Why does Islamic State attack?

Answer 1

I'm a muslim, first thing ISIS has nothing to do with our religion. They want to be the strongest group in the world so they want to make people fear them. Please note that ISIS is also killing muslims.

Answer 2

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ad-Dawla al-Eslamiyya al-3iraaq w'ash-Shaam or the acronym (داعش) Daa3esh in Arabic, is a Sunni Jihadist organization. This leads to several reasons that Islamic State attacks both local parties in the Middle East and North Africa region and the Westerners.

1) Ideology of Jihadism: Islamic State practices a particularly violent form of Islamism called Jihadism. (Islamism is a political ideology whose goal is to bring the religious tenets of Islam into the daily functioning of a government and its laws, which is different from Islam as strictly a religion.) Jihadism not only wishes a particularly repressive version of Islamic Law to be instituted, but believes that violence in defense of the faith is the preferred way to do this. Jihadism, like Islamism, is a political ideology rooted in Islamic religious concepts, but distorted. The distortion here is that there are many ways to advocate on behalf of the faith and the choice to exclusively use violence is a misinterpretation of the doctrine.

2) Jihadism vs. Non-Islamist Regimes: Since Jihadism argues that a repressive version of Islamic Law must be instituted, any regime which refuses to implement such a regime (be it a Muslim-majority country with mixed Islamist and Secular institutions, be it a Muslim-majority country with only Secular institutions, or be it a Non-Muslim majority country) is considered an eternal enemy of the Jihadist state. As a result, attacking such regimes is a natural part of this war and serves to demonstrate its opposition to the continued existence of these Non-Jihadist regimes. Islamic State considers itself to be fighting the injustices and violence of the current Assad regime and the inequalities of the US-supported Government of Iraq. The group also opposes Western governments and their people for opposing the group's attempt to conquer the world.

3) Legitimacy: The act of performing violent attacks and bombings shows that Islamic State actually "puts its money where its mouth is" and stands for its internal propositions. As a group that advocates eternal war until all regimes accept an Islamist style of government or capitulation to such a government, performing acts of violence and terror demonstrate that they are following through on this advocacy. Additionally, since Jihad is a central tenet of Islam and a significant number of Muslims (tens of millions) believe that a Jihad against Non-Islamist regimes is warranted, Islamic State gains legitimacy in their eyes for fighting this Jihad.

4) Advertising: By prompting these suicide attacks, Islamic State gains the news-cycle publicity, leading young Muslims who are already interested in Islamism and Jihadism towards the "Islamic State brand". Various Jihadist groups actually compete on the "terrorism marketplace" and by performing acts of terror, Islamic State draws attention to its brand and style of terrorism.

5) Martyrdom / Esteshhaad (إستشهاد): In Islam, there is a doctrine of martyrdom, where a person who dies in the struggle to bring about an Islamic Theocracy, like a Caliphate, or in defense of Muslims gains a free and unequivocal entrance to heaven, as well as the right to bring 70 people with him to heaven. This doctrine of martyrdom can have a powerful decision-making impact for many Muslims who feel inadequate or deeply sinful and believe the act of martyring themselves will purge them of their sins and allow them entrance to heaven. Many Muslim leaders argue that intentional acts of murder against civilians and/or suicide bombings do not qualify as martyrdom, but other Muslim leaders disagree as do a number of lay Muslims who see this kind of sacrifice as a form of atonement.

6) Long-Distance Radicalization: Islamic State is intentionally trying to spread its ideology over the internet and radicalize Muslims to become Islamic State supporters. On these websites, Islamic State personnel actually provide detailed information on how to skirt local laws, how to make or acquire weapons, how to remain in contact secretly with Islamic State, and how to leave your country to come to Islamic State. Naturally, when you create such an infrastructure, you will have people using the weapons information to commit crimes locally and Islamic State (for the sake of legitimacy and advertising) is more than willing to take credit for successful acts of terrorism perpetrated in its name.

7) Killing Shiites and Infidels: Since Islamic State believes that fundamentalist forms of Sunni Islam are the only religion acceptable to God, they see it of great importance to kill Shiite Muslims and Non-Muslims in order to purge the world of their iniquity. Shiite Muslims are particularly hated by Islamic State because they are seen as fifth column, created by an evil Jewish conspiracy to undermine Islam.

Answer 3

It's part of their strategy to get power.