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ISIS Hits Russia But why? [ISIS’ name for its victims: Christians]
Frontpagemagazine ^ | March 25, 2024 | Robert Spencer

Posted on 03/25/2024 6:39:38 AM PDT by SJackson

The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for Friday’s jihad terror attack in Moscow, in which the death toll is currently 137 and will likely turn out to be many more once the magnitude of the damage is fully assessed. ISIS’ claim, however, has been greeted with widespread skepticism, as the usual suspects in conspiracy paranoia, notably the CIA and Mossad, have been accused on social media of being the real culprits. Yet there is absolutely no reason to discount the Islamic State’s involvement, as a close examination of its claim of responsibility demonstrates.

ISIS issued a statement boasting that “the Islamic State dealt a strong blow to Russia with a bloody attack, the most violent targeting it in years.” It added that “security sources told Amaq Agency that a coordinated attack was launched by Islamic State fighters, on Friday, on a large crowd of Christians in the city of Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of the capital, Moscow.”

Amaq Agency is ISIS’ mouthpiece for its announcements of various jihad activities. In 2019, the State Department declared Amaq a foreign terrorist organization, making it one of the few media outlets that cheer on jihad violence to bear the terrorist designation officially. If the State Department were consistent, the New York Times, the Guardian, Reuters and all the other “news” agencies that publish Hamas propaganda as if it were objective reporting would be designated terrorist organizations as well.

The most noteworthy aspect of the statement, however, is ISIS’ name for its victims: Christians. The statement continued: “The sources added that the attack targeted a mass concert attended by thousands of Christians, inside a music hall located within a large commercial complex in the city.” Did ISIS strike a Christian concert? No, the crowd was there to see a concert by the popular Russian progressive rock group Picnic. So why did ISIS refer to its victims as Christians?

About half of the Russian population identifies itself as Christian, but as far as Islamic jihadis are concerned, anyone in a historically Christian country (except for Jews and Muslims) is a Christian, whatever he or she may actually believe. Thus Osama bin Laden declared jihad in 1998 against “Jews and Crusaders” when he issued his call to “kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military.”

ISIS’ boast of killing “Christians,” therefore, is entirely consistent with the jihad imperative as jihadis themselves articulate it. Russia was struck first and foremost not because of anything it has done or not done recently, but because it is, as far as ISIS is concerned, made up of Christians, and the Qur’an directs Muslims to fight against and subjugate Jews and Christians under the hegemony of Islamic law.

Many analysts today reject this idea and would insist that ISIS must have had an immediate reason to strike Russia, since after all, there are many majority-Christian countries, and it isn’t mounting attacks of this magnitude against them. That may, however, simply be a matter of having the means and opportunity; Americans who think this sort of thing cannot and will not happen here are likely in for a rude surprise, especially given the fact that we no longer have a southern border.

What’s more, ISIS itself appeared to rule out the idea that the attack was a response to anything in particular. The Amaq statement said that “the attack comes within the normal context of the raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting Islam.”

How is Russia “fighting Islam”? The Islamic State struck the Russian embassy in Kabul in 2022, and its animus against Russia appears to be related at least in part to Russia’s generally friendly relationship with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which ISIS has been trying to dislodge.

Russia also targeted the Islamic State in Syria, and helped destroy the ISIS caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

It should also be remembered that we are in the middle of Ramadan. Palestinian Authority Supreme Sharia Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash said in 2022: “Ramadan is not a month of laziness but rather a month of activity, of effort, and of hard work, and as it also was in the life of the Prophet, a month of jihad, conquest, and victory.” What kind of hard work? The jihad group Qaedat al-Jihad explained in 2012: “Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and God’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators.” Or as the Kashmiri Maulana Bashir Ahmad Khaki put it in 2018: “Ramadan is the pious month of ‘Jihad-o-Qital’ (Jihad and killing). Those who attain martyrdom while waging Jihad, doors of heaven remain open.”

That means that as the West’s most respected analysts look everywhere except in Islam for the reasons behind the massacre in Russia, the jihads will keep plotting more bloodshed and murder.


TOPICS: Editorial; War on Terror
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1 posted on 03/25/2024 6:39:38 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d to be on or off, please FR mail me.
2 posted on 03/25/2024 6:47:40 AM PDT by SJackson (In a war of ideas it is people who get killed, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
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To: SJackson

Russia and Muslims have been fighting for centuries.


3 posted on 03/25/2024 6:54:05 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator

And yet, a certain contingent here on FR still refuses to believe that ISIS did it


4 posted on 03/25/2024 6:57:03 AM PDT by canuck_conservative (NATO - now celebrating 75 successful years of keeping the Russian monsters out!!)
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To: SJackson

Russia is still helping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad against ISIS. So it makes a lot of sense.
But, it may also means that we are next?!


5 posted on 03/25/2024 7:03:07 AM PDT by AZJeep
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To: AZJeep
But, it may also means that we are next?!

Per Director Wray who agrees with you.

We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago. In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West. Al-Qaeda issued its most specific call to attack the United States in the last five years. ISIS urged its followers to target Jewish communities in the United States and Europe. Hizballah has publicly expressed its support for Hamas and threatened to attack U.S. interests in the Middle East. And we’ve seen an increase in attacks on U.S. military bases overseas carried out by militia groups backed by Iran.

