Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the notorious leader of one of world’s largest terrorist organizations known as either the Islamic State or the ISIS. It is believed that ISIS is currently composed of at least 10,000 Jihads, or Islamic holy warriors and have conquered vast amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq. Now, al-Baghdadi continually speaks of an attack against the U.S. and is luring Muslims from America, Europe and even foreigners to join in his “holy war”.
Before he became the leader of this organization, Baghdadi was under U.S. custody for 4 years until he was released in 2009. As he left U.S. territory his farewell to the American troops was, “I’ll see you guys in New York”. Many believed this was the start of ISIS’ plans to one day launch a large terrorist attack on America.
Many have expressed great concerns regarding Baghdadi’s statement and the Islamic State’s plans regarding their plans for America. Mathew Levitt, a former FBI analyst went as far as to say that the ISIS is the greatest threat the U.S. is facing than ever before, possibly even greater than the al-Qaida.
The greatest fear is that Muslims living in either the U.S. or Europe and have western passports could probably use their statuses to return to the Middle East to join the ISIS and help carry out more terrorist activities. One time in May, a French Muslim with a French passport had killed four Jews at a museum.
Earlier this year, an American Muslim who was a resident of Florida undertook a suicide bombing against the Syrian military. The really astounding part was that this U.S. citizen had absolutely no affiliation with the ISIS before this incident. However, as the terrorists continued to expand their Islamic state, or caliphate, and accumulated more and more assets, the Jihad started to become attractive towards foreigners and potential Western members who were attracted to their success and activities through social media.
Levitt commented in an interview with CBN news that some of these foreign recruits have already returned home to the Middle East and without doubt the ISIS will carry out more terrorist activities abroad and possibly even within American borders.
Meanwhile, the al-Qaida which for the longest time was considered the world’s most powerful terrorist organization is now believed to have become rivals with ISIS even though the two groups have plotted many activities together in the past. Experts believe that this split in relation was caused by Baghdadi’s claim that his organization will lead the entire Islamic state or caliphate. However, we cannot deny that the potential for terrorist attacks has possibly become greater than ever.
