The claim to have reconstituted the caliphate clearly resonates with many Muslims worldwide; it is the principal reason why we see so many Muslims from Western countries going to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State. Thus there is nothing implausible about this claim of responsibility. The Islamic State called on Muslims to attack police, and some heeded the call.
“Islamic State death cult claims responsibility for Numan Haider’s knife attack on police,” by Rita Panahi and Wes Hosking, Herald Sun, November 22, 2014 (thanks to Kenneth):
THE Islamic State death cult has claimed responsibility for a Melbourne teenager’s frenzied knife attack on two counter-terrorism officers.
The group’s propaganda magazine, Dabiq, has directly linked the Endeavour Hills attack with global terrorism.
An article, purportedly written by captured British photojournalist John Cantlie, declares that the stabbing was linked to an order given by Shaykh Abu Mohammad al-Adnani just days before the incident.
“In Australia, Numan Haider stabbed two counter-terrorism police officers,” the article states.
“These attacks were the direct result of the Shaykh’s call to action, and they highlight what a deadly tinderbox is fizzing just beneath the surface of every Western country, waiting to explode into violent action at any moment given the right conditions.”
Haider, 18, stabbed a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer multiple times in a Hungry Jacks carpark near the Endeavour Hills police station on September 23.
The counter-terrorism officers had invited the teenager to speak with them after he was seen waving an IS flag outside Dandenong Plaza the week before.
The Victorian officer shot and killed Haider when he failed to drop his weapon.
Both officers were hospitalised with stab wounds.
Haider’s attack was the first in a series of apparently “lone wolf” incidents across the globe.
In Canada, a man linked to Islamic extremist ran down two police officers in a car last month, killing one, before he was shot dead by local police.
A week later, Canadian soldier Corporal Nathan Cirillo was shot “in cold blood” by a terrorist who then entered the country’s Parliament House.
The suspect, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau — a homeless man who had recently converted to Islam — was shot dead.
IS also claimed responsibility for a man in New York who attacked four police with a hatchet last month….