The Islamic State uses terror tactics against its enemies similar to how the Mongols and the Crusaders and colonialists used terror to defeat the Muslims when the Muslims were a rich civilization.
Abu Bakr Naji was a jihad theorist in the mid-2000s. He proposed that mujahideen should use tawahhush to defeat their enemies. Tawahhush in Arabic comes from the word wahsh, “to be like a wolf or beast,” which only cares about its own wolf family while being harsh against all other animals. This seclusion allows the wolf family to be strong because it does not care what outsiders say or think about it. Abu Bakr Naji explains that all savage nations like the Mongols, the old and the new Crusaders did not care what the world said about them. They broke all civilized laws and continued to choose their path of war until they crumbled superpowers, and in the end they were victorious and they became the kings. Uncivilized nations have always defeated civilized nations because uncivilized people have less rules to follow. They have less to lose and more to win. So Abu Bakr Naji says that the Sahaba (companions of Prophet Muhammad) who were men of the desert were able to defeat the Persian (Iranian) and Roman (European) superpowers through constant war and attrition. If the mujahideen continue in the path of jihad while ignoring the media criticism against them, they will continue to be victorious. Allah says about the victorious group: “They fight in the cause of Allah, and they do not fear the blame of the blamers. That is the favor of Allah, which he gives to whoever he wants.”
Unlike the majority of Muslims, who hate the negative attention Islam gets in the media, the mujahideen feel happy that their enemies say scary things about them (such as a beheading or terror attack). Why? Because the scary media attention puts fear into the heart of the enemies fighting the mujahideen. There are many cases when Iraqi troops flee even before a battle begins after hearing about a beheading video, and more American soldiers committed suicide in Iraq than those killed in battle. Many Russian troops today say they are scared and do not want to enter Syria to fight a battle that has nothing to do with them. Why would they want to be beheaded for nothing?
We are living in the prophetic end time “deceptive years” wherein Muslims look evil even though we are fighting the tyrant New World Order. Muslims cannot do much about this negative perception because it is the way of God’s prophets to be harsh when the Muslims are weak (so their enemy does not feel too confident against a weaker enemy), and to be gentle with the people when we are strong. Study the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) and you will see this pattern. You will see how the order to behead the enemy (Qur’an 8:67) is after the battle of Badr when Muslims were weak, and the mercy of freeing the people of Mecca is after the conquest of Mecca when the Muslims were strong.
So do not feel saddened by the bad media attention Islam and mujahideen get. Your job is to continue the jihad, convey the truth, and in the end people will see the truth, and the sincere from the people will become guided after seeing through the deception.
From “Black Flags from the Islamic State.” “All these prophecies of the end times you have already read,” elsewhere reads this manifesto, released by the Islamic State in November 2015, “now they are becoming a reality.” Another manifesto, recovered in July 2015, called for “the final battle” between the Muslim caliphate and the New World Order. “Accept the fact that this caliphate will survive and prosper until it takes over the entire world and beheads every last person that rebels against Allah,” reads the document. “This is the bitter truth, swallow it.”
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