For 20 years, I have been studying Western recruitment of domestic and international terrorist organizations. I have interviewed jihadis, white nationalists and environmental terrorists to understand their motivations and avoid future violence. In my view, the appeal of some of the most important things that ISIS has offered vulnerable or confused Westerners – doctrinal certainty, identity, redemption and revenge – is as strong as ever, and will continue to affect people who can find it online. .
Most of us, as adults, live in a state of spiritual confusion and uncertainty. We rarely have to choose between good and bad but often face the frustrating choice between actions that lead to better or worse outcomes. Rewards for good behavior are often short-lived, and punishments for bad decisions are often self-inflicted.
For some, ISIS offered an attractive alternative: moral certainty, backed by brutal law enforcement. From 2013 to 2019, an estimated 53,000 soldiers from 80 countries traveled to ISIS-held areas in Syria and Iraq to become part of what the group has sold as a well-meaning Islamic state. An estimated 300 people from the United States have arrived in ISIS-held territory or are attempting to. Some foreign fighters became notorious for carrying out the worst atrocities of the Caliphate.
For those sympathizers unable to make the trip, ISIS’s chief spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, called on followers around the world to attack infidels at home. In a September 2014 speech, Mr. al-Adnani said that if you cannot bomb or shoot an unbelieving enemy, “smash his head with a stone, or kill him with a knife, or shoot him with your car.” ISIS sympathizers began attacking such vehicles, including a truck attack in Nice, France, in 2016 that killed 86 people and injured 450. Many others followed.
A few hours before his suicide attack in New Orleans, the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, posted about his plans on Facebook. Perhaps the song that recorded the most was his admission that he had thought about hurting his family. “I don’t want you to think that I spared you willingly,” she said. But Mr. Jabbar was apparently worried that if he only harmed his family, the headlines might not focus on the “battle between believers and unbelievers” that he thought was happening.
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