ISIS, the Most Hard-Assed Jihadi Group, Leaves Al Qaeda in the Dust

Its leader is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Al Qaeda follower gone rogue, about whom the WaPo's Terence McCoy writes:

The rise of ISIS underneath his stewardship has been less about cult of personality, than what one expert told AFP signaled a “transnational ideology.” This became especially clear after al-Baghdadi cast off al-Qaeda’s leadership in June of 2013. “I chose the command of God over the command that runs against it in the letter,” al-Baghdadi told al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri, who had tried to bring the rogue commander back into line. 

Since, the power of al-Baghdadi, who some say may soon establish himself as emir of new Islamic state, has only grown. As has that of ISIS. 

“ISIS’s rise at the expense of Zawahiri’s movement signals that a new, more dangerous hybrid based on state development by wrecking everything in its path is emerging from the Syrian terrorist incubator,” wrote Theodore Karasik of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. “Ultimately, ISIS seeks to create an Islamic state from where they would launch a global holy war. Perhaps that war is now beginning as Baghdadi’s ISIS eclipses al-Zawahiri’s al-Qaeda. 

So you mean that stuff about global holy war isn't something the "Islamophobes" made up?

Has someone broken the bad news to Obama?