Trump's ban could increase threat of extremist attacks: experts

Trump's ban could increase threat of extremist attacks: experts

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Donald Trump's order blocking immigrants from seven mostly-Muslim countries in the name of national security could backfire and increase the threat of extremist attacks in the United States, US experts say, according to AFP.

They point out that most recent terror strikes both in America and Europe were carried out by citizens of the target countries, or of nations not included in the ban which covers Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

And they warn Trump's move is likely to complicate US security officials' crucial efforts to gain cooperation from the country's Muslim community in fighting home-grown extremism.

A string of recent attacks on US soil -- including a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University last November and the June 2016 massacre at an Orlando nightclub in June 2016 -- have involved Muslim attackers who became radicalized inside the United States.

In both those incidents, experts note, the attackers said they were responding to mistreatment of Muslims, a sentiment likely to increase in the wake of Trump's ban -- which plays into the jihadist narrative of a clash between Islam and the West.

That warning was echoed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday, who said the order was unlikely to be effective in fighting terrorism -- but "triggers widespread anxiety and anger that may facilitate the propaganda of the very terrorist organizations we all want to fight against."

Jihadist groups have for days been celebrating the travel ban online, saying it validates their claim that the United States is at war with Islam.

One posting on a pro-Islamic State social media account, cited by the Washington Post, hailed the US president as "the best caller to Islam."

"What we do know is that groups will use this as a means to try to recruit someone," said David Ibsen, executive director of the non-governmental Counter Extremism Project.

"There is a large pool of individuals being targeted by ISIS and Al-Qaeda propaganda. And we know that there is a very short fuse between exposure to that propaganda sometimes and actually carrying out an attack."

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