Jeb Bush

We need to focus our energies there, not these broad, blanket, kind of statements that will make it harder for us to deal with ISIS. We need to deal with ISIS in the caliphate. We need a strategy to destroy ISIS there. You can't do that without the cooperation of the Muslim world because they're as threatened as we are.

American Politician

George Packer

Al Qaeda asks its recruits to establish their bona fides as a condition of membership, even requiring answers to a long questionnaire. But ISIS has democratized and globalized jihad by lowering the entry bar to an eve-of-destruction YouTube pledge of allegiance to the caliphate - and even that could probably be waived.

American Novelist

Malcolm Nance

Osama bin Laden has managed to replace fear of God and adherence to the Quran with his philosophy of jihad above all else. What's behind that facade is the true philosophical intentions of al Qaeda: the establishment of a new Islamic caliphate that will defeat democracy as the greater of the two political orders.

American Author

Naftali Bennett

The biggest danger for any organism is to not identify that it's being threatened. I want to hope that people realize that the source of danger and risk in the Middle East is not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but the deep radical Islamic vision of forming a global caliphate.

Israeli Politician

Al Qaeda's leaders seek to reverse what they claim are corrupt Islamic practices bookended by the Mongol invasions in 1256 and Ataturk's ending the caliphate in 1924. Theirs is a fight to turn Islam's clock back to the time of Prophet Muhammad's original followers.

Barack Obama became president, and he abandoned Iraq. He left, and when he left Al Qaida was done for. ISIS was created because of the void that we left, and that void now exists as a caliphate the size of Indiana.

David Hackworth

Their plan is to return the entire world - not just the Middle East - to the days of the caliphate and either convert all of us so-called infidels into born-again Islamic believers or kill us.

American Soldier

Understand that 'caliphate' often refers to period-specific Islamic rule, important in history study.

Historical Significance

'Caliphate' implies significant cultural and religious leadership beyond mere political rule.

Cultural Impact

The term may also refer to the influence realm of a caliph, not just physical territories.

Not Always Geographical

Today, 'caliphate' is sometimes used by extremists, which can alter its perception.

Modern Usage

Using 'caliphate' might evoke strong emotions due to its association with modern conflicts.

Sensitive Term

'Caliphate' can imply a complex political system with religious undertones in modern contexts.

Political Implications

 defectors, for example, telling the story of their journey into and out of violence; stories like the one from that man I met in the Iraqi prison. There are locals who've uploaded cell phone footage of what life is really like in the caliphate under ISIS's rule.

How technology can fight...

 They overthrew the Umayyad caliphate in 750 CE, becoming the second great dynasty of the Islamic Empire. To establish themselves as the new rulers, they relocated the capital once more, this time building a new Baghdad.