In 2015 the Islamic State (Isis), or Daesh – an acronym of the Arabic translation of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Al Dawla Al Islamiya fi al Iraq wa al Sham), the name it gave itself from 2013 to 2014 – brought terror and brutality beyond the area it directly controls.

International terrorism

On 31 October a plane belonging to the Russian airline Metrojet crashed on the Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt, killing 228 people. Both the United States and the United Kingdom maintain that the crash was caused by the explosion of a bomb on board. The incident was claimed by Isis. On 12 November the Islamic State carried out a terrorist attack in a residential neighbourhood of Beirut, Lebanon, killing 44 people. Finally, the following day, Friday 13 November, a series of attacks shook the centre of Paris, France: more than 130 people were killed.

Where the Islamic State comes from and where it wants to go

The rise of the Islamic State dates back to June 2014, when the terrorist group – founded eight years earlier by the Jordanian Abu Musab al Zarqawi as an offshoot of Al Qaeda – unilaterally proclaimed itself a caliphate. Its stated aim is to govern over ancient Mesopotamia and to spread jihad, the holy war, throughout the world so that its radical interpretation of Sunni Islam can take hold in defiance of unbelievers. A conviction that would justify any form of violence against other Muslims (Shia Muslims in particular), as well as against non-Muslims who have the misfortune of "interfering" with this plan. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the majority of the Islamic State's victims are themselves Muslim, and that almost the entire Arab community has condemned the extreme and boundless violence carried out, wrongfully, in the name of Allah and the Quran. According to the American National Counterterrorism Center, between 82 and 97 per cent of the victims of terrorism worldwide are Muslim (2005–2010).

Isis territory

When it was proclaimed in June 2014, the Islamic State governed a territory of approximately 210,000 square kilometres, spanning Iraq and Syria, under the leadership of caliph ("successor to Muhammad") Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. It has since lost part of its Iraqi territory (approximately 14,000 square kilometres), according to the United States armed forces. The terrorist group is said to control the lives of over 10 million people forced to live under a strict interpretation of Sharia law, according to sources from the International Red Cross. Those who are not Muslim must pay a special tax, must convert, or are killed.

Who the jihadists are and how many there are

Today the jihadist fighters of the Islamic State active in Syria and Iraq are estimated to number between 20,000 and 32,000, while the victims recorded by Isis over the months are said to total around 10,000. Only 30 per cent of the terrorists, however, are said to have chosen this life for ideological reasons, according to Iraqi expert Hisham al Hashimi. Many are said to have been recruited by force, through fear, or to have chosen this path for money. In total, the foreign fighters – second- and third-generation young Muslims who have been excluded from the societies in which they grew up, or foreign converts, who have fought with and for the Islamic State – are estimated at 28,000, with 5,000 from Western countries. Among them is Jihadi John, the British executioner who featured in numerous beheading videos circulated online in recent weeks. Jihadi John is reported to have been killed the day before the Paris attacks by an American drone strike in Raqqa, Syria.

Where the Islamic State's money comes from

Primarily from oil produced at wells seized from the Iraqi government, particularly around the city of Mosul. For this reason the Islamic State is the wealthiest terrorist group in the world, with revenues of several million dollars a day. But that is not all. Other sources of income include the sale on the black market of archaeological artefacts looted from sites in the Mesopotamian region (generating revenues of almost 100 million dollars), and kidnappings, which in 2014 are said to have brought in at least 20 million dollars. Then there are extortion, looting and threats.

How to defeat Isis

The Islamic State is not allied with any government or organisation, which makes it uncontrollable and a threat to everyone's interests. Yet many countries are using it as a pawn to settle matters of domestic politics rather than identifying it as the sole common enemy to be defeated. According to a report in Limes by Mario Giro, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the only people to have apparently understood how dangerous Isis is are the Kurdish people. "There is one common enemy, which has arisen in a power vacuum," Giro states. "Negotiations must start from this awareness, and for that reason must also involve the Russians and the Iranians." An awareness that appears to have gained ground at the G20 in Antalya, Turkey. United States President Barack Obama described Isis as "the face of evil" and therefore something to be destroyed. As a first step, powers that have hitherto been divided – the United States and the European Union on one side, Russia and Iran on the other – must sit down at the same table to find a shared diplomatic solution and finally bring an end to the civil war that has been under way in Syria since 2011.