<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1449430769228_2296" dir="ltr"> <a id="yui_3_16_0_1_1449430769228_2293" href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/isis-syria-iraq-war-al-qaeda-arab-spring/">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/isis-syria-iraq-war-al-qaeda-arab-spring/</a></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1449430769228_2329" dir="ltr"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1449430769228_2344">Why does the response to Western aggression and the calamitous situations in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere across the region take this particular ideological and political form? What explains the support that ISIS finds on the ground in both the Arab world and Europe? In short: why now? And why like this?</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1449430769228_2345" dir="ltr">The real genesis of the Islamic State’s rise needs to be seen in the trajectory of the Arab uprisings that erupted throughout 2011 and 2012. These uprisings represented enormous hope, a hope that must continue to be defended. They were met with repression and reversal, unable to move forward in any fundamental sense. It was into this breach that Islamist groups stepped, their rise closely calibrated to the pushback against the revolts and the popular democratic aspirations that they embodied.</div></div></body></html>