Homeland Security Over the last two decades or so, the nastiest and most active terrorist groups really have to be ISIS/ISIL and Al Qaeda. Although the former is much "younger" than the latter, they have certainly made up for lost time given what they are currently doing in the Middle East. Even so, the top question becomes which of those two groups is the most active and deadliest right now. Indeed, a case could be made for both in their own rights. Al Qaeda has had more staying power but ISIS is running roughshod over the Middle East much more so as of late than Al Qaeda has been doing anywhere. While Al Qaeda is certainly still a threat, ISIS is clearly the more clear and present danger right now.

Analysis

If this question were posed a mere ten to fifteen years ago, the answer would be Al Qaeda and it would not even be close. People might think that ISIS is a brand new thing but this is not true. Even if it was only by two years, ISIS existed a full two to three years before the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Indeed, ISIS was formed in 1999, albeit under the name a different name. Another important detail is...

Only in 2014 did ISIS peel off of Al Qaeda and start going into business for themselves.
Al Qaeda, however, used to be quite formidable on its own. The 2001 terrorist attacks were the result of nearly twenty terrorists being able to take over four planes and they all ended up crashing, albeit only three of them hitting their intended targets. The United States and other Western nation responded with brute force, however, starting in Afghanistan given that the Taliban was in charge there and they were letting Al Qaeda operate with impunity given that the goals and mindsets of the two groups were very similar. Over the time period of the George W. Bush Presidency but only after the 9/11 attacks, a good amount of Al Qaeda's personnel and infrastructure was gutted and destroyed. A few years into Barack Obama's Presidency after Bush departed, Al Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan (PBS, 2016).

The rather successful war against Al Qaeda is just one reason why ISIS is the bigger threat. ISIS took advantage of the fact…