13-Oct-14: Knowing there are people among us who exult in acts of terror, how concerned should we be now?

Islamist protest turned to riot in downtown Sydney,
September 15, 2012 [Image Source]

An article today (Monday) in The Australian gives exposure to the "worldwide action" against "crusaders" currently sought by the jihadist terrorists of ISIS or Islamic State as they now style themselves. It's based on the latest edition of Dabiq, a glossy English-language magazine that serves as one of its official voices to the world. Quotes:

• The release of the magazine followed last month’s speech by the group’s official spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, in which the first public calls for attacks in specific countries were made. All terrorist attacks should clearly be attributable to “patrons” of Islamic State so they cannot be described by media as “random killings”, the new article said.
• “It is very important that attacks take place in every country that has entered into the alliance against the Islamic State, especially the US, France, Australia and Germany,” an article in the magazine said. “Every Muslim should get out of his house, find a crusader, and kill him... It is important that the killing becomes attributed to patrons of the Islamic State who have obeyed its leadership ... otherwise, crusader media makes such attacks appear to be random killings.”
• The article contained warnings not to include too many people in the planning of the attack, and to not over-analyse plans to the point they are aborted. Secrecy should be followed when planning and executing any attack. The smaller the numbers of those involved and the less the discussion beforehand, the more likely it will be carried out without problems,” it said. “One should not complicate the attacks by involving other parties, purchasing complex materials, or communicating with weak-hearted individuals. “‘Rely upon Allah and stab the crusader’ should be the battle cry for all Islamic State patrons.”

Published by ISIS.
Full content online here

A quick browse through Issue Number 4 of the ISIS magazine (full content online here) shows a pornography-like obsession with dead foes. They call them apostates, and heretics, and "quasi-jihadists, and mock mujāhidīn [who] exposed their duplicity and hypocrisy once again for no sincere Muslim to be left in the dark with doubt".

Though there is constant reference to Americans, Europeans, Australians and other "crusaders", mostly what the ISIS people kill is Arabs and Moslems, often in front of people holding high-definition digital cameras. 

As many observers have noted, these terrorists understand the power of the social media, as well as of detailed video and still-shot coverage of men mercilessly hacking the head off a helpless, bound, living, gasping prisoner, and of other men executed and then crucified.

They also understand how to convey simple, straightforward messages to Moslems living in the West:

...Do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawāghīt. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. 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. Do not ask for anyone’s advice and do not seek anyone’s verdict. Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military, for they have the same ruling.” [Dabiq, Issue No. 4, page 9]

Anjem Choudary, the UK-resident Islamist preacher of whom we have written here recently, says he thinks the message ISIS is propagating makes sense. A month ago, a carefully-phrased profile of Choudary in The Guardian called him a man of "large claims and small following [who] has often been derided, not least by fellow Muslims, as a joke figure of no significance". But it went on:

Last year a report by the anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate said that the network of groups run by Choudary has become "the single biggest gateway to terrorism in recent British history" and had "facilitated or encouraged" hundreds of young Muslims across Europe to join the more extreme militants fighting the Assad regime in Syria. While the report noted that there was no evidence that Choudary had instigated any terrorist plots, he was, it said, "a serious player on the international Islamist scene". [The Guardian]

Choudary managed to persuade The Guardian's interviewer that 

a motivated minority of young Muslims share his views... He dismissed all allegations of Islamic State (ISIS) atrocities, defended the use of crucifixion, and acknowledged ISIS leader... as "the caliph of all Muslims and the prince of the believers"... He refuses to condemn the executions [and beheadings of Westerners] or say whether he supports such brutal deeds...  His one certainty in this respect is that responsibility for the murder of Foley and Sotloff lies with the American government... Choudary speaks in the same matter-of-fact way in defence of crucifixion, stoning to death and, indeed, eternal hellfire, which he believes is the fate of everyone who does not accept the Qur'an as the literal word of God. It's a style that has provided him with a cartoonish media image as the go-to Muslim for incendiary declarations...  [The Guardian]

Choudary [Image Source: The Telegraph UK]

Perhaps like this one:

"I don't know how misinformed you are, but if I were even to consider going to Turkey, let alone Syria, not only would I be arrested and my passport confiscated but my wife, my mother and children would be harassed and my accounts frozen. You'll basically be treated as a criminal. We have an apartheid system in this country. Muslims are imprisoned over here. We can't travel abroad." At other times in our conversation he mentions that he has recently been to Spain and Denmark... [The Guardian]

Then as if acknowledging the misplaced excessive 'understanding' that advocates of terror frequently enjoy in liberal democracies, the interviewer from The Guardian notes:

There is a tendency in public discussion of Islam in Britain either to dismiss Choudary's type of scriptural literalism out of hand or to recast it as a product of alienation, oppression, marginalisation and racism. The idea that anyone sincerely wants to live in a society that exults in horrific executions and religious control of all aspects of public life is one that seems too far-fetched for mainstream society to accept. [The Guardian]

A Daily Mail UK profile of Choudary from September 26, 2014, shortly after he was briefly arrested on terrorism charges, has more quotes:

‘In the Koran it is not allowed for you to feel sorry for non-Muslims. I don’t feel sorry for him.’ Choudary also said the Islamic State was building the sort of society he would ‘love to live in’ with his family. But the father of four, who has spent years living off state benefits, said he would not leave Britain because he was born here. [Daily Mail UK]

We frankly find it hard to look at the full-frontal shots promoted in the ISIS magazine and think of one of ISIS' most prominent shills as "cartoonish". But that's not the only part of this that's hard for us to understand. The Daily Mail expressed it well:

Experts expressed amazement that it had taken so long for police to take action against the outspoken firebrand preacher. But the operation was launched only after careful consideration of Choudary’s recent public comments against the backdrop of a lifetime of incitement... Choudary has been an inspirational figure for a generation of Muslim extremists, including the fanatics behind the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich. He led Al- Muhajiroun, which was repeatedly rebranded in a bid to evade attempts to proscribe its activities. Members gathered under a series of names including al-Ghuraba, Islam4UK and Muslims Against Crusades, but their Islamist mission has always remained the same. Campaigners welcomed the arrests but said they should have been made sooner." [Daily Mail UK]

As the Washington Post, in a major article on Sunday ["In Britain, Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary proves elusive"], pointed out, Choudary is currently free, having been held by the police for just one night. The Telegraph UK says he is out on bail with a next court date only in January 2015.