This Der spiegel article has IMO provided the best model to explain ISIS&#x27;s actions :(<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spiegel.de&#x2F;international&#x2F;world&#x2F;islamic-state-files-show-structure-of-islamist-terror-group-a-1029274.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spiegel.de&#x2F;international&#x2F;world&#x2F;islamic-state-file...</a> )<p>I don&#x27;t agree with the parent article. They are basically parroting the official stance of ISIS which has been covered (in a much better way)before :
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.huffingtonpost.co.uk&#x2F;anne-speckhard&#x2F;isis-iraq_b_5541693.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.huffingtonpost.co.uk&#x2F;anne-speckhard&#x2F;isis-iraq_b_5...</a><p>Yes. ISIS has cultivated a doomsday cult through their propaganda machine. ISIS wants to be seen by the world as a doomsday cult, and all their propaganda is aimed at this.<p>But ISIS&#x27;s actions in the past have not matched their propaganda. For example why is an organisation that claim&#x27;s to adhere to Salafist fundamentalist principles, in war with pretty much every Salafist faction in Syria?During 2013 - mid 2014, they were in a truce with Assad&#x27;s government. At the time they almost exclusively attacked Rebel outfits. Many groups including the Syrian Observatory kept claiming that several major ISIS offensives on rebels, were often preceeded by airstrikes from the Syrian govt indicating coordination and cooperation.<p>The truth is that ISIS is a purely opportunistic faction that  won&#x27;t allow any moral or even religious  considerations from getting in the way of its ambitions.