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

With collapse of the Islamic State, Europe and U.S. flooded with thousands of jihadis

Oct 26, 2017 10:27 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

M15 in the UK recently reported the worst threat level to British citizens ever, as “up to 23,000 potential jihadis are reportedly living in Britain as police investigate the sprawling terror network linked to Manchester bomber Salman Abedi.”

News has emerged that the same threat is increasing in the US as well, according to an investigative report commissioned by the Soufan Center, which authored “Beyond the Caliphate, Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees.” The report includes this finding:

If on return they begin again to feel as rootless and lacking in purpose as they did before they left, then they are unlikely to settle back easily into a “normal” life, and as ISIS increases its external campaign, both through action and propaganda, returnees may be particularly vulnerable to contact from people who were part of the network that recruited them, or appeals for help from ex-comrades in arms.

A warning was also issued for travelers that the Islamic State is training jihadis in Caribbean tourist hotspots, and intends to target vacationers.

Western leaders are sending the message that they are crippled and have no idea what to do and how to control their borders. They are afraid of being deemed “Islamophobic” if they tighten border controls, and if they adopt a zero-tolerance approach against jihadists and Islamic supremacist hate preachers. The “Islamophobia” invention has been highly successful to date in aiding and abetting jihadist goals.

“Report: Europe, U.S. Flooded by Thousands of Jihadis After Islamic State Failure”, by Ben Kew, Breitbart, October 24, 2017:

A new report commissioned by the Soufan Center has outlined the threat posed by potential Western Islamic State (ISIS) fighters returning to their countries of origin as the caliphate continues to collapse.
The report, titled “Beyond the Caliphate, Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees,” finds that at least 5,600 men, women, and children from 33 countries who traveled to support the Islamic State have now returned to their country of origin, many of which are in the West.

It also estimates that around 30 percent of the approximately 5,000 people who have gone to Syria from countries in the European Union have returned home. Seven of the 129 who went to join ISIS from the United States are now back on home turf, the report adds.

“It’s a hell of a problem,” Richard Barrett, a senior adviser at the Soufan Center told NBC. “It’s very resource-intensive to identify who these people are, track them down and then to do something about them.”

“We have to be cautious of thinking that all [5,600] would go back and be a problem, but I think it’s fair to assume that probably some will be,” he continued.

The report also outlines how, upon their return, Islamic State terrorists continue to pose a serious threat to national security. It states:

If on return they begin again to feel as rootless and lacking in purpose as they did before they left, then they are unlikely to settle back easily into a “normal” life, and as ISIS increases its external campaign, both through action and propaganda, returnees may be particularly vulnerable to contact from people who were part of the network that recruited them, or appeals for help from ex-comrades in arms.

It also details the potential threat posed by women and children, whose commitment to the caliphate and its ideology is difficult to assess:

A subset of returnees that is even harder to quantify, assess and address is the women and children who joined IS but later went home or were captured and await deportation. Without further research, it will be hard to judge the degree of their commitment to IS and their interest in becoming active rather than passive supporters.

“It’s one of the hardest things of all to rehabilitate children who have been recruited by violent extremist groups,” Barrett said. “Once trained, they are incredibly committed and loyal.”

“They will be a lot of mental health issues,” he continued. “And you can’t just put them in a child detention center—you have to treat them. Some will be turned around quite easily and will follow the next ‘mother figure’ that comes along, but others will be unpredictable, to say the least.”

The report’s release coincides with the caliphate’s continued collapse at the hands of the U.S. led coalition…..

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Jihad in the U.S., United States Tagged With: Beyond the Caliphate, Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees, Soufan Center


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Comments

  1. jewdog says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 11:02 am

    We need to fight them over there so that they will come over here? I don’t think that’s the way it was explained…

    • Lydia says

      Oct 26, 2017 at 6:12 pm

      Yeah, something seems wrong with that result…

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 26, 2017 at 8:01 pm

      Dismantling the Islamic State was not a bad idea–but we should not let these Jihadists return to the West.

  2. WorkingClassPost says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 11:04 am

    Again, even in a report that is supposed to be warning of the dangers we are facing, they introduce doubt and distraction.

    Their phrase ‘… fair to assume that probably some will be…’ when talking about jihadis is an unnecessary double negative, are we really only to assume a probability?

    The whole article sets out the probability of returning fighters continuing their campaign, so what hope is there for clarifying the threat, when even they doubt their own conclusions?

  3. Benedict says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 11:17 am

    They are afraid of being deemed “Islamophobic” –

    Why? What is the risk of being “deemed islamophobic”? Does it come with a threat and a punishment? And who is doing the deeming and executing the punishment in that case?

    Being AFRAID of being “Islamophobic” is islamophobia squared.

    • Bob says

      Oct 27, 2017 at 9:49 am

      Yes, Benedict, in the UK saying anything critical of mohammedanism is likely to qualify you for 15 years in the slammer! On the other hand, Judaism and Christianity may be attacked at any time, without a sneeze from the infidel authorities!

