Islamic state uses statements by the US government for propaganda

To the outside, the Islamic state (IS) has become quiet. This should also be due to the surprising fall of the Assad regime last year. Syria, where IS flourished for a long time, strives for a new era: without jihadist groups, as closely as possible with the USA. But that does not mean that groups like IS will disappear overnight.

The number of her attacks in the West may have decreased, but they still exist: On New Year’s Day, a 42-year-old veteran of the US Army in New Orleans killed fourteen celebrations with a truck-on behalf of IS. At the beginning of May, the US authorities arrested a 19-year-old former national guard who is said to have planned a mass shooting on a military base in Detroit. In this case too, there were apparently indications of connections to IS.

These cases “show what influence the organization can still exert on the USA”. He heads the department for threat analyzes of the international initiative Tech Against Terrorism, which is supported by the United Nations. Terrorism experts such as webber, who have been observing IS for a long time, fear that the new Trump administration could give the jihadist new upswing.

Trump’s previous attitude to the war in Gaza in particular will be used for propaganda purposes and the recruitment of new members. At the beginning of his second term, Trump had great sympathy for Benjamin Netanyahu and put responsibility for the war in Gaza alone on the terrorist group Hamas. In the meantime, he rowed back and emphasized that Israel’s offensive, which is convicted of more and more states and criticized by some as genocide, would quickly end.

But the digital propaganda wave of IS can no longer be contained. As the “Guardian” reports, citing terrorist experts, the terrorist organization in online networks, with pictures and articles on the “Revenge for the Muslims in Gaza”, calls.

The IS members, however, rated the customs dispute triggered by Trump International as a sign of the decay of western power structures. In another online article, IS makes fun of a “ruthless Trump” that “has repeatedly claimed the victory over the jihad, but now he is busy fighting German cars and Chinese goods” and “trading wars” that would lead to the fall of the “Kafir nations”. The “Kafir” is for unbelievers, as people who contradict Muslim understanding and rules of IS.

IS apparently exploited IS for his purposes even body painting: last year, the then designated US defense minister Pete Hegseth caused a stir when he presented the tattoo of a Jerusalem cross on his breast and the lettering “Deus Vult” (God wants it) on his arm. Both symbols go back to the time of the Christian crusades in the Middle East and are considered a distinguishing sign of the extreme right. Finally that should represent the term Arabic “Kafir”.

Critics interpreted Hegseth’s body painting as a sign of anti -Islam. US soldiers use the term in the Iraq and Afghanistan war- in which Hegseth was involved- as a derogatory name for the opponents.

IS, in turn, sees such insignia in its online forums as a declaration of war. “What else do you want to prove that you want to wipe out all of us?”, A user wrote under a picture of Hegseth’s tattoos in a news chat with recruits of IS.

Donald Trump had once claimed that the Islamic state was defeated. For terrorist experts Webber, such chat messages are clear indications of how IS still uses social media and intelligence services “to spread his ideology and inspire his followers to attack”.