The antisemitic terror attack that shocked Australia and the world is a sign of a much larger problem, says a terror tracker foundation’s senior fellow.
Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow Bill Roggio spoke to Fox News Digital and issued a warning to Westerners, dismissing modern-day terror concerns. The FDD is “one of the longest-running trackers of jihadist movements,” and Roggio believes that cells like ISIS are on the rise once again.
“We’ve always been quick to declare terrorist organizations defeated and insignificant, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he told the outlet.
“This attack in Australia is absolute proof that the Islamic State hasn’t been defeated. These groups are still able to recruit and indoctrinate people. They still have safe havens,” Roggio, managing editor of The Long War Journal, added. Despite the collapse of their territorial “caliphate,” ISIS remains influential.
“I just read the U.N. report. There are 2,000 ISIS fighters there, according to the United Nations,” he said, referring to Afghanistan. “That’s not what a defeated group looks like.”
“With Israel’s war against Hamas, it’s given new life for people to attack Jews worldwide. It’s a further reason to radicalize,” Roggio said.
“Governments are on notice that there is a steep rise in the terrorist targeting of religious minorities, particularly those from the Jewish faith community and Israelis worldwide — a trend intelligence agencies say has accelerated in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, which killed more than 1,200 people in Israel,” said Syracuse University’s Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute Research Associate Corri Zoli.
“Analysts at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center warn these networks are probing for openings in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States, exploiting ideological ecosystems that can radicalize individuals far from traditional battlefields,” she added.
Zoli also mentioned that the family suspected to be involved in the Australian terror attack had been on the radar, including the son who “was known to Australian officials for his extremism since 2019 and his association with extremist imam Wissam Haddad, a habitual violator of Australia’s racial hatred laws at the Al Madina Dawah Centre and a prominent figure in the Street Dawah Movement. [He] also maintained close ties to Isaac El Matari, who claimed to be an Australian ISIS commander and is currently serving jail time for insurgency and firearms offenses.”
Officials in Israel also believe that the attack is indicative of a global resurgence of ISIS-inspired terror plots. “Over the past year, they said, plots have been attempted or disrupted across Europe, North America, and elsewhere,” Fox News reported.
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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