Much of Syria has become a disaster zone: In September, the opposition group Syrian Network for Human Rights estimated that more than 2.9 million homes, schools, mosques, churches and hospitals had been damaged or destroyed since the uprising began in March 2011. More than half a million are a complete loss.

The wealth of Islamic states varies significantly based on factors such as natural resources, economic diversification, and governance. Countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have high levels of wealth due to abundant oil reserves and strategic investments. However, other Islamic states may have challenges with economic development and wealth distribution.

The Arab Spring in Syria led to the Syrian Civil War as government crackdowns on unrest escalated into armed conflict. ISIS took advantage of the chaos in Syria to establish a presence, eventually expanding its control into Iraq as well. The group exploited sectarian tensions, power vacuums, and disenfranchisement to establish a self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.

Simply put, Islamic State believes that killing people for these various "infractions" (blasphemy, homosexuality, being a Non-Muslim, political disagreement, etc.) is the morally correct way to govern a society. They see our tolerance and openness to different beliefs and ideas as a form of moral depravity.

The primary strength that ISIL draws on is the political philosophy of Islamism. While Islam is a religion, but Islamism is a political theory that believes in implementing Islamic Law as the official governing law. Because of this fundamental difference, you can oppose Islamism without opposing Islam. It is much the same way that you can oppose Evangelical Christians trying to overrun the US Constitution and make America a "Christian Country" without opposing Christianity. In both cases, you are simply supporting continued Secularism. Muslims need to be convinced that Islamism is a failure, not just for Non-Muslims, but for Muslims as well.

Note that there are numerous human rights advocates in the Islamic World (often fighting a losing battle against the same Islamists in the Islamic World) that you can support, such as Maryam Namazie, Fariborz Pooya, Marieme Helie Lucas, Gita Sahgal, Bahram Soroush, Dilip Simeon, Chulani Kodikara, Faizun Zackariya, Yasmin Rehman, Taslima Nasrin, Salil Tripathi, Maha Kamal, Nahla Mahmoud, Lila Ghobady, Imam Taj Hargey, Kenan Malik, Karima Bennoune, Nira Yuval-Davis, Horia Mosadiq, Siba Shakib, and numerous others. You are supporting the repressed and downtrodden Muslims and others who are being crushed in their countries by demagogic Islamists, like ISIL.

If you want a military option, you should enlist with the Kurdish Peshmerga, which is the only army that has actively engaged with the Islamic State and accepts foreign volunteers.

The United States of America is a war with Isis because they can not agree on anything. They are also at war because Isis an firing at the US.

The situation in the Middle East with ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is complex and fluid. While the group has lost significant territory and its self-declared caliphate has been dismantled, ISIL still poses a threat as it continues to carry out attacks and insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Syria. The group has also expanded its presence in other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Efforts to counter ISIL involve a combination of military operations, counter-terrorism measures, and addressing the underlying factors that contribute to its rise.

Muhammads (saw) Islamic state is basically the Khilafah and a Khalif is the ruler and the Khalif should be appointed by Allah and should be infallible so he dont judge wrong amongst the people

there is a war in Syria because Syrians want a change but the government don't want Syria to change.

Islamic State is a Jihadist Organization and hates the United States for exactly the same reasons as other Jihadist organizations.

Jihadism:
Jihadist organizations advocates the ideas that (1) national laws should be based on the Shari'a or Islamic Law and (2) the imposition of Islamic Law should be done using violence or military force (as opposed to democratically). Jihadism is the ideology that motivates al-Qaeda (and Bin Laden), Boko Haram, Islamic State (ISIL), AQIM, Hezbollah, Asa'ib al-Haqq, the Houthis, Hamas, and numerous other terrorist organizations.

Particular Issues:
Jihadist organizations' interests and beliefs have brought them into direct conflict with the United States on multiple grounds:

1) Conflict of Values: Jihadists argue that Islam as a religion supports numerous aspects of their political platform. These requisites include: (1) that there should be an Islamic government that rules according to Islamic Law, (2) that Islam supports the idea of martyrdom in war, (3) that Islam supports a traditional family structure, and (4) God's law is immutable and unchangeable throughout time. Most importantly, Jihadists argue that the ultimate project of Islam and all Muslims is to create an Islamic government that rules according to Islamic Law.

