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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

1,000 Muslims streaming into Syria every month to join the Islamic State

Oct 31, 2014 10:27 am By Robert Spencer

isis-fightersThey’re coming from Europe, the U.S., and all over — with Tunisia leading the world in the number of jihadists it has sent to the Islamic State. “U.S. officials have attributed the flows to a range of factors, including the sophisticated recruiting campaigns orchestrated by groups in Syria such as the Islamic State and the relative ease with which militants from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe can make their way to that country.” These officials are bound as a matter of Obama Administration policy not to know the real reason, which is the appeal of the idea of the caliphate. If they were to acknowledge that, they would be admitting that the Islamic State has something to do with Islam, and that is off-limits for Obama Administration wonks.

“Airstrikes against Islamic State do not seen to have affected flow of fighters to Syria,” by Greg Miller, Washington Post, October 30, 2014:

More than 1,000 foreign fighters are streaming into Syria each month, a rate that has so far been unchanged by airstrikes against the Islamic State and efforts by other countries to stem the flow of departures, according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

The magnitude of the ongoing migration suggests that the U.S.-led air campaign has neither deterred significant numbers of militants from traveling to the region nor triggered such outrage that even more are flocking to the fight because of American intervention.

“The flow of fighters making their way to Syria remains constant, so the overall number continues to rise,” a U.S. intelligence official said. U.S. officials cautioned, however, that there is a lag in the intelligence being examined by the CIA and other spy agencies, meaning it could be weeks before a change becomes apparent.

The trend line established over the past year would mean that the total number of foreign fighters in Syria exceeds 16,000, and the pace eclipses that of any comparable conflict in recent decades, including the 1980s war in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have attributed the flows to a range of factors, including the sophisticated recruiting campaigns orchestrated by groups in Syria such as the Islamic State and the relative ease with which militants from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe can make their way to that country….

The vast majority of those militants have come from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Tunisia has sent more fighters to Syria than any other nation.

More than 2,000 fighters have come from countries in Europe, carrying passports that would enable them to travel relatively freely in Western countries….

Although U.S. officials have not made public estimates of the rate at which foreign fighters are flowing into Syria, they have provided totals that trace a clear trajectory. The 15,000 figure cited by the White House last month was up sharply from an estimate of 12,000 in July and 7,000 in March.

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Filed Under: caliphate, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Lu says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 10:44 am

    That influx of “fighters” just again shows how wholesale is the support for Islamic caliphate around the world. Especially disquieting is the flow of European citizens from the large fifth column in what used to be the cradle of free world. Also, it demonstrates quite clearly that there is no big difference between the “moderates” and “extremists” – if the worldwide ummah and caliphate are to be supported all members of the cult are rallying … understandable as the caliphate is everybody’s wet dream.

    • terry says

      Oct 31, 2014 at 11:22 am

      I say, let them. May be if we let all the Jihadists of the world stream in there, after the initial euphoria they will experience for being together, brothers and sisters in faith, inevitably, they will start fighting and killing each other off!

      This is how it always works out. Muslims unite against a common enemy, almost always , a non Muslim. After defeating the later, they start finishing each other off!

      Examples: Libya, 2011-2014; Afghanistan, 1970s to early 2000s; Pakistan 1947-1971 (Muslims against Hindus, then infighting leading to division into Pakistan and Bangladesh); Sunni countries against the Shia Muslim government of Syria then now against ISIS; Unity of Sunnis and Shia in their fight and animosity against the rest of the world, then their slaughtering of each other whenever the common enemy is absent, which has been going on for centuries; on, on, on and the madness goes on!

      • forthfaran says

        Oct 31, 2014 at 12:00 pm

        The more that go to fight for the Caliphate the more that will go and the more powerful that the ISIS movement becomes the bolder the Muslims in Europe and the Americas will become. I think it it obvious that Muslims in the West do not follow an explicitly aggressive course of behaviour in the main because ,quite simply,they can’t without getting themselves arrested.But as the Islamic Jihad increases in strength and scope many will be emboldened to indulge in ever more stringent demands and actions. There is a very dangerous situation building whereby Western Governments will lose control of Islam at home as well as abroad. This is how the sophisticated and wealthy super powers of the ancient world succumbed to Islam,Jihad without and weakness and subversion within.

        • Jack Diamond says

          Oct 31, 2014 at 1:02 pm

          More and more will be coming as IS is perceived as the winning team. As Islamic prophecy appears to be unfolding. They serve the interests of the Sunni states who want to finally destroy the Shi’a and Erdogan who only cares about Assad. None of them are going to seriously battle a Caliphate implementing Shari’a to the letter–and fighting Shi’a, Assad and Kurds–(nor are thousands of Muslims flocking to Syria and Iraq to fight AGAINST the Islamic State for insulting and staining the sterling reputation of their Islam– where are you “moderate” Muslims?). That IS has the support of local Sunni Arabs goes without saying.

