In a rush to sensationalize growing violence in Iraq at the hands of religious extremists, media have circulated dubiously sourced maps which purport to illustrate plans for a future Islamic caliphate that extends from Spain to the southern and easternmost reaches of India.

A Sunni Islamist militant group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) has torn through Iraq in recent weeks, violently capturing several cities and straining the Iraqi government's ability to respond. On June 29, according to the Wall Street Journal, ISIS “announced itself as a new Islamist 'caliphate' ... unilaterally declaring statehood and demanding allegiance from other Islamist groups.”

In the wake of this news, media outlets from Fox News to ABC have issued reports on the militant group's future plans based on maps culled from Twitter to declare that ISIS is strategizing to take over swath of territory larger than the Roman Empire within the next five years -- a goal that would include, among other feats, conquering Spain, Portugal, Greece, and most or all of India. The maps resemble the geographic dominance of the historic caliphates that ended with the demise of the Ottoman Empire. 

Map #1

On June 3 ABC News published a map -- also cited by Breitbart.com -- which was “purportedly published” by ISIS and “widely shared on Twitter.” According to ABC, the “terrifying” map was “published at the same time that ISIS announced the creation of a caliphate.”

But ABC News didn't actually trace the image to ISIS, and instead relied on a tweet of the image from American Third Position (A3P). ABC didn't disclose that A3P is a white nationalist political party in the United States.

As iO9 pointed out, “This is one of those 'garbage in, garbage out' stories, since ABC News' source was Twitter.” The outlet cited to analysis from Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who explained, “It's an old image put out by fans of the group ... There is nothing official about it nor is there some alleged 5-year plan.”

Map #2

Fox News reported the same day that a “chilling new map reveals the ISIS plan for world domination,” displaying an expanded, translated map the network claimed was “released by ISIS” to lay out “its five-year plan.” Several days ago the Daily Mail similarly highlighted the map as a “chilling five-year plan,” as did The Blaze, the website of notorious caliphate fear monger Glenn Beck.

While Fox attributed the map to ISIS, the Daily Mail described it as having been “widely shared by ISIS supporters on social networks.”

Despite the serious tone of their reports, neither the Daily Mail nor Fox News cited any experts to discuss how realistic it would be for ISIS to conquer a swath of land that envelops half of Africa and India and includes territory protected by NATO (Spain, Portugal).

Map #3

The earliest such map allegedly showing where ISIS sees itself in five years was reported on InfoWars.com, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The map appears to have originated in part from a video game called Victoria 2.

InfoWars treated the map with skepticism, noting the vast expansion depicted in the map would be impossible for a group the size of ISIS. The site pointed out that such maps are really only useful “to keep the group in the headlines and amp up propaganda designed to feed the war on terror beast ... done primarily through social media and sensationalistic stories floated by the establishment media.”

Sensationalizing ISIS's footprint with illegitimately sourced maps from the internet greatly exaggerates reality. Experts continue to debate whether ISIS will even maintain control of its current geography in Syria and parts of Iraq, much less be capable of such taking over the entire Mediterranean (along with parts of Asia and Africa). One expert dismissed the group as “just a bunch of thugs with guns.”

Reckless and fact-free fearmongering on the part of the media helped escalate calls for the United States to invade Iraq over a decade ago and contributed to the instability in the region now.