The atrocious attack of Shamsud-Din Jabbar – American born and a veteran who plowed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans on New Years day killing 14 and injuring 35 others marks yet another shameful act of radical Islam in the world. Jabbar was influenced by the Islamic State group, ISIS, and had pledged his support to it.
The Islamic State, ISIS, which represents radical Islam has brought a wave of terror across the world and resulted in continual devastation and destruction in the Middle East and several northern African countries. Despite the major operation that began in 2014 against ISIS by the U.S with its Iraqis, Kurds, and Syrians allies in Iraq and Syria, and subsequently, the elimination of its main leadership and the Caliphate which is the head of the state in the Islamic government, ISIS remains in the form of many smaller groups operating in the region.
Unlike other Islamic radical groups in the region and their focus on certain areas and countries, ISIS’s agenda was to expand its operation and establish an Islamic government to include Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Libya, etc,
It is noteworthy that ISIS came with a different strategy to influence people and recruit members worldwide. Social media has played a major role in ISIS’s recruitment strategy, which resulted in recruiting a number of citizens from Europe and the U.S to either join the group or sympathize with its ideology. This strategy has affected the U.S and the West and caused disruption of an untold number of lives by individuals conducting terrorist activities against their own innocent citizens.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar is the latest example of ISIS’s influence and the terrorist mindset / intention to kill in the name of Jihad which is completely irrelevant to such a cowardly act. The New Orleans’ terrorist attack reveals the fragility of American society and the vulnerability of the U.S community. The U.S has been facing serious challenges and dangerous threats from radical Islamic groups but in many circumstances the proper response to such challenges and threats have been undermined by political conflicts.
However, the U.S is now taking a different measure to vet American citizens and the military personnel who have traveled overseas, been exposed to Islamic belief and have any resentment toward America. ISIS knows no boundaries in terrorizing humanity and sending its messages through barbaric acts. Many people in Iraq and Syria, regardless of their religions, have been terrorized and killed. ISIS has LO turned many captured women into sex slaves.
Radical Islam leaves no space for negotiation – nor a possibility for peace.
After the New Orlean’s terror attack and Jabbr’s appearance in a video that he made, in which he claimed to have joined ISIS, a source from the White House, conversely, said “there was no evidence of foreign direction or involvement in the attack.” This statement in fact underestimates the attack and miscalculates the threat of radical Islamic groups in general, and ISIS in specific against American communities.
The threat of ISIS is derived from abroad and exported to the U.S in the form of attacks and suicides. To eradicate the radical Islamic State / ISIS, and end the exportation of its ideology, the U.S is obligated to intervene and destroy the environment that vitalizes such an ideology.
– Serwan Zangana supported Operation Iraqi Freedom as a U.S Army translator before coming to the U.S from Kurdistan, Iraq in 1997 to seek political asylum. He was granted asylum status and years later proudly became a U.S citizen. He currently serves as a correction officer in Roanoke.