6 posted on 03/25/2024 7:26:25 AM PDT by SJackson (In a war of ideas it is people who get killed, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
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To: SJackson

I don’t believe it for one minute. I believe it was our CIA. And they will get their retribution which will be on us.


7 posted on 03/25/2024 7:34:13 AM PDT by tinamina (Remember when Biden said “we have developed the most sophisticated voting fraud system ever”? )
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To: tinamina

Why couldn’t it be both? Why couldn’t ISIS, knowingly or unknowingly have been instigated or supported by the CIA? I don’t see how these are mutually exclusive notions?

I’m not saying it’s true, just pointing out the mathematical possibilities.


8 posted on 03/25/2024 7:39:57 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: canuck_conservative

That’s because isis had nothing to do with it. This is exactly the MO of Ukraine. Some of these people are the most vicious animals on the planet, they are worse the MS13. My God! they use their own citizens as human shields, they kill their own children for propaganda films. America should not be involved with these terrorist nations at all. And zeepers are blood thirsty freaks who actually cheered on Russians being killed in terrorist attacks.


9 posted on 03/25/2024 7:43:53 AM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: All

We all saw the avalanche of articles saying that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Moscow event.

I have seen no appearance from anyone known to be the ISIS leadership (does anyone know who that might be?) saying this.

There seems to be a Telegram channel labeled to be ISIS that was the vehicle for this media report avalanche. I do not know how easily Telegram channels can be created, or hacked. Nor why a non Sunni and non Shiite group would have such a channel before the event, and surely that channel pre-dated the event — to have any credibility at all?

FYI, ISIS is neither Sunni nor Shiite, so funding is a question in a larger sense, as is staff for Telegram channel maintenance.

As for blaming Ukraine, that seems a rather tame conspiracy in comparison to explicit US or UK orchestration.

Btw, is there any ISIS history of terror by fathers of young children who did arrange to die during the event?


10 posted on 03/25/2024 7:47:31 AM PDT by Owen (.)
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To: TexasGator

MUSLIMS HAVE BEEN FIGHTING EVERYONE FOR CENTURIES

THEY ARE TAUGHT TO ALLOW ONLY MUSLIMS TO EXIST


11 posted on 03/25/2024 8:02:02 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: canuck_conservative

ISIS must certainly did it. The legitimate question is was this mission state sponsored and were they paid to carry it out? Thi happens more than many think and it will probably increase in both intensity and violence. There will be a backlash from Russia on this.


12 posted on 03/25/2024 8:02:24 AM PDT by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the day be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: DarthVader
ISIS must certainly did it.

Complete BS!
13 posted on 03/25/2024 8:08:00 AM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: tinamina
It could be a case of Western intelligence using “our” crazy Muslim terrorists (Isis, Isil) to strike in retaliation for the Iranian-aligned crazy Muslim terrorists (Hamas) for their strikes on Israel on October 6th. But what would be the purpose? You could argue that the Iranians, in a favor to Moscow, encouraged the strikes to divert Western resources away from Ukraine. However, the Hamas attack united the Israelis with a resolve to smash their enemies. If it were instigated by the West, what is the purpose? The attacks will only increase Russian resolve to defeat the Ukrainians, whom the Russians are blaming?
14 posted on 03/25/2024 8:11:21 AM PDT by Wallace T. ( )
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To: JoSixChip

Not so Joe. If you payed attention we have a problem with state sponsored terrorism and its going to be global. The powers that be will be using who every they can to do their dirty work. These terrorist groups are like mercenaries. There are numerous reports about the Russians using terrorist groups in the Ukraine. We are going to see a lot more of this proxy war madness.

Here is one of several stories concerning this:

https://www.israelwarroom.com/tp/palestinians-are-supporting-russia-in-the-war-against-ukraine


15 posted on 03/25/2024 8:33:26 AM PDT by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the day be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: Wallace T.

I’ve seen a few reports where the Russians are blaming the West. The Israelis have definitely been motivated to wipe out Hamas. The Oct 7th attack on Gaza was very well tactically planned and carried out but was a strategic disaster for Hamas. I think we need to see how things develop in the next couple of weeks to really see what’s going on here.


16 posted on 03/25/2024 8:47:15 AM PDT by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the day be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: DarthVader
There are numerous reports about the Russians using terrorist groups in the Ukraine.

Oh, you're one of those. You believe the propaganda of this administration and Ukraine. You can't claim otherwise because you have the exact same position on it they do. That would give most sane people pause.
17 posted on 03/25/2024 9:10:00 AM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: JoSixChip

I don’t believe this administration and stated that they are just as likely to engage in this. This is the reality and state sponsorship of terrorism is going up. There are lots of resources showing this. Just looking at the data from all angles. In WW2 we were Allies with Russia until Germany was defeated then trouble began between us. Nations make strange bedfellows to meet security and political objectives and I think we are seeing similar things going on.


18 posted on 03/25/2024 9:27:13 AM PDT by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the day be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: DarthVader

Justify it any way you want, but in the end you are in lock-step with the biden admin.


19 posted on 03/25/2024 9:38:13 AM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: canuck_conservative

I think the same culprits responsible for the Nord Stream pipe line sabotage were responsible for this event.


20 posted on 03/25/2024 9:39:12 AM PDT by mosaicwolf
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