Conversely, the United States directly opposes this set of values, arguing that a secular government, peaceful interaction with possible enemies before violence, personal liberties, and human rights are preferable. Jihadists argue that the American system is a deeply immoral system. It rewards the greedy and powerful who can use the system to take advantage of the downtrodden. It values materialism and up-ends spiritualism, creating societies that care more about banalities like the latest fashions than questions about God and truth. However, most importantly, the advocacy of personal liberties and human rights is the promotion of man-made law and human choices above the Divine Mandate which is the Qur'an and the Shari'a. Jihadists see the elevation of man-made law above Divine Law to be sacrilege and an assertion that man knows better than God what he should do.

2) Direct Antagonism: In addition to the cultural opposition to Jihadism that the United States mass-produces, the US government has also actively fought against or directly assisted others in fighting against Jihadism. There are the US military adventures in Iraq and Syria, where the US actively fought against al-Qaeda Iraq (the forerunner of Islamic State) on the ground, bombed Islamic State from the air with a coalition of other Arab countries, and buttressed the Non-Islamist Kurdish Peshmerga on the ground. The US also fought against the Jihadist Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and returned the Non-Islamist Northern Alliance to power. The US invaded Somalia several times, including during the UNISOM missions, each time explicitly targeting Jihadist groups like al-Shabaab along with pirates. The United States also provides funding and intelligence to assist poorer nations in setting up and running counter-terrorism programs, specifically designed to prevent Jihadist attacks.

3) US Support of Secular Authoritarians: In much of the Islamic World, the Cold War period was defined by the presence of US-backed secular dictators. The prevailing view among Jihadists was that these US-backed dictators were little more than Western Proxies and not representative of the history of the Islamic World, its values, or its peoples' will, which is why they were only in power by brute force and the repression of human rights. Jihadists became the only consistent opposition to these repressive governments and saw themselves as fighting for ideological independence from the Western Proxies ruling the Islamic World.

4) Rolling Back of Islamic Lands: Jihadists consider the Islamic World's growth in terms of territory, manpower, and control to be a positive that should be actively sought, through peace or war. As a result, any action that has rolled back the clock and "de-Islamized" lands that had previously been under the control of a Muslim sovereign is seen as a gross miscarriage of justice. (This is very similar to how Western countries see coup d'etats that replace Western-aligned countries with Anti-Western countries.) Examples of these "rolled back" territories abound, like Israel (Jewish), which was formerly part of various Islamic Empires for over 1000 years, India (Hindu), which had been under partial Islamic occupation for nearly 500 years, Spain/Portugal (Catholic), which had been controlled in part for over 750 years by the Umayyad Caliphate and its successors, and East Timor (Catholic), which had been occupied by Indonesia for decades. In all of these cases, Non-Muslims were able to cast of the yoke of Islamic Control and create their own independent countries and, in all of these cases, the US actively supports these countries with AID, trade, and military defense agreements. As a result, the US is complicit in actively undoing what centuries of Islamic expansion have wrought.

5) Assimilation vs. Muslim Identity: Jihadist groups argue that the only identity that matters for Muslims is the Muslim identity. National, ethnic, socially derived, interpersonal, work, and other identities are unimportant and should be relegated to the past. Conversely, the United States supports the notion of pluralism, which is the idea that a society should be colorblind and give people of all races and identities an equal shot as citizens. In the pluralist society, the important unifying identity is citizenship and common cultural values. As a result, the US promotes the assimilation of its Muslim population and contravenes the Jihadist belief that a Muslim's identity as a Muslim identity be their central and only identity. Jihadists also use the isolation felt by Muslims who only value their Muslim identity and do not assimilate to help them in recruiting, so, in addition to being opposite to the Jihadist vision of Muslim identity, the assimilated identity serves to make converting a Conservative American Muslim to a Jihadist worldview a more difficult process.

