This is the news we expected, the Islamist military group known as ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria has announced the establishment of a “caliphate”, referring to the system of rule that ended nearly 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman empire.
In an audio recording distributed online on Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) declared its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as “the caliph” or successor to the Prophet Mohammed, who died in 632 and “leader for Muslims everywhere”.
The position has been vacant since 1924, when the founder of modern Turkey abolished the office as a remnant of the Ottoman Empire, and bundled the last man to hold it, a bookish Francophile named Abdulmecid Efendi, into exile aboard the Orient Express.
Baghdadi is believed to be the leader of ISIL, which announced in Arabic on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that it is now called “The Islamic State”. The announcement may be a fulfillment of prophecy if Islam is the beast spoken of in the book of Revelation.
One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. Revelation 13:3
