The Islamic State — Or ISIS — Has Turned One-Year-Old

The Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, has turned one-year-old. It was only in June of 2014 the extremist group decided they wanted to solely be referred to as the “Islamic State,” reported Al-Jazeera. The Muslim terrorists further got their point across by removing mention of them as anything but the “Islamic State” on their various official documents.

And retired Marine General James Mattis told TIME he’s concerned about the Islamic State’s longevity.

“They’ve been able to hold ground for a year. The longer they hold territory it become this radioactive thing, just spewing out this stuff as fighters go there and then come home again.”

But Brian Fishman, from the West Point military academy’s Combating Terrorism Center, told The House Armed Services Committee the U.S. has been fighting the Islamic State for longer than a year.

“Washington continues to fail to recognize the persistence of this organization going back to the declaration of what was then called the Islamic State of Iraq. We don’t often recognize our long history of fighting ISIS, but we have effectively been fighting this organization for a decade already.”

Here’s a year-old statement made by the Islamic State’s religious council.

“The Shura [council] of the Islamic State met and discussed this issue [of the caliphate]… the Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims, said Adani. The words ‘Iraq’ and ‘the Levant’ have been removed from the name of the Islamic State in official papers and documents.”

The Islamic State also announced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as their caliph. A caliph is the Muslim equivalent of a religious king, essentially a successor to the Prophet Mohammed’s empire.

An official document acquired by Al-Jazeera described Baghdadi as “the sheikh, the fighter, the scholar who practices what he preaches, the worshipper, the leader, the warrior, the reviver, descendant from the family of the Prophet, the slave of God.”

Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani further illustrated the power of their caliph in a statement.

“The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas. Listen to your caliph and obey him. Support your state, which grows every day.”

Since the Islamic State has been in existence for a year now, the western media can at least end their dissent on what to call them.

[Photo via Prachatai/Flickr]