COVID-19 is not a hindrance to jihad

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The coronavirus pandemic could help revive the Islamic State. How exactly, to what extent and where - says Ogonyok expert Andrei Serenko, head of the Center for the Study of Afghan Politics.

"Coronavirus is a soldier of Allah …". Posters with such a wild inscription against the backdrop of the Tower of London and views of Chicago adorned the propaganda accounts of the Islamic State (IS, an organization banned in the Russian Federation. "O") in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, back in early April.

Why did you need a new battle slogan? Experts are sure that this is not about jihadist amateur performance, but about strategy. The goal is not just to urge supporters not to be distracted from the mission for fear of a dangerous virus; it is about trying to use it as a mobilization stimulus. “Hit them when they least expect it” is how caliphate agitators in Britain, for example, make it clear that the pandemic is a great excuse to intensify “jihad in the name of Allah”. How? Yes, even if he coughs on the infidels on the street …

Contagion as a mission

The current pandemic has changed the world more and more in a short time than we could understand and notice. The governments of the leading countries of the world are almost completely occupied with internal affairs - they are tightening controls at the borders, making sure that citizens do not leave their homes once again. Now there is no time to counter terrorism abroad, and there is every reason to believe that this situation will drag on: after the exit from the regimes of more or less tough isolation, the authorities of the countries that led the fight against terrorism will be busy restoring the economy and social sphere, reforming healthcare systems - all this will require large funds and power resources. Therefore, Western donors will most likely not be able to spend large sums on foreign policy projects such as combating the IS threat. And how long will the same Iraqi security forces last without external support? Already, they are unable to cope with the activation of the underground IS army (according to various estimates, the number of caliphate fighters in Iraq and Syria today ranges from 25 to 40 thousand people).

But the supporters of IS, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba and a dozen other terrorist organizations banned in the Russian Federation are not dampened by the coronavirus "charged with jihad" supporters of IS, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba. Over the past three months, propaganda sheikhs of various versions of jihad have proposed three versions of a religious justification for the causes of the pandemic. Let us examine them in the order in which they entered.

Initially, jihadist thinkers saw COVID-19 as a punishment sent to punish the "infidels." So, in the middle of spring, a theory appeared, actively supported by the ideologists of the "Islamic State", according to which Allah punishes the four main oppressors of Muslims with the help of the coronavirus. “Look, where are the most sick and dead from a terrible, unknown infection,” wrote the IS propagandists. “First, this is atheistic and communist China, where Muslim Uighurs were persecuted and killed. Secondly, Christian Italy, where the residence of the Pope, the leader of the crusaders - the eternal enemies of Islam, is located. Third, Zionist America, ruled by Jews and whose army has been killing Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries for decades. Fourth, this is Shiite Iran, persecuting Sunni Muslims in Iraq and Syria. " According to the interpretations of the sheikhs of the jihad, COVID-19 has become a form of punishment for the "infidels" and "Rafidites-Shiites" that Allah has sent against them.

Then - probably as the virus spread - jihadist preachers began to emphasize that the pandemic is not only a punishment for the "infidels" ("infidels"), but also an important test for the Muslims themselves. It is noteworthy that both the sheikhs of IS and the mullahs of the Taliban, who are tough competitors in the ideological market of world jihad, agreed with this interpretation of a dangerous infection. Thus, on March 18, the Taliban published a special statement by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, the self-name of the Taliban.- "O") "On the fight against coronavirus." This curious document contained not only assessments, but also recommendations for the correct response to the epidemic. “Coronavirus is a disease prescribed by Almighty Allah, which may have been sent by Allah because of the disobedience and sins of mankind or for other reasons. Our Muslim nation should consider this disease a predestination and fight it in accordance with the teachings of the holy prophet."

Along with the Taliban, Islamic State ideologues have published their "Shariah Recommendations" on assessing COVID-19, anxious to cheer up their army. According to the sheikhs of IS, the coronavirus is not only "a punishment for those to whom Allah decided to send it", but also "at the same time, a mercy for the believer." Moreover, the propagandists of the “caliphate” promised their supporters that for Allah the death of a Muslim from the coronavirus is equivalent to the death of a “mujahid” on the battlefield, that is, in both cases, an IS militant becomes a “shahid” with all the otherworldly privileges that follow from this.

And finally, in April, the sheikhs of the Islamic State proposed a third - the most radical - interpretation of the reasons for the appearance of COVID-19 on Earth.

According to them, the coronavirus is not only a punishment for “infidels” and a mercy for believers, but also a “soldier of Allah”, a resource for “jihad” - in a word, an ally of jihadists in the fight against “infidels”. And, apparently, the third version of the explanation of the "mission of the coronavirus" is the main one for the adherents of "jihad" today.

