Why Islamic State chose town of Dabiq for propaganda

BBC ^ | 11/17/14 | staff

[winoneforthegipper]

The small Syrian town of Dabiq, which featured in the latest beheading video from the Islamic State group (IS), has figured heavily in the group's propaganda since July when it named its new English-language magazine after the town.

The group has focused on the dusty backwater not because of any strategic importance or the size of its population - the Syrian census of 2004 recorded that little over 3,000 people were living there - but for the power of its symbolism.

Dabiq, which lies around 10km (six miles) from the Turkish border, features in Islamic apocalyptic prophecies as the site of an end-of-times showdown between Muslims and their enemies.

The Prophet Muhammad is believed to have said that "the last hour will not come" until Muslims vanquish the Romans at "Dabiq or Al-A'maq" - both in the Syria-Turkey border region - on their way to conquer Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

IS has been seeking to bring on that battle by goading the international coalition to confront it there.

[winoneforthegipper]

Finally an international report on ISIS' true intention though they couch it with the word propaganda, it's a start.

[RinaseaofDs]

Get Putin on the phone. Tell him you are going to launch a single 10 warhead MRV ICBM at Dabiq. Tell him what silo its coming from, and the minute it will launch.

Then turn that city to glass.

Better than doing it to Mecca. If they don’t get the symbolism of turning Dabiq into a sea of glass, maybe it will come to doing it to Mecca, and that stupid black rock of theirs.