ISIS's deadliest weapon is the idea of heaven

The idea of Heaven, the vision of Paradise, is ISIS’s secret weapon, the source of its willingness to fight to the end. Convincing fighters that Paradise is real, that it’s a certainty because they die as martyrs to jihad, is what made Islamic State’s military forces so fearsome, its suicide bombers so ecstatic. In recent battles, wounded Islamic State fighters defending impossible positions have mocked attacking coalition forces as apostates and infidels, demanding to be killed. Blowing themselves up rather than be taken prisoner was always an ISIS commandment.

The trick in ISIS ideology was to persuade militants that martyrdom meant that ‘they would get to Heaven faster.’ Similar to this was the explanation that barbaric violence in newly conquered cities and towns — the beheadings, crucifixions, the burning of captives in cages, or the drowning of women who refused to become sex slaves — is justified because ‘more violent methods now means fewer injuries later.’ For some fighters it’s just bloodlust. But the depth of ideological conviction in the organization as a whole cannot be underestimated. ISIS has never been just a gang of criminals and murderers.

Kamel Daoud, an Algerian writer, says that “[t]oday, one has to be a Muslim — by faith, culture or place of residence — in order to experience the full weight” of the idea of Heaven in the psychology of the popular imagination, especially of a desperate younger generation. “Paradise has come back into fashion, described in mind-boggling detail by preachers, imams, and Islamist fantasy literature.”