To ask someone to explain in simple terms

[JustTrying15]

The attacks on France have brought home to me just how little I understand about world affairs. I have tried to read some online information but to be honest none of it makes much sense.

Who are ISIS ?
Are they connected to the Sep 11th events ?
Why are so many refugees coming not just to Britain but everywhere ?
What countries are fighting this battle ?

Hope this doesn't make me sound stupid as I am honestly quite smart, but just can't get my head round this at all.

This article at the Atlantic covers some of it.

Here is a pretty good introduction to the subject www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29052144

The BBC background pieces are also a good start point.

Try this one and from it you can navigate to others.

This is also good and very easy to understand with no prior knowledge: (Written in September 2014, so not the most up to date, but for background)
waitbutwhy.com/2014/09/muhammad-isis-iraqs-full-story.html

And Hans Rosling's videos on Youtube about refugees:

I have been reading up over the last few days, trying to get my head around it. It's taken me a while but I'm fairly up to date now, but it's hard to take in and I had to take a break from different articles for a while.

I recommend trying them one by one, if you're not getting on with one or it seems to be assuming too much prior knowledge or it's just too heavy then skip it and try another, come back to the original later.

Don't be afraid to google individual words - e.g. caliphate.

Also it sounds a bit patronising, but I actually found that a lot of the Newsround reports were helpful because some of the reports aimed at adults are so full of jargon which it's hard to keep track of. Easy enough (and correct, I suppose) once you're familiar with the terms but I felt like I had to read with a glossary beside me until that point!

Thank you everyone. I think I just tried to read too much at once and just ended up in a confusing pile of big words.