Experts: ISIL Worse Than Al Qaeda

First things first. FBI Director James Comey prefers ISIL, or “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” to ISIS. “Levant” refers to a geographic area that includes Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. “Their aspirations are a lot bigger than Iraq and Syria. It’s a mistake to think of it as an “S” for Syria because it tends to make it sound like this group’s intent are where they’re confined. No, no, no. Their designs are on a much bigger area which is that entire stretch of land from Egypt all the way up to Turkey,” says Comey. 

 

He was in Charlotte last month, and answered WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty’s questions about ISIL. She said, “I know you prefer the term ‘lone rat’ to ‘lone wolf.’ Should Americans be concerned about an increase in lone rat attacks?” Comey replied, “Ah, yes.” And continued, “If they’re in their basement getting all jacked up through the Internet, that’s all the training they need. We have a very small window of opportunity to spot them before they might emerge and kill innocent people.” 

 

ISIL–unlike Al Qaeda–uses the Internet and specifically, social media, very well to recruit and motivate sympathizers all over the world.

 

“They feel more comfortable getting their message across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram,” says Dr. Mohammed el-Nawawy, a professor of International Communications and Middle Eastern Studies at Queens University. He continues, “ISIL is using techniques such as gaming Twitter. Through the technique, they allow their sympathizers and supporters to download an app that allows ISIL to access their Twitter accounts and through these accounts, they can reach out to the their individual members through those individual or sympathizer accounts.” 

 

As ironic as it sounds, ISIL is more extreme than Al Qaeda, says el-Nawawy. He says, “Where Al Qaeda targets western spots, ISIL has no boundaries in what it targets. ISIL launches an open, relentless, unbounded war everywhere, anywhere, against its enemies.” 

 

Fogarty also asked Director Comey if any of the roughly dozen or so known Americans who are fighting alongside ISIL in the Middle East are from the southeastern part of the US or, specifically, the Carolinas. He replied, “I don’t wanna single out where people might be from because I don’t want the bad guys to know what I know about them.” 

 

Comey says law enforcement relationships matter more than ever and stressed how uniquely knit together that community is in North Carolina. He urges people not to panic, but stay alert and report anything that doesn’t seem quite right. He says, “We face a determined enemy that’s very difficult to track.” 

 

El-Nawawy says the growing presence of ISIL in news headlines has led to renewed Islamophobia. He says Gallup polls show the overwhelming majority of Muslims denounce ISIL and condemn any kind of violence against civilians.