ISIS is destroying Arab-Islamic values and way of life and doesn't care about the rest.

By Dyab Abou Jahjah
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"The terrorists want to destroy our way of life" or "they hate us because of who we are"—these are the most commonly held explanations offered by Western politicians and opinion makers when addressing attacks in Europe. However, a closer analysis of the vision and ideology of ISIS, based on primary sources and its own literature, reveals that this narrative does not hold up.

Unlike Al-Qaeda, ISIS does not adhere to a logic of global anti-system resistance. Whereas Al-Qaeda prioritizes fighting the far enemy—believing that once the West is defeated and pushed out of the Middle East, the near enemies (the Arab regimes) will crumble—ISIS follows the doctrine of targeting the near enemy first. This means waging war against existing regimes in Arab and Islamic countries, as well as any groups that oppose it, in order to establish what it considers an Islamic State.
This is why ISIS proclaimed itself as the Caliphate, breaking with Al-Qaeda’s resistance logic and shifting toward a state-building strategy. Its primary enemies became not the West, but Muslims who refused to recognize its authority. For ISIS, all other Muslim-majority states are illegitimate, renegade entities that must be brought under its rule. Any Muslim who does not submit to its authority is deemed a traitor or apostate and must be dealt with accordingly. Because of this absolutist stance, ISIS even considers Al-Qaeda a rebel group opposing its state and actively fights against it.
Within this framework, ISIS’s relationship with the West is not defined by ideological opposition to values or way of life but by the West’s stance toward its self-declared state. Like any expansionist state, ISIS may eventually seek dominance over neighboring regions, including Europe and Africa, but this is not its immediate priority. Until 2014, its primary objective was to overthrow the Iraqi and Syrian governments and consolidate the caliphate.
When the international coalition began bombing ISIS in late 2014, the group responded by declaring war on coalition countries. From its perspective, attacks on Western capitals—such as those in Paris and Brussels—are acts of defensive retaliation rather than aggression aimed at cultural or ideological destruction. However, when ISIS attacks in Baghdad, Damascus, or Beirut, it does so with a clear ideological goal: imposing its supremacy over these countries and replacing their existing social and political structures with its own vision.
If, as a consequence of its attacks in the West, repression against Muslim communities increases, ISIS views this as a strategic advantage. It hopes that alienation and discrimination will drive more recruits into its ranks. However, it is crucial to distinguish between ISIS’s overarching doctrine and the personal motivations of those who carry out its attacks. The group’s propaganda sometimes reflects its broader ideological goals, while at other times, it is tailored specifically to appeal to potential recruits.
Ultimately, the battle between the West and ISIS is not existential. ISIS is primarily focused on imposing its extremist utopia in the Arab world, and its most intense and brutal conflicts are against Muslims. Over the past two years, ISIS has killed tens of thousands of Muslims. Its primary objective is not to destroy Western values, but to eradicate Arab-Islamic traditions and replace them with its own fascist, theocratic vision. The so-called clash with the West is merely a secondary front in its broader war.