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1000 Muslims from Asia join Islamic State, “terror expert” says it’s because of their slick videos

Sep 26, 2014 9:08 am By Robert Spencer

Mideast Iraq Behind Militant LinesThis report says that Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, stated that the Islamic State is winning the hearts and minds of young Muslims all over Asia, “thanks to their slick propaganda films and robust social-media campaigns, as ‘opposed to the boring lectures delivered by al-Qaeda and Taliban ideologues.’”

It’s certainly true that the Islamic State is attracting support from Muslims outside its domains at a much higher rate than al-Qaeda and the Taliban ever did, but this is not because of their slick videos. How many slick videos would it take to convince you to travel into a war zone to wage jihad? The Islamic State is attracting young Muslims from Asia and the West because of its claim to restore the caliphate, an aspiration dear to the heart of many Muslims the world over.

Rohan Gunaratna is a quintessential mainstream analyst of terrorism, as he knows nothing whatsoever about Islamic jihad, and so has to cast about for explanations of jihadists’ activities that have nothing to do with Islam.

(In British PC-speak, “Asian” means Muslim, but in this article, the word is used actually to refer to people from Asia.)

“1,000 Asian Extremists Are Waging Jihad in the Middle East, Says the Pentagon,” by David Stout, Time, September 25, 2014:

The U.S. military believes at least 1,000 jihadist fighters have been inspired to leave their homes in Asia to fight with militant groups across the battlefields of Iraq and Syria.

“Our estimations today is there’s probably been about 1,000 potential aspiring fighters that have moved from this region, based on kind of our overall assessment,” Admiral Samuel Locklear, the U.S. Pacific Command commander, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

“That number could get larger as we go forward, but certainly that’s about the size or the magnitude that we perceive at this point in time.”

The Asia-Pacific is currently home to myriad homegrown jihadist networks, from restive enclaves in the Philippines and Indonesia to the rough tribal highlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Authorities in the region have long grappled with combating Muslim extremists, who travel abroad to participate in Islamist terrorist networks, only to return and wreak havoc on the home front later.

During the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, an estimated 800 fighters from across Southeast Asia and Australia joined the mujahedin’s ranks battling the Red Army.

The militants who survived and returned to their respective countries went on to form the core of several Islamist extremist terrorists groups that orchestrated attacks across the region, including the bombing of nightclubs in Bali in 2002 and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta two years later….

“All these attacks, the masterminds were Afghan veterans,” Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, tells TIME.

Experts fear that the new battlegrounds in the Middle East will provide the latest and larger crop of jihadists from the Asia-Pacific with the operational knowledge and connections to conduct larger attacks at home in the future.

“They will come back with motivation, ideology and skills and operational knowledge,” says Gunaratna. “They will know who should they contact in order to plan and execute an operation.”

And according to Gunaratna, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) appears to be winning the hearts and minds of aspiring jihadists across the continent, thanks to their slick propaganda films and robust social-media campaigns, as “opposed to the boring lectures delivered by al-Qaeda and Taliban ideologues.”

“It’s a new level of strategic communication that is being started by ISIS,” says Gunaratna….

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Useful idiots, willful ignorance Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 9:18 am

    And according to Gunaratna, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) appears to be winning the hearts and minds of aspiring jihadists across the continent, thanks to their slick propaganda films and robust social-media campaigns, as “opposed to the boring lectures delivered by al-Qaeda and Taliban ideologues.”

    Or maybe because the Islamic State actually has a State lead by a caliph where they apply Islamic law…

    • John C. Barile says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 9:57 am

      The medium delivers the message. Tools is service of Islamic purpose.

      • John C. Barile says

        Sep 26, 2014 at 9:59 am

        Tools in service of Islamic purpose; corrected.

    • Christian Knight says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 3:09 pm

      Why don’t the Muslims in the Western countries go there, if all they want is Shariah law,, instead of ruining our countries with all they’re tedious demands..

      • dumbledoresarmy says

        Sep 26, 2014 at 6:16 pm

        Read ex-Muslim now-Christian Sam Solomon’s book, “Al Hijra: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration”.

        They have come here to establish Muslim colonies; to infiltrate, subvert, and ultimately overthrow and destroy. To Islamise; to Islamoform our Infidel countries.

        Every mosque built in a majority-Infidel country is a Forward Operating Base of the Ummah, or Mohammedan Mob, the de facto Empire of Islam.

