7,500 Miles Apart, Two ISIS Attacks Cause Carnage
The fact that ISIS is able to carry out strikes in Israel and in Malaysia with so little coordination with central command shows the danger of the ideology.
A terror attack on a nightclub in Malaysia last week was carried out by the Islamic State, according to governmental officials.
A terrorist threw a grenade into the club, Molvida, in the capital Kuala Lumpur, where people had gathered to watch Spain play Italy in the Euro 2016 tournament.
Eight people were injured in the attack. The two men who lobbed the grenade were arrested along with 15 others.
Although authorities initially suspected the attack had been motivated by a business rivalry, they later found it had been an Islamic State attack after the terrorist group claimed responsibility on Twitter.
Across the oceans, roughly 7,500 miles away in Israel, a terrorist attack last month wreaked carnage at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, killing four people and wounding 15.
Now Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, says that those who carried out the terrorist attack were inspired by ISIS.
The terrorists struck “without having been officially recruited to the organization and without having received any guidance or assistance” according to the Shin Bet officials.
The pair reportedly took a picture in front of the Islamic State flag before the attack to show their support for the group. They had also planned to dip their knives in rat poison in order to kill more people, but had not managed to do so at the time of the attack, which was carried out with guns.
The fact that attacks like these can occur so far apart with so little coordination with the the Islamic State shows how effective ISIS propaganda can be.
The ideology of Islamism taken to the extreme of armed jihad against civilians can be easily spread and disseminated in the internet age, with videos, speeches and images travelling thousands of miles in the blink of an eye.
Comparing attacks like these two throws into sharp relief the ideological nature of the problem and the impossibility of defeating it militarily without a concerted international response to isolate and discredit Islamism once and for all.
