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Townhall
The Challenge
of Stopping Do-it-Yourself Jihadism
By Jonah Goldberg
Sep 19, 2014
On Thursday, Australian authorities claimed they thwarted a plot by
supporters of the Islamic State to grab random people off the street
and then behead the captured citizens on videotape. Australia's
attorney general said that the massive raid, the largest
counterterrorism operation in the nation's history, involving more than
800 police officers and raids of at least 12 properties, was necessary
because, "If the ... police had not acted today, there is a likelihood
that this would have happened."
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed that the raids were
prompted by intercepted phone calls, from an Australian of Afghan
descent believed to be Mohammad Ali Baryalei. The Sydney Morning Herald
reported that he is suspected to be the "most senior Australian member
of the terrorist group Islamic State, having traveled to Syria in April
last year." A proselytizer for the "Street Dawah Movement," Barylei
"was outspoken and wouldn't shy from speaking the truth regardless," a
former fellow Dawah member told Fairfax Media. "He wasn't pleased with
living in Australian society and wanted to live in an Islamic society
away from open alcoholism, homosexuality, fornication, drugs and
capitalism."
Baryalei is credited with recruiting at least two fellow Australians to
the cause. One, Khaled Sharrouf, infamously tweeted pictures of himself
executing prisoners in Iraq and images of his 7-year-old son holding a
severed head in Syria. Another fellow Australian, Mohamed Elomar, has
also released images of himself holding the decapitated heads of his
"enemies."
So here's the troubling question: Why did Baryalei bother making the
phone calls?
We've been hearing for months that the Islamic State is brilliant at
social media. The terror group can reach out to supporters,
sympathizers and assassins all around the world with a single tweet,
Facebook post or YouTube video.
If the terror group wants Muslims in Sydney, Australia -- or in New
York City, or in Topeka, Kansas -- to grab innocent people off the
street and saw their heads off, all it needs to do is say so. The word
will get to the intended ears quickly enough.
Now, the fact that the Islamic State didn't do this is a little
encouraging. It suggests that it's either unwilling to cross that
Rubicon quite yet or it has reason to believe that few people would
follow through on the public command, making it look weak. That's all
to the good.
But there's too much potential bad news here as well.
For the rest of this article and more, go to Townhall
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