A spate of lone-wolf attacks in France proves that European countries helping to fight the Islamic State must also guard against radicals living in their midst, Middle East scholar Robert Rabil told "MidPoint" guest host Ric Blackwell on
Newsmax TV on Friday.
Besides recruiting fighters to the Middle East, the
Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and — in Arabic — Daesh, is issuing calls for aspiring jihadists in the West "to go and attack those who are involved in the . . . coalition against ISIS in Syria and Iraq," said Rabil, a professor at Florida Atlantic University.
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Although the motives of the assailants in
France are still being investigated, a van plowing into a crowd and a knife attack on police officers could have been ISIS-inspired acts of terror, said Rabil, author of
"Salafism in Lebanon," a new book on the rise of a jihadist movement that encompasses ISIS.
"I hope the authorities throughout the world are making sure they are taking the necessary precautions against those Salafi jihadi, or against those radicals," said Rabil, adding, "Germany and France have lists of people who are reportedly radicals or who are leaning toward radicalism. They need to pay extreme attention to what's going on, and I hope this will not become a trend."
Rabil said that Salafism, based on an Arabic word for "ancestor," promotes a revival of seventh-century Islam and is embodied by ISIS' bloody push for a religious nation-state in territory seized from Iraq and Syria.
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But ISIS is not the only Salafist group, he said, just the most radical, cunning and ambitious — and the most attractive to some Muslims living in Europe.
"This is why not only Germany, Netherlands, France, but other European countries see that they have a number of their citizens who happen to be Muslim that went and did indeed fight with ISIS," he said.
"These countries are very concerned about those who come back, but what are they going to do?" said Rabil. "Especially now that ISIS is giving orders to do attacks on those who are part of the coalition in different parts of the world."
Rabil said that given the global nature of the threat, and the allegiance that ISIS commands near and far, countries in the Middle East must take a larger and more visible role in opposition.
"I am not happy with the . . . participation of the allies, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt," said Rabil. "I would like more active participation."
He said that means more troops from anti-ISIS countries in the Middle East on the ground in Syria and Iraq, and more of the region's political, religious and academic leaders willing to "go out and bluntly say the Salafi jihadi organization, ISIS, is a terrorist organization."