In some ways, the Islamic State is merely elaborating a “doctrine of defensive jihad and the privatization of violence that Al Qaeda has been advocating for nearly two decades,” said Bernard Haykel, a professor at Princeton University who studies militant Islam. “There is nothing specific about the Islamic State that inspires acts of vigilante violence. These lone-wolf attacks were happening before,” Professor Haykel wrote in an email message, noting the case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan’s massacre at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. The Islamic State, though, has little support from the militant thinkers and ideologues who have helped recruit for Al Qaeda’s war on the West. Nearly all dispute the Islamic State’s claim that its caliphate should rule all Muslims as well as the priority it places on killing Muslim dissenters. Instead of relying on religious or political arguments, the Islamic State has capitalized on the inspirational power of its violence and territorial gains. “The traditional sheikhs of Al Qaeda can talk, talk, talk, but the consumer does not have to listen,” said Mr. Awad of the Center for American Progress. But the Islamic State is exploiting the propaganda of actions, not words, he said, and it is proving more effective. Sympathizers across the Muslim world still identify the Islamic State primarily with its emphasis on prioritizing regional, intra-Arab struggle. In recent conversations with young supporters in Tunis — capital of the country that has sent many young men to join the Islamic State — many said its only difference from Al Qaeda was over the tactical question of whether to take on the West now or later, after building what the terrorist group considers a pure caliphate. The Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, wants to take on “the bad Arabs first,” Sufian Abbas, 31, a student sitting at a street cafe in Tunis, said sympathetically. That changed on Sept. 21, as the American-led bombing campaign escalated. In an audio statement over the Internet, the militant group’s official spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, urged Muslims living in the West to retaliate against their countries for joining the strikes. “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be,” Mr. Adnani urged, adding, “Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military” because “both of them are disbelievers.” He warned Americans and Europeans that they would suffer. “You will pay the price when your economies collapse,” he declared. “You will pay the price when your sons are sent to wage war against us, and they return to you as disabled amputees, or inside coffins, or mentally ill. You will pay the price as you are afraid of traveling to any land. You will pay the price as you walk on your streets, turning right and left, fearing the Muslims. You will not feel secure even in your bedrooms.” Analysts said they had never heard anything like it before from the group. “It was the first time that they really crossed the Rubicon into attacks that are out of the area,” whether in terms of inspiring or organizing them, said Brian Fishman, a researcher on counterterrorism at the New America Foundation. “It was pretty dramatic.” In the aftermath of the Western attacks, he said, the Islamic State wanted to put pressure on its foes just as any other nation might seek to deter or punish aggression against it. “Inciting random individuals to do lone-wolf attacks targeting civilians or off-duty military folk is clearly terrorism,” Mr. Fishman said, “but they are thinking about this as a strategic response to pressure we are applying on them in the Middle East.”
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:08:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015