6) Aiding the Takfiris: Since Jihadist groups are founded by very religious Muslims, the sectarian divides between Sunni and Shiite groups come out very strongly in terms of their policy. Each Jihadist group will name all adherents of rival sects of Islam as "takfiris" (تكفيري) or "blasphemers". These individuals are now no longer viewed as Muslims and, instead, are viewed as enemies. However, the United States has openly made deals with and supported both Sunnis and Shiites, leading Shiite Jihadists and Sunni Jihadists to hate the US respectively for aiding Takfiris defend themselves and advance their "abortion of Islam".

Some examples of US support of Sunnis that angers Shiite Jihadists include: (1) equipping the Saudi Air Force, since all of their planes and ordinance are purchased from the US and are used to carpet-bomb Shiite-majority areas in Yemen, (2) upgrading relations with Egypt and Jordan following Israeli Peace Treaty with better AID packages, better trade deals like the QIZ, and higher level diplomatic arrangements, (3) business arrangements between the US and the Arab Emirates of the Persian Gulf, and (4) the US support given to Lebanon in 2005 and 2006 as Lebanon pushed out Syrian control and attempted to establish a more neutral foreign policy than the Pro-Shiite policy (favoring Syria and Iran) pushed by the Syrian Occupying Authority.

Some examples of US support of Shiites that angers Sunni Jihadists include: (1) the US Nuclear Treaty with Iran, which has led to a rapprochement with Iran and numerous large payments to Iran, (2) the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni government in Iraq to create a new Shiite government that actively persecutes the Sunni minority, and (3) the indirect creation of the "Shiite Crescent" which is an extension of Iranian power over Iraq and Syria that creates a substantial bulwark to Sunni-majority states. Many Sunnis (not just Jihadists) argue that the Obama Administration in particular has reversed the US's historic Pro-Sunni stance and is now adopting a Pro-Shiite stance. This is particularly angering to Sunni Jihadists because of the power that the US brings to the table.

7) Female Empowerment: The US actively promotes a number of programs in the Islamic World, like microlending, women's education, and other activities designed to give women an equal say in politics and determining their own destiny. Jihadists see this as a reversal of traditional roles, where men and women live in an equilibrium of different but equal. In the Jihadist view, a woman should be taking care of the home and the man should be working. Women should not trespass into men's territory and men should not trespass onto the woman's home maintenance duties. By promoting female independence and self-sufficiency, the US is seeking to undermine traditional values and Jihadists oppose this.

8) Acceptance of Non-Muslim Refugees: Particularly in the case of Islamic State, numerous Non-Muslims have come under the power of Jihadist forces. These Non-Muslims are usually required to be Dhimmis and pay the jizya, which serves as a baseline tax for the national coffers. The jizya also serves as a negative financial incentive to convert to Islam. However, the US (among other countries) is taking in Non-Muslim Refugees, which prevents these individuals from being forced to stay under Jihadist power and paying taxes. It also means that fewer people will feel forced to convert to Islam, so the religion will grow more slowly. Jihadists oppose this situation.

9) American Ethics of "Whatever": Jihadists hold that Americans were unbridled in that they allow rampant immorality under the idea that each person is entitled to live as he or she likes. If something is morally wrong, like homosexuality, sex out of wedlock, applying interest to loans, or women showing their hair, this should be banned according to Jihadists. The government's duty, in their view is correct the moral failings in others, not to allow all kinds of immorality to fester. Furthermore, the resolution of the conflict between these morally deficient people by imposing a far better moral system, Islamic governance, would eviscerate problems like torture, civil strife, etc.

10) Banking and Insurance: Jihadists object to the wealth management that goes on in the US, which both violates Shari'a Law as regards usury, uncertainty, and risk, and which ensures predation of the poor by the wealthy. They make many of the same arguments as Socialists do concerning how inequality of wealth, lack of communal ownership, and attempts to hoard property are damaging to the social order. They see this as especially true as these banking and insurance systems are what allow the extraordinarily wealthy kings, emirs, and dictators of the Islamic World to hoard billions of dollars while their citizens starve. Since the US is the financial capital of the world and one of the main hubs for insurance around the world, the US is hated for creating this wealth system and disempowering Muslims around the world.

