ISIS Leader Declared Caliph

The Caliphate has been disbanded for nearly hundred years, but now has a new claimant. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been declared the new leader of Islam, the Caliph.

Ominously, Baghdadi concluded his speech with aspirations for the Islamic State's conquest of "Rome" and the whole world. Such emphasis on the transnational nature of the Islamic State's project corroborates Baghdadi's projection of himself as the caliph and sole representative of Islamic rule on earth to whom all Muslims must pledge allegiance.

The Caliphate died with the Ottoman Empire. Its return should be short lived, but frightening and bloody.