I&#x27;m not really sure how you can read the history of the organization and come up with that.  al-Tawid was founded at around the same time as al Qaeda (within a few years), and they merged to become al Qaeda in Iraq and then ISIS&#x2F;ISIL.<p>In some ways the person I was responding to was right because, between Osama and al Zarqawi, Osama was definitely the moderate.  But you&#x27;re talking about wanting to kill everyone who isn&#x27;t a muslim vs. everyone who isn&#x27;t sunni muslim.<p>The idea that ISIS is something fundamentally different is driven by the media.  It&#x27;s sort of how DARE tries to scare parents by saying &quot;This generation is smoking some really crazy stuff you&#x27;re not familiar with!&quot;