How Does ISIS Make Money?

ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL and if you choose to defy and risk getting your tongue cut out, Daesh, which is an Arabic word meaning “Stomp on”. They want to be known as the Islamic state within northern Iraq and northern Syria but are finding it hard to get people on board with their logic. Most of the Muslim population is utterly disgusted with their terror attacks and their characterization of Islam.

If you are looking into the regime of ISIS, it almost seems like a western style government, albeit without democracy, but a board governed by an Islamic leader, who chooses who gets slaughter or not. They cover a huge territory in both Iraq and Syria that holds several oil fields which fuels most of their revenue.

ISIS has proven time and time again that they are much more brutal and able to maintain control over their territories than their predecessors Al Qaeda. According to experts, ISIS has been plagued by western terrorist counter-attacks and has lost over twelve percent of their territorial ground since twenty sixteen began, but this does not mean they are going anywhere any time soon.

ISIS Revenue

ISIS’s main stream of revenue comes from the control of oil fields which they sell on the black market. It has been estimated that ISIS brings in over eighty million dollars a month in oil alone. That is over eight hundred million dollars per year. Western governments are taking action by bombing oil fields and oil trucks throughout Syria and Iraq, causing some disruption in the oil cartel.

Hostage ransom is another revenue stream for ISIS making them over one hundred and twenty million dollars a year according to some expert investigations. Just in twenty thirteen alone, a Swedish company paid over seventy thousand dollars to save an abducted employee.

There are reports that ISIS makes money by vandalizing monuments, shrines and historical artifacts and ruins and selling to criminals and antique dealers all over the world. Experts report that the damage ISIS is wreaking on Syria, for example allowing dig crews to dig up historical and cultural artifacts that are imperative to Syria’s religious and political ties to the world, will eventually cause Syria irreversible damage.

ISIS, by claiming territory and putting ruling bodies into action, are securing their rule by charging people taxes and offering goods and services for their payment. ISIS makes people pay millions of dollars which in turn gives them security and services such as electricity and water. The average is about two and a half percent of the wealth of the Muslim they are taking tax money from.

ISIS Spending Habits

Their soldiers are handsomely paid through ISIS’s earnings. The average loyal soldier makes between three hundred and thirty to seven hundred and fifty dollars per month. This figure, however, has shown a seventy percent decrease as their oil revenue is declining due to bombings from western countries.

ISIS needs to spend over twenty million dollars per year on getting their propaganda out there for the masses to see. If they don’t instill fear and terror, they have nothing to gain, so they are willing to pay to get their media out there either online or otherwise.

ISIS also runs schools, police forces, soup kitchens and Islamic court systems that need to be funded as well. Experts have noted that they have also established banks to circulate their currency along with having a financial expert planning budgets and managing their accounts.

ISIS is trying to establish becoming the Islamic state and will stop at nothing until they have accomplished just that. They have many tactics aside from plotting their next act of terror which could see them potentially making it happen.



