From one extreme to the next?

The threat to peace posed by the Islamic State group has been described as "unprecedented in the modern age", yet research on the rise and fall of an extremist group in 1980s Lebanon suggests that we may have seen this all before. While it's important to keep in mind that history does not necessarily repeat itself, the parallels are great between the history of the rise and fall of Tawheed's emirate in Tripoli and the current rule of the Islamic State - Raphael Lefevre A radical Islamist group has exploited the vacuum created by civil war to capture cities, towns and oil fields across Syria and Iraq - leaving horror and destruction in their wake. Although this might seem unique to a post-9/11 world, religious radicalism exploiting a power vacuum is not new, as research going back 30 years to a different civil war in the same region is showing. Since April 2013, the Sunni jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, referred to as the 'Islamic State' (IS, or Isis), has taken control of vast swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory, bringing with it an onslaught of appalling atrocities and acts of cruelty. "It will take some time before its full impact is determined.. [the threat it poses] is unprecedented in the modern age," stated a recent report by the Soufan Group, a security intelligence firm in New York. Meanwhile, Syrian refugees, fleeing IS and the bitter civil war, continue to spill across the borders of neighbouring states, straining their own societies and resources.