      • Benedict says

        Oct 27, 2017 at 11:53 am

        Somehow I appreciate that, Bob. A religion, like Islam, that demands the protection of politics, media, police and military has indicted itself and exposed itself as a repulsive, power hungry human invention and authentic Christianity is finished if it demands the same privileges.
        A quotation of Jefferson is pertinent here:

        “The legitimate powers
        of government extend to such acts
        only as are injurious to others.
        But it does me no injury
        for my neighbor to say
        there are twenty gods, or no God.
        It neither picks my pocket
        nor breaks my leg.”

  4. Benedict says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 11:33 am

    “If on return they begin again to feel as rootless and lacking in purpose as they did before they left, then they are unlikely to settle back easily into a “normal” life, and as ISIS increases its external campaign, both through action and propaganda, returnees may be particularly vulnerable to contact from people who were part of the network that recruited them, or appeals for help from ex-comrades in arms.” –

    ISIS was and is a fiasco and it is humiliating for Muslims to acknowledge that. And this humiliation breeds even more resentment, hate and violence and plans of revenge among Muslims. It’s a viscous circle instigated by a false prophet.

    Europe will be an even more dangerous place now.

  5. SoCalMike says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 11:41 am

    Each and every time a returning jihadi engages in murder, the immigration bureaucrat who let them in should be charged with murder.
    Or just strung up on the spot.

    I’m sick and tired of watching people get slaughtered so these malignant parasites can flash their fake diversity badges.

  6. Michael Copeland says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 11:41 am

    “rootless and lacking in purpose”?
    No. Islam INSTRUCTS its adherents not to become rooted in filthy kaffir culture.
    Islam commands jihad: it is a communal obligation, to war against non-muslims.
    Jihadis who go to war in Syria do so in obedience (“submission”) to Islam’s call.
    They do not go to jihad because they were “rootless and lacking in purpose”.

    • Jack Diamond says

      Oct 26, 2017 at 1:21 pm

      They are firmly rooted and dedicated to a purpose. It’s Richard Barrett et al who are lacking in both
      and whose ludicrous sentimentalism about enemy soldiers (and steadfast ignorance about Islam) is going to get people murdered.

      More of Richard Barrett and the do nothing response to Islamic jihad he recommends (from 2014):

      “Policies that set out to punish those who go to fight do not seem to act as deterrents and may make people more likely to delay their return, making them further exposed to radical views. Also, they suggest a judgment of action, which initially may be quite respectable in intent. It condemns the humanitarian along with the extremist. {the laudable humanitarian act of joining ISIS!}

      “The key questions for the authorities to ask are why someone went, what happened to him while there, and why he came back. They can only find the answers by introducing a programme that engages the families and communities from which the fighters come. There are effective measures in place, but it will only take one major attack by returning fighters for the authorities to conclude that they must do much more. This is likely to cause a further erosion of civil liberties which the extremists will be able to exploit in their narrative that the authorities in the West discriminate against Muslims. {war? what war?}

      Q> What policy measures could be developed in the social media sphere that would neutralize violent and extremist messages from the likes of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra?

      “Although there are laws in many countries against the portrayal of violence and the incitement to criminal activity, most of the social media use by extremists would fall under the first amendment in the U.S. and protection of speech and freedom of expression laws in other Western countries. It would be wrong to undermine these laws as they are part of who we are. We must always remember what we are fighting for as well as what we are fighting against.” {from someone who knows neither}

      https://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2014/07/07/a-candid-discussion-with-richard-barrett-of-the-soufan-group/

      • Jack Diamond says

        Oct 26, 2017 at 8:33 pm

        further, on the nonsense those flocking to the Islamic State were misled or naive about it’s nature as they concoct ludicrous excuses so they can return and be coddled and hugged:

        “The myth of the ISIS patsy: Recruits know exactly what they’re getting into”
        http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/myth-isis-patsy-article-1.3583289?cid=bitly

        “In this version of events, mirrored in Peter Kominksy’s recent TV drama “The State,” Recruit X is transformed from an aggressor and potential threat into a victim, more sinned against than sinning. He was duped, lied to, misled. His only crime was the sin of naivety: The naivety of the idealist who dreamed of a better world. He is someone whose essential decency and moral conscience was wickedly manipulated by shadowy propagandists who sold him the lie of the caliphate dream.

        In fact, no sentient adult who owned a TV or had access to an internet connection in the summer of 2014, when ISIS started slaughtering Yezidis and beheading western journalists in high-definition videos, could reasonably claim that they didn’t know of ISIS’s demonic savagery.

        Everybody knew. And no one was more knowledgeable than those who joined ISIS, many of whom gleefully celebrated and circulated every new ISIS snuff movie well before they left to join the group. They knew, and they justified and exalted in what they knew.

        As the Atlantic’s Graeme Wood recently observed, referring to the “ludicrous claims” of some ISIS returnees: “The claim of ignorance of ISIS’s true nature is impossible to credit, since press coverage of ISIS’s atrocities has barely ceased during the last three years, and ISIS itself boasts of its crimes in its propaganda.”

        Which is why they are both traitors and a clear and present danger, not victims. Victims!

