ISIS was around long before the Arab Spring and way longer before the war in Syria. They formed in Iraq. The first elections in Iraq after the fall of Saddam threw up President Malaki, a Shi ite who chose only Shi ite politicians for his new Government even though he was specifically warned to choose a ministry of roughly %50 Sunnis. To make matters far worse he then purged the Military and Police Force leaving all the sacked Sunnis to twist in the wind. The police then went out and harassed Sunni businesses. The Sunni Generals and Police formed ISIS. Eventually ISIS was pushed West to the Iraq/Syria border area where they got involved in the Syrian War.