Thursday, Oct. 16, students gathered in the Elliot Hall auditorium to receive more of an understanding of The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

The seminar, sponsored by the Oakland University student chapter of Amnesty International covered the history of ISIS, their religious background and political analysis of their actions.

“I think it’s extremely important to understand what is going on around the world,” said Nick Dado, a senior at Oakland. “Too many Americans take their freedom for granted. I appreciate my life more now knowing I am blessed to live in a country where I’m not threatened everyday.”

During the presentation, photos were displayed of different territories in Iraq to give students and other guests a better understanding of where ISIS has a presence. ISIS controls about 15,000 square miles, an area the size of Belgium.

“It’s important for students to know about ISIS because they are such a powerful terrorist group,” said junior Branden Jarbo. “Students need to be educated on how only 25 people with radical ideas can create an army with over 200,000.”

Jarbo has been personally affected by ISIS actions.

“I have family that lives in Mosul, Iraq and ISIS took everything from them,” Jarbo said. “They were forced to leave their farm and fled for safety, therefore they couldn’t take much with them, including their farm equipment that totaled to around $1 million.”

The first part of the discussion talked about the Iraqi territories and how the country is suffering and reacting to ISIS. For ISIS to be weakened, there would need to be a strong state in Iraq, however this is not the case.

“In Iraq there is a government that is simply not functioning,” said Weldon Matthews, an Oakland Associate Professor of History.

Pete Trumbore, Associate Professor of Political Science and coordinator of the International Relations Program, talked about ISIS as a terrorist organization. His main concern was to express whether or not this religiously motivated group is a threat to the U.S and other western countries.

“Religious groups are more violent than their non-religious counterparts,” Trumbore said. “They recognize what they are engaged in is a struggle between light and darkness and good and evil. This means their enemies must be exterminated.”

Although this terrorist group is extremely dangerous, the only way it will be a threat to the U.S is if foreign supporters of the group bring these radical ways and techniques back to the west.

“This was a fear back in 2003 as well,” Trumbore said. “It is a possibility that this will happen, but we haven’t seen it yet.”

Turkey, the Kurds and the Islamic State made up the last part of the seminar. This was presented by Paul Kubicek, a professor of political science. The issues dealing with Turkey, the Kurdish population and their relationship with the Islamic State are in some of the most recent headlines.

All of these recent issues covered at the seminar gave a better understanding on ISIS. As ISIS plans to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria, this current war in The Middle East is truly devastating.