Islamic State's Innovation in Militant Islam

(Reuters) John Lloyd - Islamic State's monstrous innovation is that its message - "to target Crusader coalition states" in any way possible, with whatever comes to hand - is capable of rapid absorption. The Nice truck-killer, Mohammed Lahouaiej Bouhlel; Omar Mateen, the Afghan-American who killed 49 in Orlando, Florida; and Ali David Sonboly, the German-Iranian who killed nine in Munich last week, all had probably radicalized themselves over a short period of time, inspired by Islamic State propaganda on the Internet. Islamic State is succeeding beyond its hopes in Europe because there are people, usually young men of Muslim background, who fall in love with violence, death and Islamic State. It has plugged into a hellishly rich vein of youths who feel that life has nothing better to offer them than glorious murder, and a martyr's death. The writer co-founded the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.


2016-08-05 00:00:00

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