Reanimation of the "caliphate"

Statistics show that the COVID-19 pandemic actually contributed to the resuscitation of the "Islamic State" in its traditional habitat - Iraq and Syria. Beginning in January 2020, the number of terrorist attacks organized by groups that had previously gone underground and the “sleeping jamaats” of IS is steadily growing in Iraqi and Syrian territory.

So, if in January the militants of the "caliphate" in the vastness from Baghdad to Damascus made 88 attacks, then in February there were already 93, in March - 101, in April - 151. It is noteworthy that only in the last week of April in Iraq and Syria terrorists IS carried out 44 actions, the victims of which were 82 people. There is no doubt that before the May statistics, all these figures will fade - in the first week of this month alone, IS militants carried out 74 actions in Iraq and Syria, during which about 140 people were killed and wounded. This is still an absolute "record" in 2020 …

This, however, is not only about the Near and Middle East. In total, in the first week of May, in seven "wilayats" (conditional provinces) of the "caliphate" militants committed 88 terrorist attacks, more than 200 people became victims. It is indicative that the third place after Iraq and Syria in terms of the level of terrorist activity is taken by the "vilayats" of IS in West and Central Africa: the worst of all is in Nigeria and Mozambique, where in a number of regions Afrojihadists behave like masters. So, on May 7, IS militants burned down two Christian churches in the city of Galyadi (Borno state, in northeastern Nigeria), fired mortar shells at the Nigerian army barracks in the city of Guniri (Yobe state), and on May 8 attacked an army convoy, seizing a fuel tanker and a truck from weapons and ammunition. Clashes with the regular army are not uncommon in Mozambique: this spring they stormed the barracks, captured cities … Judging by the "official" ISIS combat reports, today there are eight active "vilayats" in the structure of the "caliphate" in which active terrorist operations are being carried out. Of these, four, that is, half, are on the African continent, which the developed world rarely recalls in the era of a pandemic.

Experts on international terrorism, by virtue of these alignments, predict: it is in Africa that attempts to build a new "caliphate" according to the scheme of the "basic" Islamic State, which existed in 2013-2017 on the territory of Iraq and Syria, should be expected. And they emphasize: the coronavirus pandemic, which distracts the attention, forces and resources of the absolute majority of countries in the world, will play an important role in this.

Reason for recruiting

In April, there were numerous cases of attempts to recruit immigrants from Turkmenistan and other Central Asian republics in Turkey. “After the introduction of strict quarantine measures in Turkey, labor migrants from Turkmenistan were left without work and without means of subsistence,” Ogonyok sources familiar with the situation say. “Hundreds of people drag out a half-starved existence. At the same time, IS recruiters offer them to go to "work" in neighboring Syria, promising up to a thousand dollars a month. For desperate people, this is a lot of money. And it is obvious that if the crisis and quarantine do not ease up in the near future, we should expect a large influx of people from among the citizens of Turkmenistan and other republics of the former USSR to go to earn money on jihad."

It is not difficult to project the situation on other countries as well. There are now no jobs for migrants in Russian cities either, opportunities for earning money in the Russian Federation have been reduced to a minimum, and it is extremely difficult for immigrants from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan to return home, especially since there is nowhere to return - unemployment problems have sharply worsened in all central Asian republics.

In such a situation, many people who want to make money on the "jihad" may appear, given the sophistication of jihadist propaganda.

According to experts, the favorable environment created by the coronavirus crisis for the radicalization of young Muslims who were left without means of subsistence in a foreign country could provoke the creation of jihadist "jamaats" not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where many labor migrants traditionally settle, but also in Siberian cities, where in recent years citizens of the CIS countries have actively sought to earn money. Moreover, the propagandists of IS and Al-Qaeda (the organization is banned in the Russian Federation) have recently been trying to actively promote the theme of Siberia as a primordially Muslim land, in which before the arrival of Yermak, the “blessed” Khan Kuchum, “the emir of the first Siberian Islamic state "…

It is indicative in this sense that problems with migrants from Central Asia are already emerging in European countries, in particular in the Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, and Austria. Local security officials have already identified IS supporters from among the citizens of Tajikistan: it is alleged that they were preparing terrorist attacks against American servicemen. The action, fortunately, was prevented, but the threat is real. It is another matter that opposition to it is also real: new conditions in which the world finds itself for months, maybe even years, as well as new priorities of internal security create a fundamentally new space for cooperation between the intelligence services of Russia, the United States, the EU and Central Asia. Moreover, despite all the existing geopolitical contradictions, the Russians, Americans and Europeans for the jihadists who have become active in the pandemic have only one designation - "infidels" who are subject to physical destruction.

