Good Question: What's The Difference Between ISIS, Al-Qaeda?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Last week, terror attacks in Paris killed 17 people in three incidents over three days. Now, two familiar groups have claimed responsibility. Both al-Qaeda and ISIS said their members are behind the attacks, but law enforcement officials said there's still no evidence yet pointing to one side or the other.
So, what is the difference between al Qaeda and ISIS? Good Question.
"A lot of people are confused about this," Ronald Krebs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota, said. "They are political rivals, but they share the same ideology."
Al-Qaeda is considered more of a terrorist network that doesn't control any territory. It has several affiliates in different countries as well as a number of groups that pledge loyalty to them. ISIS, on the other hand, is a terrorist organization that acts as a quasi-state.
"The primary difference is that ISIS is an organization whose aim is to create an Islamic state in what is now Syria and Iraq," Kyle Loven, chief division counsel for the FBI in Minneapolis, said. "The Islamic state wants to have a geographic region beginning in Iraq and Syria and, hopefully, through conquest, expanding that area."
According to Mark Berkson, a professor of religion at Hamline University, al-Qaeda is focused on organizing and executing terrorist attacks and receiving support. They are funded by different groups. He says ISIS wants to maintain and expand their territory in Middle East to become a large and powerful caliphate. ISIS also manages the areas it controls in Iraq and Syria, has standing army and a large amount of money.
ISIS started out as al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2004 and was used to fight coalition forces in Iraq. The group morphed in the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006 when its leader, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, was killed. In 2013, it declared itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. By early 2014, al-Qaeda renounced ISIS, saying it didn't agree with the organization's brutal tactics.
Loven said both ISIS and al Qaeda are competing for the same recruits and it's hard to tell just how many members belong to each group.
"Both groups are brutal," Loven said. "I would say both groups are dangerous."