Did you catch the third issue of Rumiyah magazine? I did — Googled my way right to it in seconds.
The cover isn’t much to look at: a grim picture of a bombed-out high-rise. But the Rumiyah audience reads it mainly for the articles, like the “exclusive” transcript on page 4 of an address by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the reclusive Islamic State leader, in which he ranted against the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The Murtadd Brotherhood has emerged as a poisoned spearhead carried by the Crusaders in their war against the Khilafah,” he said in a nearly 5,000-word paean to holy war.
What really caught my eye, though, was an article with the headline “Just Terror Tactics.” Beneath a photograph of a Hertz rental truck, the piece read, “Though being an essential part of modern life, very few actually comprehend the deadly and destructive capability of the motor vehicle and its capacity of reaping large numbers of casualties if used in a premeditated manner.”
The article went on to give advice on how to leave the longest “trail of carnage” possible.
Why did it catch my eye? Because Sayfullo Saipov seemed to follow its instructions to the letter in the terrorist attack that left eight people dead in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday — that’s why.
New York showed remarkable resilience after the attack, moving unflinchingly into its huge Halloween parade hours later, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio among the costumed revelers. But forgive me if I roll back the tape to examine this latest example of how our media ecosystem can be used against us.
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