Afghanistan as a laboratory

There is one more dimension. The concept of COVID as a "test, mercy and instrument of Allah", preached today by various jihadist groups, has led supporters of IS, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations to completely ignore the problem of the pandemic in Muslim countries in practical terms - they are not at all concerned with protecting the life and health of their fellow believers.

So, for example, in Afghanistan, where the positions of the Taliban remain strong, their leaders only in words demonstrate their readiness to fight the coronavirus epidemic that came to the country from neighboring Iran. A few weeks ago, Taliban spokesmen issued a statement expressing their readiness to fight the pandemic and calling on international organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières to help residents in areas under Taliban control. But they don’t believe that in Afghanistan.

“This is nothing more than propaganda,” the competent sources of Ogonyok in Kabul comment on the situation. “In the territories controlled by the Taliban, the medical infrastructure has been completely destroyed. For many years this was deliberately done by the militants themselves, who expelled and killed doctors who were trying to establish prophylaxis and vaccinate children. In April 2019, the Taliban expelled all WHO staff and representatives of the International Red Cross from their controlled areas. Over the past six months, for example, they have closed dozens of medical facilities in the Maidan-Wardak province sponsored by a Swedish charity. A few months ago, a Taliban suicide bomber blew up a local hospital in Zabul province, on May 12 there was a terrorist attack on a hospital and a maternity hospital in Kabul, killing children, women and doctors. Although the Taliban refused to take responsibility for the atrocity, there are good reasons to suspect the Taliban were behind the attack.

According to official data, today in Afghanistan about 3, 5 thousand people fell ill with coronavirus, more than 100 of them died. However, these statistics cannot be considered complete. “Recently, 500 people were randomly tested in the country, the COVID-19 virus was found in half,” sources told Ogonyok in Kabul. According to experts, more than 10 million Afghans can get sick with coronavirus pneumonia, and hundreds of thousands can die.

- There is no vaccine against this infection, it is possible to limit its spread only through conscientiousness, adherence to the most stringent quarantine. However, Afghans, accustomed to other, much more visible threats, are frivolous in this regard, - complain the Kabul sources of Ogonyok.

An additional danger, local doctors note, is created by the coincidence of the acute phase of the pandemic with the Ramadan fast: the immunity of Afghans is not the strongest anyway, and food restrictions during fasting completely deprive them of strength. At the same time, believing Afghans are frightened not so much by the disease itself as by the prospect of being buried not according to the Muslim tradition. As you know, people who died from coronavirus are buried without washing, not in a traditional grave, but in ditches eight meters deep, covered with layers of quicklime on top. Such a funeral is unacceptable for a Muslim believer. Therefore, according to sources of "Ogonyok", even doctors often hide the fact of their infection in order to be buried in the event of death according to the Islamic tradition.

Infected - hug the enemy

The jihadists of IS, the Taliban and other terrorist groups are not going to treat the sick co-religionists from the coronavirus, but they do not seem to mind using already infected people for their own purposes. It is known that back in March, the commanders of the Pakistani extremist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba called on their supporters infected with COVID-19 to infect officials, law enforcement officers, and foreigners. To do this, they were asked to visit crowded places, enter various institutions, and contact the largest possible number of "enemies of jihad and Islam."

In the same Pakistan, in February-March, activists of the Tabliig Jamaat organization, banned in the Russian Federation, held crowded religious conventions, deliberately exposing thousands of their participants to the threat of coronavirus infection. It was assumed that then the infected would spread the infection to neighboring countries - India, Afghanistan, and the republics of Central Asia. Of course, the introduction of quarantine measures by the countries of the region did not allow the implementation of these plans in full, but the attempt itself is quite remarkable.

Turning COVID-19 infected supporters of radical Islam into living biological bombs capable of hitting “infidels” is just one of the unconventional attempts to put into practice the motto “Coronavirus is a soldier of Allah”, and it has been adopted not only by Pakistani radicals. Recently, activists of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, banned in the Russian Federation, tried to give appropriate recommendations to their supporters in Egypt. Russian-speaking IS propagandists also recommend that supporters who have been infected with the "crown" are "attacking infidels with themselves" in all accessible places. In this regard, one can recall how a couple of years ago the information resources of the jihadists urged supporters of the "caliphate" to inject toxic substances into open food products in Russian supermarkets. In a word, the adherents of "jihad" are interested in using "biological weapons within walking distance", and now it can be converted into attempts to spread infection in cities where "infidels" live. The question of what and how to oppose this remains open.