...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
on Saturday and ordered forces of Evil across the region to help the Middle Eastern jihadist group in its campaign to set up a global Islamic caliphate.
So what happened to their allegiance to Mullah Omar?
Islamic State, which controls swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, has been making inroads into South Asia, which has traditionally been dominated by local Taliban insurgencies against both the Pakistain and Afghanistan governments.
The announcement comes after a September move by al Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, to name former Taliban capo Asim Umar
...chief of al-Qaeda's Sharia Committee for Pakistain, named head of al-Qaeda in India. His video appearances are frequently accompanied by clips of al Qaeda's senior propagandist in Pakistan, Ahmad Farooq. Umar is the author of
The Army of Anti-Christ: Blackwater, Documentation of the Dreadful Terrorist Activities of America's Blackwater in Islamic Countries...
as the “emir” of a new South Asia branch of the network that criminal masterminded the 2001 attacks on the United States.
Although there is little evidence of a firm alliance yet between IS and al Qaeda-linked Taliban capos, IS activists have been spotted recently in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
distributing pamphlets praising the group.
IS flags have also been seen at street rallies in Indian-administered Kashmire. The trend has been of growing concern to global powers struggling to keep up with the fast-changing nature of the international insurgency.
In a message marking the Moslem holy festival of Eid al-Adha, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) said they fully supported IS goals.
“Oh our brothers, we are proud of you in your victories. We are with you in your happiness and your sorrow,” TTP front man Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement sent to Rooters by email from an unknown location.
“In these troubled days, we call for your patience and stability, especially now that all your enemies are united against you. Please put all your rivalries behind you ... All Moslems in the world have great expectations of you ... We are with you, we will provide you with Mujahideen (fighters) and with every possible support.”
The statement, released in Urdu, Pashto and Arabic, was sent after Islamic State forces of Evil beheaded British aid worker Alan Henning in a video posted on Friday, triggering condemnation by the British and US governments.
It also came despite recent speculation that the Taliban leadership, whose goal is to topple the government and set up a Sharia state, is actually wary of IS, which is driven by different ambitions that have little to do with South Asia.
The Pak Taliban, funded by local as well as foreign charity donations from wealthy supporters in the Gulf and elsewhere, operate separately from the Afghan forces of Evil of the same name, but are loosely aligned with them.
There are concerns about further turmoil in the region as most US-led foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan this year, with groups like the Haqqani network likely to exploit the security vacuum to strengthen their hold on Afghan regions.
The Haqqani network, despite being based in Pakistain, is narrowly focused on its insurgency in Afghanistan and has not commented on IS-related developments.
The TTP has been beset by bitter internal rivalries over the past year, with the influential Mehsud tribal faction of the group refusing to accept the authority of Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
, who came to power in late 2013.
IS, in an effort to extend its global reach, could exploit these rivalries to its advantage, wading into a region ripe with fierce anti-Western ideology and full of young unemployed men ready to take up guns and fight for Islam.