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 26, 2017 at 8:04 pm

      Spot on, Michael and Jack.

  7. Jon Sobieski says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 12:10 pm

    Revoke their passports. Strip them of citizenship. They should be happy in their crumbling caliphate, around their kind of people.

  8. pdxnag says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 1:31 pm

    Genocidal Muslims following perfect-but-still-dead Mohammad are no less evil than targets of Nazi hunters. Don’t become their next victim.

  9. Tom says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 3:26 pm

    “The Woman and the Snake

    One winters day, a woman found a snake by the roadside, stiff and motionless with cold.

    “If you put me inside your coat,” the snake said, “your body will make me warm and I won’t freeze to death.”

    “Oh, I know your kind,” replied the woman. “If I pick you up, you will bite me.”

    “Oh no,” the snake objected. “Why would I do such a thing, if you are good enough to help me?”

    So the woman had compassion on the snake, and taking it up, she put it inside her coat. The warmth quickly revived the snake, and resuming its natural instincts, it bit its benefactor, inflicting on her a mortal wound. “Oh,” cried the woman with her last breath, “why did you bite me? You promised you wouldn’t.”

    “Ah,” said the snake. “So I did. But you knew I was a snake when you picked me up.””

    Western countries who take in migrants from Islamic countries know the potential of the Jihad being perpetrated upon them.

    Western countries that allow their citizens to go fight for ISIS and then return know the heightened threat that they present to their security and safety.

    Just like the woman who cares for the dying snake out of compassion and who is in turn killed by her own kindness, so shall western societies go with the Islamic Jihadi’s held safely within their warm social safety net and nurtured so that they may grow strong enough to strike that mortal blow.

    ALL those who left for the Jihad MUST be denied re entry to our countries, otherwise we are simply readying ourselves for our own demise.

    • Sons of Liberty says

      Oct 27, 2017 at 3:22 am

      Indeed Tom ! Our own demise ! At the turn of the 8th Century AD , the Middle East was 95% Christian ! Yet today Christians make up 6% of the Middle East and are declining quickly due to Islamic Jihad. It seems that Western Countries today are following that path.

    • Bob says

      Oct 27, 2017 at 9:52 am

      Sorry, Tom – it’s too late. They’re already back and festering!

  10. common sense says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 6:11 pm

    Muslim ban. I remember someone bringing that up. It was not something any polliticians ever suggest, they are feckless yellow bellied lizards.

  11. gravenimage says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 7:53 pm

    With collapse of the Islamic State, Europe and U.S. flooded with thousands of jihadis
    …………………

    This is exactly what I feared. We should not let these Jihadists back in.

  12. Charlie Martel says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    What must Moslems think when they see that the Western henhouse is guarded by chickens.

  13. Gbox says

    Oct 27, 2017 at 9:32 am

    Anyone known to have joined ISIS who returns to the US should be picked up and executed quickly and quietly without trial. Combatants don’t get trials. They declared war against the US, and if you want to win, kill the enemy. The fact that they are here doesn’t exonerate them, in fact it increases the danger.

  14. Transmaster says

    Oct 27, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    What you are not hearing about is there is a quiet agreement between Belgium, France and the Kurdish Peshmerga that all foreign fighters found with the Daesh will be summarily executed on the spot. US Military forces in the region are silent about this but Belgium and France do not want these people back, and if people from the UK, Northern Africa, the US and elsewhere get killed nobody is asking any questions. The various factions of the Kurdish people are not getting all of them but especially in Iraq The KDP, KNC, and the PUK Kurdish factions are cleaning up. A very popular communications App called Zello is used in the region. With this app you can listen into the fighting. You may not understand the language but the ka-booms and screaming Allah Akbars don’t need any translation. You just have to find and join an active channel. The US commander of the special forces in the region has been quoted saying Since President Trump took office and returned the war fighting authority to the commanders in the field they have been stacking up Daesh jihadists like cord wood.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 28, 2017 at 12:48 am

      This agreement must be so quiet that I have never heard of it. Do you have any evidence to back this up? I hope you are right, but it seems rather unlikely given other decisions France and Belgium have made about invading Muslims. Hope you are right, though.

      • Transmaster says

        Oct 28, 2017 at 10:26 am

        The fact you have not heard about it is not surprising. This is something the Kurds are doing on there own with Belgium and France not taking notice. Officially foreign Jihadists are killed in the fighting but the even if they surrender they die. Listen to the show on radio KFI Dark Secret Place. presented by Bryan Suits. Suites was an US artillery officer in Iraq, and later was a contractor in the intelligence business in the region. He has extensive information sources from the area. What I am reporting about the Kurds is was he is being told by people on the scene. This more or less goes along with US forces in the area orders to annihilate the Daesh.

  15. Transmaster says

    Oct 27, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    And one more thing thanks to President Trump and the US Military being unleashed there is now an effective Iraqi Army, an Army who is proud of who they are. They have to be Reined in a bit from the take no prisoners thing but they are a effective fighters who suffered huge casualties while taking Mosul.

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