Recently, a terrorist organization in Egypt called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, or ABM, reportedly
swore allegiance to ISIS in a recorded
message released on Twitter.
This was the same group that previously refuted any ISIS
connection - also on Twitter.
So, what happened?
Are terrorist groups really joining
ISIS?
Well, last June, the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, called on all Muslims to join
ISIS in their jihad against the West.
At the
time, there WAS some concern that other extremist terrorist groups would heed the call
- but few have actually done so.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which is considered one of the more
serious and deadly terrorist groups around, announced their support for ISIS, saying
they’re in “solidarity with our Muslim brothers in Iraq against the crusade.”
But they
didn’t offer any sort of financial support or allegiance to ISIS.
They basically just said
“good job.”
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan also publicly stated support for ISIS - but it, too,
was nothing more than a glorified “atta-boy.”
Ansar al-Shariah, the same group blamed for the 2012
attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, also showed their support for ISIS.
One of their
factions in Libya paraded down the streets waving ISIS flags.
A different faction based
in Tunisia may have actually visited ISIS in Syria and offered allegiance, but even
this
group hasn’t officially joined forces with ISIS.
There hasn’t even been so much as a
Twitter announcement.
So none of the major players have joined ISIS, but there are a few smaller terrorist
groups that are actively supporting them in some pretty terrible ways.
The Algerian terrorist group, Jund al-Khilafah, captured
and beheaded a French mountaineer in retaliation to the French government’s airstrikes
on ISIS.
The Indian terrorist group, Ansar al-Tawhid, has
reportedly ordered their members to kill citizens of any nation currently fighting ISIS,
although nothing has come of it yet.
And a terrorist group in the Philippines called Abu
Sayyaf, kidnapped two German tourists in the name of ISIS, but
they may not actually be ISIS-affiliated.
More on that later.
So, where do we stand now?
Well, all of these terrorist groups have their own
agendas and targets.
Whether or not they’re part of ISIS doesn’t change who their
targets are or what their goals are.
It doesn’t even change the urgency with which they
commit terrorist acts.
Including ISIS in the conversation or claiming allegiance with
ISIS just gets them a little bit more press and possibly a bit more leverage.
According
to some experts, Abu Sayyaf, the Filipino group we mentioned
earlier, may have stated allegiance to ISIS because people are willing to pay more for
hostages held by ISIS than they are for hostages held by an obscure Filipino terrorist
group.
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