Various popular writers on Islam, Nabeel Qureshi among them, argue that ISIS is simply repeating what the early Arabs did under Muhammad and his immediate successors. A leading scholar of Islamic history begs to differ. Author of In God’s Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (Oxford University Press, 2014), Robert G. Hoyland shows both parallels and contrasts between the early Muslim conquerors and ISIS to give us a much more nuanced approach.
http://muftah.org/isis-first-caliphate-tale-two-conquests-2/#.WCnnedz0hLm