ISIS returns with new tools: What are they?
Contrary to popular claims about the success of Western operations against extremist Islamic groups, the exceptional bloody response to Hamas‘s attacks on Israel in October 2023 led to the destruction of Gaza and the death of more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. This provided another reason for Islamist extremists to continue their operations.
According to a recent study by the Arab Center for Extremism Studies, the March 2024 attack on a concert hall in a Moscow neighborhood marked the return of ISIS as a deadly force.
The Moscow operation resulted in at least 133 deaths and many more injuries. But Russia is not the only country where the group is active; it is present worldwide. Its activity on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border shows it has not lost its effectiveness.
Operations there have claimed the lives of dozens of soldiers. The group and its allied factions continue to find recruits in regions where citizens believe that Western powers along with the Jewish state of Israel are working hard to destroy Islam.
According to the center, extremists have overcome setbacks from numerous operations conducted by American and Western intelligence agencies by using new recruitment and propaganda tools. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been particularly effective in this context.
Reports indicate that four days after the Moscow attack, a video began circulating on a private platform run by ISIS. The 92-second broadcast showed a news presenter wearing a helmet and military uniform, stating that the Moscow attack was part of ISIS‘s war against “the countries fighting Islam.”
Seven days after the Russian attack, an ISIS propaganda official released the first video of the attack on the private messaging platform “Harvest News.” This was followed by six more episodes providing overviews of ISIS operations worldwide, including in Niger, Cameroon, Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria.
Jihadists pioneering the use of AI and related technologies to spread their propaganda have faced opposition from some traditional Islamists questioning whether artificial images of humans are forbidden by Sharia law. “We do not show animated faces; it is haram,” wrote an ISIS supporter named “Hamed 123” in a message on the “Harvest News” platform to a critic.
Many in the West are concerned that ISIS‘s use of AI to spread its messages and provide news about its operations will increase its effectiveness, according to Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The study concluded that AI can help the growth of local extremism by allowing people anywhere to access jihadist propaganda, be influenced by it, and engage in extremist groups. “If you throw a large amount of spaghetti against the wall, one of them will eventually stick.” AI could provide more avenues for the development of such extremist content.