11) Offensive Jihad: Jihadists argue that during the colonial occupation Islam ran the risk of being destroyed under the heel of the secular European boot. To prevent this and protect Islam, campaigns of violence and religious war needed to be used proactively against Westerners to cow them into accepting Islam as the correct and proper way to rule Islamic States and for the non-Muslims to accept the Islamist mentality. Jihadists see this as analogous to how the colonizers forced secularism on Islamic States, but since Islam was more virtuous, it would result in a more virtuous world. The greatest impediment to this reversal of power and the reinstatement of an Islamic government.

ISIL is called ISIS because it is one and same thing. ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and ISIL stands for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The issue derives from its Arabic name which is ad-Dawla al-Islamiyya fi al-3eraaq w'ash-Sham (الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام). The word "Sham" is translated as both "Syria" and "the Levant" in English, but refers to all of the Levantine territories (Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Jordan).

Further, the Levant is a term which is not commonly used in the Western world. More people have heard of Syria due to its recent civil war. It could be argued that use of Syria in ISIS helps associates the organization with the negative media image associated with the government of Syria including that of dictatorship, corruption, and killing of citizens. In this way, the viewer is implicitly led to believe that ISIS is also evil, 'anti-American', and perhaps even Russian backed.

Finally, ISIS is easier to say than ISIL, and has more of a ring to it.

ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), known as ad-Dawla al-Eslamiyya al-3iraaq w'ash-Shaam - الدولة الإسلامية العراق والشام or the acronym Daa3esh - داعش in Arabic, is an extremist Sunni Islamist organization which used to have links to al-Qaeda before al-Qaeda condemned them for their barbarity. They are fighting to bring the Sunni majority into power, especially in Sunni majority regions of both Syria and Iraq, and impose a more fundamentalist view on politics. They consider themselves to be fighting the injustices and violence of the current Assad regime and the inequalities of the US-supported Government of Iraq. ISIL is primarily supported and armed by Saudi Arabia, but the US and UK have indirectly given ISIL millions of dollars and equipment since US and UK military vehicles and assets left to the Government of Iraq have fallen into ISIL hands (especially with the fall of Mosul).

ISIL controls significant amounts of land in Syria and Iraq and conquered much of its Iraqi territory in June 2014. Despite small gains by the Kurdish Peshmerga Army and the Republic of Iraq Army, most of these territories remain in ISIL control nearly a year later.

ISIL started as an offshoot of al-Qaeda Iraq, also called Jubhat al-Nusra (the al-Nusra Front). Their main disagreement with the majority of Jubhat al-Nusra, and which prompted their leaving the organization, was that al-Baghdadi (the founder of ISIL) and his supporters argued that the Islamic Caliphate should be formed today as opposed to the majority who wanted to only set up the building blocks for a future Caliphate. The split occurred only in 2012. Because ISIL wants to create an Islamic Caliphate immediately, they have been working at a feverish pace to achieve that goal.

In ISIL's conception, the failures of the Islamic World in terms of economy, morality, military power, and political acumen are directly the result of abandoning Islam as a religion and its principles. They hold that the Western ideals have pervaded the Islamic World, which distances them from following the words of the Qur'an literally to achieve salvation for all Muslims. Only by returning to an extreme literalist interpretation and the legal enforcement of those values can Muslims be the world leaders.

Rest assured, there are a lot of us who'd love a crack at ISIL. I have a grudge to settle back from when they were known as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. However, this isn't the place to answer that question.

I know we have a law in the US known as the Neutrality Act (which is what Don Black and Wolfgang Droege were convicted under when they attempted to overthrow the government of Dominica), and it's likely that a similar exists in Canada, which is not a party to that conflict at present. Not to mention following through with these plans might entail desertion of your unit. As such, we cannot provide answers to what would be illegal acts.

I hope you figure something out, and I hope you kill a lot of them - these were the ones setting IEDs up in our AO when I was there, and I certainly have no love lost for them. Unfortunately, the policies of this site and me being an arbiter of those policies prevents me from allowing this question to be answered here.