LONDON, United Kingdom – A British Islamic State terrorist who was placed on a UN travel ban earlier this week has taken to social media to “LOL” (laugh out loud) at the action, Sally-Anne Jones, who is a former punk rocker, was hit with the restriction at the request of the British government despite already being in Syria.
She tweeted: “I lol @ England for giving me a travel ban :). England I came here to fight you fisabilillah & I will fight you until my last breath”. The term 'fisabilillah' is an Arabic word meaning 'for the sake of Allah'.
Her ridicule for the UN travel ban comes as the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) published a report showing Jihadis in Syria and Iraq are increasingly inspiring attacks at home. These attacks now far outstrip the number undertaken by the Islamic State itself.
In three-quarters of Muslim terror plots against the West there was no proof of contact with the groups' fighters or leaders, it is instead propaganda from terrorists like Jones that is the driving force behind them. This makes terror attacks and the plots behind them even harder to stamp out.
Since the Islamic State declared its 'Caliphate’ in July 2014, HJS found 32 plots had taken place, an average of around 2.5 every month. The plots have been in ten separate countries, involving 58 individuals, of 14 different nationalities.
Just 16 percent of terror plots saw Islamic State fighters directly encourage individuals in the West to carry out attacks in their home countries. The group itself only directly carried out one plot in the West, in Belgium in January 2015.
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The report author Robin Simcox said: “The Islamic State presents a clear danger to Western security. It is now regularly inspiring plots or carrying out attacks. Over-stretched police and security services are struggling to keep up with the vast scale of the threat.”
He continued: “Those carrying out plots associated with the Islamic State are often radicalized young men who very rarely had any military training. They have been effective in planning simple attacks using guns and knives to target members of the public, the military and the police. Such plots are notoriously difficult to prevent.”
The most commonly targeted countries are the US, France and Australia, with attacks being mainly focused on members of the military and the police, inevitably the public also falling victim. Mr Simcox confirmed social media had been integral to inspiring almost all of the attacks.
The ability of the Islamic State to inspire attacks by 'stealth' using social media is one of the reasons being cited by Russia for its increased presence in Syria. The country is moving military hardware and manpower into the country to help President Assad eradicate the Islamic State.
Assad himself is no friend to the West but is increasingly being seen as the lesser of two evils by a desperate Western public.
So far Britain has not followed Russia's example by getting involved in the fight to retake Syria, but it has used drones to kill two British nationals involved in Jihad. It also secured the travel ban and asset freezes that Ms Jones ridiculed.
She is one of four British nationals to be subject to this order, with more expected to follow. Jones traveled to Syria in 2013 with her husband, Junaid Hussain, who was killed in a US air strike in August. She had become known in the British media as “Mrs Terror”.
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