The new issue of the glossy English-language magazine produced by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) includes lengthy praise of the couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., late last year.
The two killers “proved that they were ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them for the sake of responding to Allah,” the magazine, Dabiq, cheers in its foreword.
The latest issue of Dabiq, which was released on Tuesday, did not add any new details to suggest that the San Bernardino shooting was directed by ISIS’s core leadership. Officials in the U.S. have said that the massacre instead seems to have been inspired by jihadists such as ISIS, but that the shooters — Syred Rizwan Farook and Tasfeen Malik — carried it out without coordination from an outside group.
However, the magazine does praise their brutal slayings, which it hoped would “awaken more Muslims in America, Europe, and Australia.”
Dabiq also devotes two pages to eulogize Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John.”
The Kuwaiti-born British man was featured in ISIS videos in recent years beheading captives, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
The Dabiq article neglects to mention Emwazi’s role as an executioner and propaganda tool for ISIS. Instead, it praises his “affection” for orphans of extremists killed while waging jihad, and claims that Emwazi had been questioned by Britain’s MI-5 intelligence before departing for ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate.
He was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November, the magazine confirmed.
On one page of the 56-page magazine, the nine attackers in Paris are superimposed over a photo of the city.
“Let Paris be a lesson for those nations that wish to take heed,” it warned.
The magazine also reprinted a Time magazine article by former CIA Director Michael Morell warning that ISIS “poses a major threat to the U.S.”
ISIS has a significant propaganda machine, which it has used to great effect in recruiting extremists from all over the globe to join its ranks.
The edition of Dabiq released on Tuesday is the group’s 13th.
thehill.com