          As far as the West wiping them out, not currently on the radar. Not before many more Oklahoma beheadings and New York hatchet attacks and much worse. Not before IS consolidates its hold on power to where it can focus attention on attacks in Europe and America that can terrify and kill on a large scale. Then, maybe, there would be a WWII-style bombing campaign instead of pinpricks. For now, just hope that civil war continues to take out more and more of those “in love with death” flocking to join the “Jihadi Cool”; that those from the West not be allowed to return to the West ( what idiocy not to be doing everything to prevent that) and that the sunni-shi’a divide grows, bleeds, and preoccupies both Iran and IS for the foreseeable future. And rescue the remaining Christians we failed to protect for a decade.

        • mortimer says

          Oct 31, 2014 at 2:50 pm

          Perfect analysis, forthfaran !

          The jihadists perceive their growing strength as a sign that Allah is helping their jihad and their weakness as a sign that Allah is testing them. Muslims in the West hide their support for ISIS and jihad and only pretend to oppose them.

          Sunnis must pretend they don’t want a Sunnite caliphate.

      • smek says

        Nov 1, 2014 at 5:06 pm

        true, but unfortunaly islam spreads trough violence,
        The northern afrcan country’s where not muslim countrys before for example.

  2. Buraq says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 10:51 am

    Thousands of clowns streaming into the Syrian Caliphate’s Circus currently touring the Middle East! Ooooh, a target rich area, if there ever was one. (Smacks lips) Yes, gathered ‘in a mingled crowd’, just ready for slaughter.

    So, what is the West waiting for? Wipe the clowns out now! Today!

    • mortimer says

      Oct 31, 2014 at 2:52 pm

      Dangerous amateur killers, not clowns.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Oct 31, 2014 at 6:34 pm

      Yep.

      Target-rich environment.

      And – if *all* majority-infidel countries from which these evil creatures are departing had the commonsense to cancel the passports and citizenship or residency status of those departing **after they have departed (NOT before)** …bug zapper.

      Let them go. DO NOT let them return.

      At the same time: slap a ban on all further Muslim entry into the Lands of the Non-Muslims.

      Result: the internal allah gang Fifth Column problem will be significantly diminished.

  3. Don McKellar says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 10:54 am

    What? Why are these thousands of moslems running to put their lives on the line for the Islamic State when it has nothing to do with Islam? Cameron? Obama? Why aren’t they listening to you?

    • Keith says

      Oct 31, 2014 at 1:49 pm

      Because they all know the truth that Cameron and Obama are just a couple of imbeciles

      • mortimer says

        Oct 31, 2014 at 2:59 pm

        Obama and Cameron repeat the taqiyya that their Saudi masters whisper in their ears.

        Obama and Cameron are too trusting of the Saudis.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Oct 31, 2014 at 10:16 pm

      re the ridiculous “Nothing to do with Islam” meme.

      Here is example 1001 of that

      as *skewered* by former Jihadwatch stalwart “Hugh Fitzgerald”

      http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/57121

      “Wednesday, 29 October 2014
      Arie Kruglanski, Simpleton With A Doctorate

      Vacuity on parade here…”.

      Read what Hugh has to say, first.

      Then read idiot Kruglanski. (who just doesn’t seen to “get” that a “religion” or more properly “cult”, might in fact be ALL ABOUT “sex and aggression”, or, to be more precise, RAPE and MURDER…ritualised and sacralised)

      http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/16/joining-islamic-state-is-about-sex-and-aggression-not-religion/

      but *then* read the Comments, for many among the Commenters are not buying Kruglanski’s tripe for a minute (and they are slapping down those who do, or those who are busy throwing sand).

      Here’s the best Comment of all (simply *dripping* with sarcasm), from one “evilhippo” –

      “Yes of course, joining a salafist Islamic army is not about Islam, and joining the KKK is not about racism and joining a football team is not about sport”.

      Says it all, really.

  4. Darren says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 11:10 am

    Put the greatest strategic mind the west has ever produced on the case general Allen, I am sure he can stop the Islamic State advance in it’s tracks with his mental prowess. General Allen the brilliant tactician and strategist who said in order to defeat the Islam State we need to celebrate islam. Save us general Allen!

