Everything you always wanted to know about the caliphate as it pertains to modern day ISIS in a 9 point nutshell...

I'm what you might call a "word nerd" in that, if I see a word and I don't understand its meaning..I research it. Such was the case tonight with the word "caliphate" This word, as many of you news hounds know..is associated with ISIS or more importantly what its leader is trying to do. In my research..I found the following link for caliphate as it pertains to ISIS. It's a real eye opener folks and this link makes it easy to understand everything you did and perhaps didn't want to admit not knowing about ISIS in a nutshell. Take the time to read it. Understanding the enemy is half the battle.

Here is just a snippet from number 3 (bold type and underline emphasis mine)

The present-day Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in declaring himself a caliph and his terrorist mini-state a caliphate, is communicating that he believes he is fighting on behalf of all Muslims worldwide (he does not count Shia Muslims in this, only Sunnis) and that he is the representative of God on earth. He is also sort of suggesting a desire to continue ISIS's advance until he has conquered all Muslim-majority lands, which is an aspiration that's hinted at frequently in jihadist maps of a unified Islamic empire.

[link to www.vox.com]