        • ONTHECASE says

          Sep 27, 2014 at 1:35 am

          COPY THAT DUMBLE,THANKS 4 THE TIP ON THE BOOK.THOUGHT YOU MAY LIKE THIS ..ITS BY TONY BLAIR..I LIKE HIM..ANYWAY..ITS MORE AN INTELLECTUAL EASAY ..BUT SHOWS HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT THE STATE OF PLAY IS….BEST THING IVE READ FROM ANY LEADER ON THE SUBJECT….http://time.com/3432803/tony-blair-how-the-west-must-fight-islamism/

  2. Ramon Espinosa says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 9:33 am

    Asia Countries better police their Musilm populations for radical preachers + Madrassas that preach/teach Radical jihadism which is a cancer

  3. ian b. says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 9:47 am

    What is the song that is always playing in ISIS videos?

  4. Michael Copeland says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 10:07 am

    Hasn’t he heard?
    Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam.
    Cameron says so.

  5. pumbar says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 10:40 am

    I realise that this place is a closed shop but I’d like to put forward a film for you all to watch (and maybe congratulate the makers on their honesty). It’s called “how I live now”. There’s also “the children of men”; both British films, both pretty frank.

  6. RichardL says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 11:23 am

    Rohan Gunaratna is one of the stars in the CT community, I can tell you that. He is also a serious bullshitter like his fellow St Andrean Magnus Ranstorp. Most people I know strongly dislike both. Me too. They are both turning their minimal expertise into serious money. The current US government likes him. Go figure.

    • umbra says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 1:31 pm

      Many of these “experts” are selling their snake oil these days without being called out. The masses simply take their opinions as facts and treat popular hypotheses with the same credentials as laws. They thrive because the system allows them to do so.

  7. Gardener says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 11:45 am

    I found this interview with one of the friends of a killed British Jabhat al-Nusra fighter interesting: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29372482

    It is particularly interesting because it reveals the ordinary person behind the jihadist. An impressionable young man who believes that it is the duty of Muslims to fight those who oppress Muslims. That in turn is a slippery slope to not being able to or not wanting to distinguish the legitimacy of the teaching of different fighting groups. Hence this man or, frankly, boy sympathizes even with the Islamic State in case American soldiers fight it on the ground despite the Islamic State’s brutality toward other fighting groups like the Jabhat al-Nusra itself.

    It is a misguided and perverted sense of honor and duty, a mindless adherence to words like “Islam” and “Muslim”. There is no rational thought whatsoever behind such blind allegiance. This is exactly why many Muslims might not actually support the beheading of a British soldier in the streets of London, but at the same time they sympathize with the barbarians almost against their will because the barbarians are Muslims. And the same goes for everything the Islamic State does in Iraq and Syria. A lot of Muslims don’t really like the killing and kidnapping and raping, but they are programmed to sympathize with the barbarians because Islam and Muslim. This all comes down to the yoke of Muslim identity even more than it comes down to devout following of Islam. Many jihadi hopefuls don’t follow Islam holistically. A handful might, but a lot don’t. That is, they pick out the fighting for an Islamic utopia stuff because it appeals to them more than any spiritual aspect or the unexciting parts of Islam. People are kidding themselves if they think these kids are sophisticated in all areas of Islam. They are almost certainly not sophisticated in any area of Islam, but just like hooliganism and vandalism and violent anarchism appeal to a part of the demographic, so does fighting for a cause.

    Islam is like a brain disease that some manage to medicate to moderation. If it isn’t medicated, it takes over the brain of people like this young man in the interview. He is soft-spoken, seemingly a nice person, yet he is a sympathizer of a vast range of evils perpetrated by jihadist groups. His brain is no longer under his own control, it is the disease of Islam that controls it.

    David Cameron should listen to that interview extremely closely and reflect on it in his idle moments. This is not about radicalization. This is about identity based on a rabid ideology that holds some sway over one and a half billion followers. Some of the followers are able to keep the disease under control and compartmentalize the identity aspect as only being a part of their personality rather than their whole personality, but many others can’t. Young men are especially susceptible because of their juvenile brain. There is a reason why most of the jihadist recruits are younger than 30.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 27, 2014 at 9:37 pm

      Gardener—with respect—I think you’re giving too much benefit of the doubt to these vile Jihadists. Most of them have a good idea of what JIhad is—they are not innocents or naïfs.

  8. Think of England says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 11:55 am

    Look on the bright side: What would you prefer, these jihadis remaining hidden amongst us in the West or them traveling to Syria and Iraq and hopefully getting killed by our bombs? I’d very much rather have them exposed here and then gone.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 6:36 pm

      Yep. Low hanging fruit, I call ’em.