  5. Salah says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 11:13 am

    “U.S. officials have attributed the flows to a range of factors…blah…blah…”

    How about the Qatar/Turkey/CIA factor?
    How about the Muslim Brotherhood/Obama factor?
    How about the Traitor in the W.H./Average American Inaction factor?
    How about the It-has-nothing-to-do-with-Islam factor?
    Just to name a few.

  6. jewdog says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    I’m glad they’re all gathering there as it will save us the trouble of hunting them down elsewhere.
    -Hat Tip to Nasrallah

  7. profitsbeard says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 1:18 pm

    Free one way tickets out, voided passports once they leave, and then supply fighter-bombers to that area to help mop them up.

    Win-win-win.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Oct 31, 2014 at 6:35 pm

      Yep.

      Come on, Vladimir, set a good example to the rest of the Infidel world; *somebody* has to do it first.

  8. Walter Sieruk says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 1:36 pm

    All those jihad minded Muslims who travel Syria to join the evil and murderous Islamic power force of ISIS. Those Muslims who do this must be so thoroughly brainwashed into violent Islamic mindset that they actually view the brutal, heinous ,hideous and wicked ISIS as something that is something that is ‘good.” To such a evil, sick, warped and deluded way of thinking the answer is fond in the Bible. For Isaiah 5:20. reads “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil…” [N.I.V.]

  9. manuel-rafael says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    QATAR // TURKEY // PAKISTAN // THE OBAMA KHEDIVE // ISLAMICATE THE JANISSARY; THE SLAVE COLONIAL ISLAMIC STATELESS STATE THAT WAS THE U.S.A.

  10. mortimer says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    The tiny minority of extremists just keeps growing in the certainty that they represent normative Islam!

  11. abad says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Good. Let them stay there. Forbid them to ever return. Muslims have no place in the western world.

  12. UnEasyOne says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 4:09 pm

    Remember it was Bush who started pushing that religion of peace taqiyya while the ruins of the trade center were still smoking, smuggled his daddy’s pals, the Bin Ladins, out of the country when everyone elses jet was grounded, without even allowing the FBI to question them. And to our eternal shame, the whole world saw him holding hands with the king who sent those maniacs to kill us.

    Then Obama picked up the refrain.

    I could go back farther, but no point. Until politicians of BOTH parties are terrified that they will be booed off the stage (pelting with rotten tomatoes or something of the kind isn’t an option these days) or the audience will walk out or that they will be subjected to extreme ridicule in the press, or we achieve energy independence, we will be subjected to the ROP big lie from politicians of BOTH parties. It’s about the oil, folks, and if you think electing a Republican will change that, you have a very short memory.

    Caesar said it best, “Divide and conquer.”

    Unless we on the political right and left cann put our other differences aside and UNITE as Americans or Europeans or westerners, these pipsqueak barbarians WILL DEFEAT US – from within.

    With wind, solar, other alternative technologies, and of course, the oil we still have available, we can achieve true energy independence in ten years time. WE ARE FUNDING IS EVERY TIME WE FILL UP THE SUV. THAT HAS TO STOP. When we no longer need that oil, the price will collapse and the ME will go back to producing clerics and goatherds.

    Otherwise, they will continue to be well funded, able to purchase whatever arms they want, AND WE WILL BE SUPPLYING THE FUNDS!

    They are winning now, because we haven’t even acknowledged that we are at war. That can change, and quickly, BUT WE IN THE WEST HAVE TO WAKE UP!!!

  13. Aardvark says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 4:26 pm

    “They’re coming from Europe, the U.S., and all over”

    Any from Liberia, by any chance? Could an outbreak of ebola in Syria be happening even as I type this? Are the IS jihadis guzzling the camel urine in the hope of stemming it?

    It would certainly save the civilised West a large amount of money if that happened…

    • Alissa says

      Nov 1, 2014 at 11:08 pm

      Excellent idea! Let’s arrange that. Wipe them out with ebola.

  14. Oliver says

    Oct 31, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    I believe it was THE BLACK MUSLIMS (n the US) who called Judaism ” a gutter religion”. The Iranians, -or their ayatollah said the same.

    The Iranians are against ISIS.

    So, can the US get The Black Muslims to go to the ME and join the Iranians in fighting ISIS? The Black Muslims are (mostly?/often?) recruited in prisons. So violence should not be an issue for them, nor (what normal people refer to as) anti-social behavior.

    So perhaps, Iranians, Hezbollah and The Black Muslims form here can fight to the death with ISIS ( and may they both succeed). Possibly get other Muslims to join the Iranians. A few months ago, “clerics” in Jordon and the West Bank both called for killing—(one sect of Muslim or the other). Let them join in. And keep killing other Muslims.

  15. SMG says

    Nov 1, 2014 at 6:16 pm

    This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They make a bigger target.

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