Editorial:Terror threat by IS will get worse

AS details continue to emerge following the horrific coordinated terror attacks in Paris on Friday night, it is now clearer than ever that the threat that is Islamic State (IS) is only going to get worse. IS has claimed responsibility for the massacre in Paris – the worst attack in France since World War 2 – as well as Thursday’s double suicide bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, and, scarcely two weeks ago, the downing of the Russian airliner over Egypt. These brutal actions make it plain as day that the terror organisation has far bolder and more sinister plans than just securing Syria and Iraq for the building of its “Islamic state”. The events of the past two weeks underscore a capacity and willingness to inflict massive civilian harm in countries far removed from IS’s previously perceived epicentre.

Even on our own continent it is destroying lives in countries like Nigeria, where it has the allegiance of Boko Haram. It is doubly tragic that many ordinary citizens, including here in South Africa, are moved to express horror and outrage over the terrible assault on freedom that occurred in the French capital, yet they are either oblivious, indifferent or completely desensitised to the massive scale of civilian casualties inflicted by IS and its affiliates elsewhere in the world – including closer to home. The organisation is reported to have killed more than 250 000 people in Syria alone, the majority of them Muslims. Besides the horror they are unleashing upon the world on a daily basis, what makes IS even more frightening and dangerous is that they are calculating enough – that is, if we allow it – to sow division between peace-loving people of all faiths and in countries hitherto unaffected by these evil actions. The truth is that IS is based on an ideology so perverted that it can only be viewed as an abomination to Islam, as the vast majority of Muslims around the world can attest.