ISIS/L planning to use Libya as gateway to Europe (telegraph.co.uk).
“The jihadists hope to flood the north African state with militiamen from Syria and Iraq, who will then sail across the Mediterranean posing as migrants on people trafficking vessels, according to plans seen by Quilliam, the British anti-extremist group. The fighters would then run amok in southern European cities and also try to attack maritime shipping.”
Indeed, thank you Arab spring which we all so applauded. Raising concern as Libya, in collapse after never really recovouring from that civil war that never really ended with seemingly no one having a clue who they wish to favour, has a large diaspora population in the UK:
“On Monday, Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, said that Britain should consider putting ground troops there to stop the country ‘being exploited by fanatics’.”
Hiding them in a 40-ft CTX shipping container on the beach somewhere I assume. This, for sure, has all gone on far too long; known for an interest in these things—as well as Cara Delevingne’s tongue poking, I was asked recently “are ISIS and ISIL the same?”, showing perhaps part of the issue is that many are none too clear on who or what ISIS/L or the Caliphate of the ’tashless beard actually are and what they want.
What ISIS really wants (theatlantic.com).
“The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) [and also after a name change in Apr. 2013, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)], follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter to its strategy, and can help the West know its enemy and predict its behavior. Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (a group whose leaders the Islamic State considers apostates) than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some 8 million.”
Yep, and that’s pretty much the fruit and nut cake of it—they are end of the world apocalyptists waiting for severed hands and heads of infidels to fall from the sky while they are whisked off to paradise that “evolved” out of al-Qaeda’s down turn of terror fortune. But they are not old-school medievalists:
“They refer derisively to ‘moderns.’ In conversation, they insist that they will not—cannot—waver from governing precepts that were embedded in Islam by the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers…”
But recruit abroad from disenfranchised young men and women with a halal beef about pretty much anything—often it seems former rap stars who didn’t quite make it who feel Capitalisms promise of fame and fortune has been denied them—giving them a pre-despondency to chew on an idealogical thistle with promise of rewards of “booty” in all conotations by marginalised Imans seeing wrath of Allah as a way to re-address their own theological fortunes. In short, power—and terrorising with it—is as much important as theology for them.
Recent/related stories
- Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks apparent target of Copenhagen attack (Latest Picks 16th February 2015)
- Jordanian pilot “burned alive” in new ISIS/L video (Latest Picks 3rd February 2015)