Following police claims that the two men accused of the deadly antisemitic Bondi beach attack, Naveed and Sajid Akram, may have been inspired by Islamic State ideology and had recently visited a Philippine island where an IS affiliate is believed to have operated, what do we know about the group and its aims?
What is Islamic State and what are its aims?
Emerging in Iraq and Syria IS, also known as ISIL and colloquially by its opponents as Daesh, was originally an offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq and emerged as a serious security threat after taking large amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 to establish its short-lived but hugely violent self-styled “caliphate”.
Unusual among jihadist groups with broadly similar backgrounds was its attempt to take and hold territory at a time when it had thousands of followers under arms and several million people living in the band of territory it controlled.
During the time of the IS caliphate it also exported its violent ideology to a number of associated “provinces” and affiliates who carried out attacks in Europe, the US and elsewhere, including the Abu Sayyaf movement in the Philippines.
By the end of 2017 IS had lost 95% of the territory it controlled, and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by the US in October 2019. The Pentagon estimates there are at most only a couple of thousand fighters remaining in Iraq and Syria.
However, where IS does remain effective, say experts, is in terms of its continued reach online, where it is still able to attract followers to plan, launch and claim lone wolf attacks inspired by its propaganda.
What is IS’s ideology?
While IS initially differed from al-Qaida in focusing on local enemies in the Muslim world (unlike “far enemies” like the United States), since the fall of the caliphate IS’s attacks abroad have tended to be characterised by radicalised individuals who have come across its propaganda.
Its early focus under Baghdadi was to target Shia Muslims as well as rival Sunni groups, those working for the security forces in Iraq,and minorities such as the Yazidi.
What do we know about IS’s antisemitism?
The police investigation in Australia has revealed that the Akrams allegedly made statements – including videos with the IS flag – condemning the acts of “Zionists”.
While many of its antisemitic tropes about Jewish influence and power are shared with other strands of antisemitic thinking, IS framing has been defined by the US Congressional Research Service as “a uniquely hardline version of violent jihadist-Salafism” which is coloured by an obsessive concern with the end of days.
That world view saw IS’s former online magazine Dabiq (itself named for an apocalyptic prophecy) justifying its killings of Shia Muslims by defining Shia Islam as a Jewish plot in a world which it divides into two camps.
In one camp is its own extreme version of Islam, while the rival camp encompasses “Jews, the Crusaders, their allies [including Muslims], and with them the rest of the nations and religions of kufr [disbelief], all being led by America and Russia, and being mobilised by the Jews” who it calls to be killed.
Where do pro-Palestinian protests fit into this?
While there have been efforts to make a connection between protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the Bondi beach attack, it is still not clear what precise path the radicalisation of the alleged shooters followed or what impact events in Gaza may have had.
During the 2014 Israel war against Gaza, however, IS used the conflict as a rallying cause.
But it is important to note that while IS endorses the “liberation” of Arab lands, it is explicitly opposed to the notion of nation states, seeing them as a foreign colonial imposition in conflict with its idea of a perfect Islamic community under its brutal rule.
In other words, IS does not believe in the idea of Palestinian national self determination espoused by mainstream Palestinian activism, but rather in the context of an expanded caliphate under its rule.