Thursday, February 16, 2017

IS Calls on Backers to Kill Anti-IS Islam Clerics; Begins Online Drive Accusing Them of Betrayal

Islamic State (IS) radicals have launched a coordinated online campaign accusing prominent Muslim clerics in the Arab world and the West of betrayal in an apparent bid to delegitimize them, especially in the eyes of younger Muslims, the VOA News website reports today (February 16, 2017).


In its campaign -- titled "Fight the Imams of Unbelief" -- the terror group says the clerics are collaborating with Arab regimes and the international coalition opposed to IS and is urging supporters as a top priority to kill "the evil scholars."


Some analysts believe the terror group is casting around looking for traitors to explain the collapse of IS's battlefield fortunes and to shape perceptions about the reasons for the fall of the terror group's self-styled caliphate.


Others see the new campaign as linked more immediately to the propaganda struggle being waged between IS and Iraqi government over the unfolding battle for Mosul, in which each side is questioning the religious and historical legitimacy of the other.

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