Who is supporting ISIS and Why young Islamists Admire them!
ISIS – Who Supports and Admires Them in the Middle East
Who Is Supporting ISIS? – Abdulrahman al-Rashed
In the Jordanian city of Ma’an following last Friday’s prayers, 20-30 people took to the streets holding banners saluting the terrorist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and announcing that their city supports what they called the state of Islam. Twitter is crowded with people who support and sympathize with ISIS.
Iraqis in the areas where there’s fighting see ISIS as their savior and they haven’t yet seen the group’s hideous face.
How popular is ISIS, which is more brutal than al-Qaeda itself? I think it’s unlikely that anyone has realized the truth yet, and I fear that ISIS has made it into the hearts and minds of the youth by exploi ting sectarian causes and the persecution committed in the Syrian war. (Al Arabiya)
See also ISIS Is Largely Self-Funded – Hannah Allam (McClatchy)
Young Islamists Admire ISIS for Its Brutality – Daniel Nisman and Ron Gilran (Wall Street Journal)
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi could very well take the helm of a reinvigorated global jihadist movement. Yet despite his rapid rise, al-Baghdadi has crossed several red lines, and his peers have reproached him.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaeda’s central leadership, r emains widely respected across radical networks as the one and only head of al-Qaeda, which itself is perceived as the sole umbrella network of global jihad.
While al-Baghdadi may be viewed with suspicion by the old generation of jihadists, he is rapidly gaining favor among the younger generation, which is struggling to find a sufficiently extremist voice among traditional al-Qaeda branches in the region and beyond.
Several upstart jihadist militias and Salafist movements in eastern Libya, Jordan, Gaza and Yemen have also unilaterally declared allegiance to al-Baghdadi, in some cases claiming to have established ISIS branches in their home countries.
They’ve seen al-Baghdadi’s ability to bring real results in Iraq, while al-Zawahiri hides in Pakistan’s tribal territories.
ISIS – Who Supports and Admires Them in the Middle East
Jordan, Israel Cooperate in Face of ISIS Threat – Roi Kais
Cooperation between Israel and Jordan is growing as ISIS makes additional gains in Iraq, near the Jordan border, a senior source in the Jordanian Embassy in Israel told Ynet. “There is a very good cooperation between us regarding ISIS’ growing presence in Iraq and Syria, but also on issues relating to other radical forces in the Middle East which have their sights set on Israel and Jordan,” the diplomatic source said. (Ynet News)
British Muslims Flock to ISIS – Dominic Kennedy
Two British jihadists appeared in a terrorism recruitment video for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the insurgent group now on a bloody rampage towards Baghdad, urging Muslims to fight in Syria. Nasser Muthana and Reyaad Khan, both 20, went to the Al-Manar Centre in Cardiff, which is aligned to the ultra-conservative Salafi wing of Islam. The Salafis have seen their places of worship increase by 50% in four years and are poised to control half the mosques in Britain within a generation.
While in the U.S., 56% of mosque leaders there have a modern outlook, only two out of nearly 1,700 mosques in the UK are controlled by modernists. (Times of London-UK)
See also ISIS Head Is a Terrorist with Gang-Leader Charisma – David Ignatius
A glimpse of the passionate loyalty inspired by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, comes in a recent video made by a 20-year-old Muslim recruit from Cardiff, Wales. “In a few days we will go to Iraq and will fight them and will even go to Lebanon and Jordan, wherever our sheik [Baghdadi] wants to send us. Send us, we are your sharp arrows. Throw us at your enemies, wherever they may be,” pledges the young man to Baghdadi on the video.
Baghdadi’s ability to inspire such intense support worries U.S. officials. His fighters combine a fanatical passion with an unusual degree of organization, technical skill and tactical planning. Baghdadi is creating his own “emirate,” guarded by tanks and heavy weapons, something bin Laden only dreamed of. (Washington Post)
ISIS – Who Supports and Admires Them in the Middle East
ISIS Success in Iraq and Syria: Strategic Ramifications – Kobi Michael and Udi Dekel (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
- The takeover of northern and northwest Iraq by ISIS is further evidence of the growing strength of the radical jihadists. The Sunni attack has resulted in the disappearance of the Syrian-Iraqi border and has provided a tailwind for ISIS forces in Syria and strengthened their hold on the country’s eastern sector.
- Captured U.S. weapons, especially anti-tank missiles and armored vehicles, are being moved to Syria. It is only a matter of time before ISIS gears up for an attack on southern Syria and the capital city of Damascus.
- Jordan is confronting a growing number of cells of jihadist organizations infiltrating the state under the guise of refugees and through assistance and supply channels to the rebels in Syria. Jordan needs a clear strategic military ally. Although it cannot admit it openly, its only such ally is apparently Israel.
- What is needed now is a joint U.S.-European effort (with low-profile Israeli involvement) to strengthen Jordan both economically and militarily.
- Israel must continue to prepare for a scenario in which recent events spill over its borders. As such, it will have to prevent the penetration of influence by Islamist-jihadist elements.
The time may have come to prepare conceptually as well as practically for the formation of a new organizing principle of the Syrian-Iraqi region, whose main point would be the dissolution of existing nation states and the establishment of ethnic nations: Alawite in western Syria, Kurdish in northern Iraq and Syria, a Sunni nation in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria, and a Shiite state in central and southern Iraq.
Kobi Michael served as deputy director and head of the Palestinian desk at the Israel Ministry for Strategic Affairs. Brig. Gen. (ret.) Udi Dekel served as head of the IDF Strategic Planning Division.
ISIS – Who Supports and Admires Them in the Middle East
