178
votes
Accepted
Was ISIS created by the USA?
Some interpretations of this question are highly opinion-based and can't be answered on this website (try Quora), but others can be factually answered.
Are the leaders of ISIS Americans?
No, it's run ...
- 44.9k
76
votes
Was ISIS created by the USA?
It depends on what aspect of the question you are focusing on. Did the USA create ISIS? Largely, yes, they did. Did the USA create ISIS for the purpose of creating chaos? No, not at all. They created ...
- 882
37
votes
Accepted
Were the Paris attackers youths from Syria?
No-one connected to the attacks has yet turned out to be from Syria - they were almost all (around 12 so far) EU citizens from France and/or Belgium. There appears to have been at least one Algerian ...
- 8,931
31
votes
Accepted
Did Obama admit training IS?
The video is real, but when brought to his attention he said it was a slip of the tongue, and that in context it obvious that he misspoke:
http://www.snopes.com/obama-isil-training/
The President'...
- 426
31
votes
Was ISIS created by the USA?
It is true that the US invasion of Iraq favored the creation of ISIL (great explanation) but to trace it's real origin we have to look back further in time, we have to take a look at the Afghanistan ...
- 524
16
votes
Did 16% of French citizens support ISIS in 2014?
The French news magazine L'Express reported on this poll. They give information about the poll that complements the Newsweek article. In particular, the poll question was (my translation): ”According ...
15
votes
Accepted
Did Senator McCain ever meet ISIS leader al-Baghdadi?
This is completely untrue.
Several news sources debunk the claims. The New York Times lays out the relevant facts:
The rumors are based partly on images of a Syrian fighter who resembles Mr. ...
- 57.5k
14
votes
Is this graphic comparing punishments between ISIS and Saudi Arabia accurate?
The graphic was made by the Middle East Eye, which explains the "MEE" in the lower corner. The entire article seems pretty sound, but I've worked hard to find other sources to verify its ...
- 30.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Is ISIS committing genocide against the Yazidis?
At least 5,000 Yazidi civilians have been murdered.
Quoting from the Wikipedia article:
Classification as Genocide
The persecution of the Yazidi people has been viewed as qualifying as
...
- 264
12
votes
Did Obama admit training IS?
Some supporting context to Peckish's answer, with primary sources.
CNN has the full transcript of the speech. Here is the context around the relevant section in full, I've added bold highlighting to ...
- 8,931
9
votes
Accepted
Does this video show the US arming Islamic State?
Regardless of what the video shows, the U.S. admitted this happened at least once and called it a mistake:
The Pentagon admitted on Wednesday that one of the airdrops of weapons
intended for ...
- 44.9k
7
votes
Did Hillary Clinton admit in her memoirs to creating ISIS?
Speech on Khamenei Website: Hillary Clinton ‘Confessed’ That US Created ISIS
A year ago, claims began circulating in Egypt and elsewhere in a
region notorious for conspiracy theories that Hillary ...
- 44.9k
4
votes
Did 16% of French citizens support ISIS in 2014?
Support? No. Had a somewhat (13%) (or very, 3%) favorable opinion, according to that poll. The most detailed article about the poll I found is in French (big surprise), in l'Express.
The poll was ...
- 59.8k
4
votes
Does ISIS claim that every Muslim who doesn't give bayah to Baghdadi is an apostate/infidel?
As explained in the article "What ISIS Really Wants" by Graeme Wood, ISIS supporters see Baghdadi as a legitimate caliph. This is a defining feature of ISIS. Muslims in general recognize that bay'ah ...
- 7,390
3
votes
Is ISIS beheading children in Mosul, Iraq?
The claim quoted in the question is most likely untrue. There is strong circumstantial evidence that indicates it is not true. According to thegospelcoalition.org:
The source of the claim comes ...
- 15.7k
3
votes
Have one million Christians been persecuted to death or exile in Iraq by jihadis?
After the American crusade on Iraq, thousands of pro-Saddam employees were fired. The instability created by the occupation empowered fanatic groups that took over many cities and villages soon after ...
- 15.7k
3
votes
Did Hillary Clinton admit in her memoirs to creating ISIS?
This is not a complete answer.
This video is probably the most relevant information regarding the claim. In this video, Clinton claims that the US has indeed acted in the 1980s/1990s in the Pakistan ...
3
votes
Accepted
WhatsApp group "Interschools" linked to Daesh?
Snopes has addressed this. They claim it to be false.
Snopes published an article on June 5th, 2017 debunking the claim.
Some pertinent snippets from the article:
No evidence exists (outside of ...
- 22.4k
2
votes
Are jihadists returning to Örebro, Sweden given psychological help?
There was an interview on Sveriges Radio on October 18, 2016, which described a government program (administered by the municipal coordinator against violent extremism in Lund) to rehabilitate former ...
- 1,570
1
vote
Has the Swedish government determined flying the ISIS flag is not hate speech?
Has the Swedish government determined that flying the Daesh flag is
not hate speech?
They determined that a long time ago. According to current Swedish laws, someone waving the black standard used ...
- 15.7k
1
vote
Have ISIS publicly expressed a desire to bring on the End of Days?
The Atlantic article does not make any factually incorrect statements, as far as I can tell. But I think we can benefit from distinguishing between what ISIS says about their military goals with what ...
- 44.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible