Senior level Western intelligence sources stated that the movement wants to fan anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe and to prevent successful integration into European society, since their recruiting is dependent on widespread despair and alienation among Muslim populations.
IS was behind the spate of sexual assaults on women in several Western cities during the recent New Year celebrations, according to a report issued by a Commonwealth country's intelligence agency.
A senior level official of the agency told Jerusalem Online that his agency had "credible information" that IS had instigated the attacks. He said that IS cells in Germany and other countries, many of which include members who returned from the Middle East, had been issued instructions to carry out a wave of sexual assaults during New Year, taking advantage of the fact that somewhat overstretched security forces were primarily looking for bombers, not gropers and rapists.
The logic behind this policy is to generate anti-Muslim sentiment in the West, making it harder for Muslim refugees to settle in the West. "The last thing IS wants is to see over a million Muslim refugees from the Middle East, central Asia and Africa create new lives for themselves," he said.
The report confirms those issued by other intelligence agencies that claim IS in under increasing pressure. It has suffered a series of military defeats at the hands of the Russians, the Kurds and the Iraqi army. Turkey, until recently a part public enemy, part covert ally has stopped being the latter. Plummeting oil prices have impacted its ability to finance its operations. The huge arsenal of arms it captured from the Iraqi army when it took Mosul was a one time show. It now has to purchase military equipment on the black market, straining its dwindling resources. The combination of military setbacks and low oil prices has impacted its recruiting capabilities.
ISIS female slaves Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2 News
According to the report, the last thing IS needs or wants is to see millions of Muslim refugees be accepted in Europe and other Western countries, and start building themselves new lives there. IS wants to generate anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, especially in the countries that have been most welcoming to Syrian refugees. "Germany is the key," he said. "If it slams its doors shut, the rest of Europe will follow. That's exactly what this wave of sex attacks was all about, generating anti-Muslim sentiment that will prevent European governments from adopting a populist attitude towards the Sunni refugees, refraining from accepting them."
"According to our analysis, IS has a clear interest in fanning Sunni resentment against the West," he noted. "It's much easier to recruit desperate hopeless refugees than people who have an opportunity to start rebuilding their lives." The more the Sunnis feel that the world had abandoned them, that the West, which subjugated the Sunni world a century ago to the Sykes-Picot Agreement by carving it up into artificial states that eventually that imploded into failed states and is now supporting the Shiites (Iran and the Assad regime, controlled by the Alawites, a Shia sub-sect), the bigger will be their pool of potential recruits.
Ultimately, IS's biggest ally is Sunni anger, hatred and large chip on the shoulde. Refugees that remain in limbo, facing shut doors, despair and hopelessness, whose only hope is the defeat of the Assad regime are a far more fertile breeding ground for IS recruits than refugees who have a chance to rebuild their lives.
He noted that the way the attacks were carried out shows they were planned, not random. Wherever these attacks took place, the modus operandi was the same. Organized gangs prowled the streets, like predators stalking prey. Whenever they spotted potential victims, they would first surround them, loosely at first, then gradually tightening the circle until the women found themselves enclosed by a circle of men, unable to escape and with outsiders unable to see what was going on in that circle. Only then were the women assaulted, groped and in some cases raped.
This has always been a favorite tactic of the Arab world's various Mukhabarat (secret police). During the initial stages of the Egyptian Revolution, this was a favorite tactic of Mubarak's Mukhabarat. Plainclothes officers would infiltrate the crowds in and around Tahrir Square, and in exactly the same way, assault women, hoping to discredit the protestors by having them blamed. The idea was to reduce the number of women protestors, since in the Arab world it's much easier to brutally assault protestors when there are no women among them. Saddam Hussein's Mukhabarat, many of whom have been with IS since its formation, also frequently used this tactic very effectively.
He said that his agency had passed this information on to several European governments.
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