Al Azhar paper examines IS’ public opinion strategy

CAIRO - 7 June 2017: Al Azhar Observer published an official report about the Islamic State (IS) group’s plans for geographical expansion. The report, published Tuesday on Al Azhar’s website, is titled, “ISIS’ Lone-Wolf Strategy.”

In the report, Al Azhar says IS’ military has faced a number of territorial defeats in the area where it planned to build its new Islamic caliphate: Iraq and Syria. Consequently, the report argues that IS’ failures have forced it to use simpler, less obvious operations and that the group has “no direct contact” with the perpetrators who have carried out deadly attacks in places like France, Germany and Britain.

IS benefits in several ways from these deadly attacks, the report adds. First, they guarantee a “long lasting damaging impact” irrespective of their actual ability on the ground; second, they spread the feeling that IS is continuing to spread and is growing increasingly lethal. “This strategy distinguishes IS from other terrorist groups,” says the report, making it seem to be the “deadliest and most widely expanding.”


Despite appearances, however, IS may not be the most powerful or best equipped group, the report adds.