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Understanding the Rise of ISIS June 19, 2014
For almost the entire 1,400 year history of Islam, the Sunni majority ruled the Arab world. But the tables turned in Iraq in 2003, when American troops invaded. The Sunnis were cast to the bottom of Iraqi society, and the Shiites were launched to the top, making Iraq the perfect breeding ground for a Sunni extremist group: ISIS. Few Sunnis like the group's violent brand of Islam, but many feel they have nowhere else to turn.

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma  
Gregory Gause, non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Center in Doha, Qatar