This July 5, 2014 photo shows an image grab taken from a propaganda video released by al-Furqan Media allegedly showing the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Baghdadi, who on June 29 proclaimed a 'caliphate' straddling Syria and Iraq, purportedly ordered all Muslims to obey him in the video released on social media. In early 2014 the self-styled Islamic State entered the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, declaring it their capital and beginning a reign of terror marked by grisly public executions. Armed sharia police patrolled the streets as 'enemies' of the regime were crucified or decapitated, their severed heads impaled on spikes in the city square. / AFP PHOTO / - (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)
On June 29, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant announced that it was changing its name to simply the Islamic State and that it was re-establishing the caliphate — an Islamic empire that once spanned much of the Middle East . In the proclamation, the Islamic State noted that it had met all the requirements for re-establishing the caliphate and that all Muslims would be required to swear an oath of obedience to the new caliph, the Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, now known as Caliph Ibrahim. The move is the latest in a long history of audacious moves by the Islamic State and its many parent organizations , such as Jamaat al-Tawhid and Jihad, al Qaeda in the land of the Two Rivers (commonly referred to as al Qaeda in Iraq), the Mujahideen Shura Council, and the Islamic State in Iraq.
