Is Islamic State an Islamic organization?

Answer 1

Islamic State is a Jihadist organization and a nexus can be built between the religion of Islam and the Jihadist political movement. However, most Muslims and even most Muslim clerics do not support the actions of Islamic State. This lack of support usually concerns specific actions that Islamic State has performed, like terrorism, beheadings without trial, enslaving people after the Ottoman Caliphs made agreements to ban slavery, and other particular issues. This condemnation by leading Muslim clerics almost never arises concerning Islamic State's goal of creating a country where Islamic Law is imposed, as opposed to a secular democracy.

Islam and Jihad vs. Islamism and Jihadism
We should first split off Islam and Jihad from any discussion about Islamism and Jihadism. Islam is a religion and Jihad is a religious concept within Islam about how to strive both for better morals and a more Islamic world. Islamism and Jihadism, however, are political ideologies. The goal of Islamism is to bring the religious tenets of Islam into the daily functioning of a government and its laws. Islamism is a modern movement whose roots began contemporaneously with the rise of Salafism in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Egypt.

Jihadism not only wishes a particularly repressive version of Islamic Law to be instituted (Islamism), but believes that violence in defense of the faith is the preferred way to do this. Jihadism was developed in the middle of the 20th century since the secular dictators of the Arab World refused to give any quarter to Islamists in the political establishment. As a result, Islamists divided between those who would protest this estrangement from government and those who believed that violence was an appropriate way to overturn the secular governments. The latter group became the Jihadists.

Scriptural Support for Jihadism
While Islam does not necessarily lead to or support Islamism and Jihadism, there are certainly Qur'anic verses that can be read by those seeking to be intolerant and violent of good grounds to do so. Q: 3:19 claims that the only religion that is acceptable to God is Islam. Q: 3:110 claims that Muslims are the best people in all history. Q: 8:55 claims that those who disbelieve are the worst of animals. Q: 9:29 argues for the repression and inequality of Jews and Christians before Muslims. Q: 2:216 argues for fighting against "enemies" even if you would prefer not to. There are numerous other verses that support this connection. While it is only a minority (between 10-20%) of Muslims who are Islamists and a far smaller number (<3%) who are Jihadists, almost all Islamists and Jihadists are Muslims and these small percentages still translate into millions of people. It is important to note that the validity of Islamism and Jihadism exist as only one reading out of many possible readings of the Qur'an, which is why there are many legitimate readings that condone secularism.