​This paper presents a new approach to the emergence of jihadist movements in general and the Islamic State (ISIL) in particular, an approach which differs to those prevalent in Arabic and western literature that usually link the motives for the creation of these groups with a return to the past and models of governments from the Middle Ages. This study assumes that the term Islamic State emerged in the context of Islam's clash with modernity and the modern state, and that in its procedural definition it is no more than an attempt to Islamize the modern state. Accordingly, jihadist movements that have seized on this term, as if it were the opposite to the modern state, have produced a project in the context of modernity and the modern state that is radically different to their aim. This is clear in experiences which we term "state-like" as was the case for the Taliban in Afghanistan and is presently the case for ISIL.