      Right now, no sitting politician anywhere in the west would be able to get their head around the idea of evicting all visibly identifiable Muslims.

      But, I think not a few right now might be capable of being pushed – if pressure is kept up, relentlessly – into realizing that if western-passport-holding Muslims (whether “born and raised Muslim” or converts) waltz off to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State (or any number of other nasty organisations in that general vicinity), it would be a damn good idea to Take Steps to prevent them from coming back in (assuming they survive their Excellent Jihad Adventure).

      So I think we should be pushing at that point, hammering neverendingly on the fact that these people represent a Clear and Present Danger, a Public Menace, a Menace that can be Managed by…**letting them go and then not letting them back in**.

      The first western – or non-western infidel – nation that takes that step: to track those Syria-/Iraq-bound jihadis, then, once they are gone, annuls their citizenship (or declares them Exile and Outlaw) and causes their passports to evaporate, will be rid of a great many security headaches, with really a minimal effort. No need to try to find and round them up; they’re packing up and leaving of their own accord.

      Let’s concentrate our efforts, right now, on pushing our politicians to get this basic idea: Let them go and DONT let them back in.

  9. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    The thugs of ISIS with their evil and mad mindset they may be described in the Bible .For the Bible teaches “The hearts of men are full of evil and their is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they join the dead.” Ecclesiastes 9:3. Just wondering ? Could some of these ISIS fiends “join the dead” because of missile strikes ? Moreover, the villains of ISIS are so very cruel and violent that the curse that is found in the Bible might be on them. For Psalm 140:11. reads “May disaster hunt down men of violence.” [N.I.V.] Also, still wondering ? Could this disaster come down on the ISIS thugs in the form of airstrikes ?

  10. gravenimage says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 3:52 pm

    1000 Muslims from Asia join Islamic State, “terror expert” says it’s because of their slick videos

    “thanks to their slick propaganda films and robust social-media campaigns, as ‘opposed to the boring lectures delivered by al-Qaeda and Taliban ideologues.’”
    ……………………………………..

    At first one would assume that Rohan Gunaratna is saying that it is the slick videos that have drawn young “Asians” to violent Jihad—but later it becomes clear that these Mohammedans were *already* drawn to violent Jihad—it’s just that the higher production values of Islamic State productions win out over the less slick techniques of Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

    So—ultimately this is not really about slick videos drawing Muslims to Jihad terrorism—it just helps draw them to a specific “brand”.

  11. Elise says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 5:02 pm

    Ignorance is bliss as it appears that many “Asians” lack critical thinking skills and life skills on this planet earth. There goal in life is not improve their lives or create something to improve the world, but to die and go to paradise where they can find eternal virgins for continual sex and rivers of wine, both of which are considered haram on earth. Only an idiot can make this stuff up and only idiots follow such beliefs. The frightening part is that there are so many Westerners who are afraid to confront such idiots and therefore allow the rape of young woman and girls in Britain. I suppose they were cowards when Hitler was around, too.

  12. dumbledoresarmy says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    From the article – “the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore”.

    Singapore.

    Singapore, majority-non-Muslim but with a resident Muslim minority (mostly of Malay and Indian ethnicity) that comprises maybe 15 percent of the population. And most uncomfortably placed between majority-Muslim Malaysia and majority-Muslim Indonesia.

  13. Kepha says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    @DDA:

    Singapore, majority-non-Muslim but with a resident Muslim minority (mostly of Malay and Indian ethnicity) that comprises maybe 15 percent of the population. And most uncomfortably placed between majority-Muslim Malaysia and majority-Muslim Indonesia.

    Also, Singapore got kicked out of Malaysia for having a majority ethnic Chinese population. May God protect her.

  14. Angemon says

    Sep 27, 2014 at 12:56 pm

    Well, well, well, looks like the foul-mouthed mohammedan forgot his own rule – whatever happened to “i’m generally polite when people don’t insult me first”? That’s not what we see here (or on most of the topics where he dumps his crap).

    It is worth noting that the two JW regulars he routinely singles out to unleash his frustrations on are females – coincidence?

    As for his claim that he gets all the information from books he reads, it’s false – he’s been called a “wikipedia expert” by a JW regular precisely for his reliance in wikipedia, he has resorted to wikipedia links in the past, and it’s very likely he’ll keep doing so in the future, while trying to drown replies with insults and irrelevant red herrings.

  15. dave1543 says

    Sep 27, 2014 at 5:01 pm

    ISIS, Taliban etc. are not extremists. They are the real Muslims who act like Muhammad did. The other Muslims are considered apostate by them.

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