ISIS Still Presents A Threat To Europe Especially The UK

"Britain is one of the forerunners of enmity towards Islam and Muslims: they are the ones who laid the foundation for the Zionist state in Palestine," declares the cover story in the Voice of Khorasan, an English-language magazine linked to IsisKhorasan (Isis-K), in its January edition.

- KIM SENGUPTA

The headline on the article, published by Al-Azam Media Foundation, which proclaims its adherence to Islamic State Khorasan Province, is “Reality of the Wild West: United Kingdom of Kufir [infidels]”.

On the topic of Britain, it says: “A list of their crimes against the Muslims is enormously long. The British Crusaders hardly left a stone unturned in their machinations against Islam. Ever since Muslims had engaged in war against the Crusaders, Britain played [a] most vital role.”

Despite initial attempts by Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin to link Ukraine to the massacre in the Moscow concert hall, the overwhelming evidence is that it was the Isis-Khorasan group that carried out the attack, claiming 137 lives and injuring 180. Yesterday, Mr Putin said radical Islamists were behind the attack.

Isis, widely viewed as having been defeated as a force after the end of its “caliphate” and the killing of its leader Abu-Bakr alBaghdadi five years ago, is now back in international focus after carrying out an attack that was described as truly “spectacular” in its lethal scope.

Isis-K, based in Afghanistan, has repeatedly threatened Russia in its propaganda bulletins, reflecting the central-Asian links of many of its fighters. The Kremlin and Mr Putin were charged with “having Muslim blood on their hands” historically in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria, but also in respect of killings in Africa’s Sahel by Moscow’s proxy mercenary groups.