Even though the Republican presidential candidate has promised to “knock the hell out of” ISIS, the terror group is rooting for him to win the upcoming general election because they believe it will boost their ranks, the Foreign Affairs magazine reported, citing interviews with ISIS supporters, recent defectors and social media analysis.
Earlier this month, an ISIS spokesman wrote on the ISIS-affiliated Telegram channel, Nashir, “I ask Allah to deliver America to Trump.”
An ISIS supporter posted on one of the numerous jihadist “channels” hosted by the Telegram messaging application, “The ‘facilitation’ of Trump’s arrival in the White House must be a priority for jihadists at any cost!!!”
Trump has been campaigning on a promise to eradicate the Islamic State. The 70-year-old business tycoon regularly makes belligerent statements such as , “I would bomb” them and “We have to knock the hell out of them”.
He has said that he would send up to 30,000 more US troops to fight ISIS and refuses to rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the group.
However, jihadists are rooting for a Trump presidency because they believe that he will lead the US on a path to self-destruction, the magazine said in its report.
Analysis of ISIS chatter on social media and conversations with 12 current and former supporters of the group do indicate that ISIS strongly prefers Trump over the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, it said.
Trump is “the perfect enemy”, Tarek, a former ISIS fighter who recently switched sides to one of its Salafi rivals, Ahrar al-Sham, was quoted as saying.
Another ISIS defector, Samer, said when he was fighting for the group in Deir ez-Zor, “we were happy when Trump said bad things about Muslims because he makes it very clear that there are two teams in this battle: the Islamic team and the anti-Islamic team.”
When asked why Clinton has not yet been shown in an ISIS video, a recent defector, Adel, was quoted as sayung that it is because “she never says anything bad about Muslims”.
Indeed, it is far more difficult for ISIS to vilify Clinton, who routinely insists that “Islam is not our adversary” and “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people”.
ISIS supporters believe that Trump would be an unstable and irrational leader whose impulsive decision-making would weaken the United States, the report said.
Some ISIS supporters believe that Trump would lead the US and its Western allies into the apocalyptic clash they have been waiting for, it said.
PTI