself the Caliph.