Is Jordan Facilitating ISIS’ Grand Strategy?
As I explained last year when I cited an article by the Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar on the topic, a hadith (a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), asserts that the “long-awaited Hour (of Resurrection)” will not arrive for believers until after the Byzantines have landed in al-Amaq (Southern Turkey), or in Dabiq (a Syrian village located to the north of Aleppo). Indeed, there is a conviction that is widely held across disparate sects (including Christians) in the Middle East today that the foretold signs, prefiguring the coming of redemption, are evident in contemporary world events. ISIS’ followers take their understanding of the Dabiq “saying” by the prophet to mean that the great battle will take place between the “Crusader West” and Islam — and that this struggle has been made imminent by ISIS’ declaration of the khilafah (caliphate).
.. ISIS differs from al Qaeda in a number of ways, but particularly in respect to the ordering of conflict. The principle that Islamic State soldiers follow is that: “fighting nearby ‘apostates’ is more important than defeating faraway infidels [such as Israel or the West].” Thus defeating the “apostates” in Jordan takes ISIS a step closer to the stage when it might confront the “faraway infidel.”
Al Qaeda, by contrast, orders conflict vice versa.