The nearly 30-minute-long message was very explicit calling on ISIS supporters to advance the cause everywhere they live.
Al-Adnani says: “Ramadan is coming, the month of attacks and jihad, the month of conquest so be prepared and be on alert, and make sure that everyone of you spends it (Ramadan) in the name of God on the attack. Requesting from God that it (Ramadan), God willing, be a month of calamity on the non-believers anywhere, especially by those soldiers and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America.”
“The smallest action you do in their heartland is better and more enduring to us than what you would if you were with us. If one of you hoped to reach the Islamic State, we wish we were in your place to punish the Crusaders day and night.”
There is no way to interpret these comments other than as a call to arms for followers and lone wolves to do whatever they can, however they can, wherever they live. But there is also a secondary, even subliminal, message being transmitted here.
ISIS is telling their followers that attacks perpetrated against the West are more valuable to them than traveling and joining the fight in the Middle East. ISIS needs local people to perpetrate attacks. They want more independent cells to develop and strike—just like they did in France in Belgium.
ISIS wants to take the fight to our shores. And they want to do it now, during the month of Ramadan.
From Egypt to Indonesia, recorded violent crime increases by incredible percentages throughout the fast. In addition, Ramadan exacerbates other social problems and spawns specific crimes all its own: offenses not generally seen at other times of the year. Child traffickers in Yemen, for example, take advantage of the increase in food prices to purchase children from poor parents.
In Muslim countries, governments prepare for Ramadan by boosting police patrols and carrying out public awareness campaigns about crime and the increase in accidents that is also a regular fixture of the fast. Of course, the emergency services in the U.K., hamstrung by political correctness, are more reticent to publicly acknowledge the challenges posed by Ramadan.
The spike in religiously-motivated killing during this Islamic month will be of no surprise to citizens of the Muslim world, where the total dead thanks to jihadist attacks stands at 532 this Ramadan and counting.
In addition, Ramadan traditionally sees a leap in criminal conduct in the Islamic world, as well as a spike in obesity cases due to the gorging commonplace at night-time.
The link between the month of Ramadan and extreme violence in Islam is an ancient one.
The year 624 AD marked a turning point in world history, when the Arab brigands choosing to follow a self-declared prophet named Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Quraysh hit upon a unique recipe.
Before the “Nakhla Raid,” the caravan attacks committed by the first disciples of the person 1.6 billion Muslims now revere as their Prophet Muhammad were calamitous failures. So, instead, the first followers of Islam chose to combine violence with deception.
Seventh century Arabia was a free-for-all of warring tribes who nevertheless all shared one ethical principle. Acts of war during the holy months, particularly the two months which included Ramadan when pilgrims journeyed to the then multi-faith shrine in Mecca, were strictly forbidden.
It was the ultimate taboo, and the first Muslims not only broke it, but also added a further twist of subterfuge. They decided to disguise themselves as pilgrims. Approaching at night, their enemies would not know their true intent until it was too late. In the decades that followed, the combination of deception and violence allowed Islam to conquer two-thirds of Christendom.
Though most Muslims today are more secular-minded, and often unaware of their religion’s early history, fundamentalists are chiefly committed to emulating the founder of Islams “Mohammed’s” historical example.
