Jihadist groups, including Islamic State sympathisers, have hailed the Trump administration’s ban on travel to the US from seven Muslim- majority nations saying it would persuade American Muslims to side with the extremists, according to a media report.
Comments posted to pro-Islamic State social media accounts predicted that US President Donald Trump’s executive order would persuade American Muslims to side with the extremists, The Washington Post reported.
One posting hailed Trump as “the best caller to Islam,” while others predicted that Trump would soon launch a new war in the Middle East.
“(Islamic State leader Abu Bakr) al-Baghdadi has the right to come out and inform Trump that banning Muslims from entering America is a ‘blessed ban,’” a posting to a pro- Islamic State channel
on Telegram, was quoted as saying.
The writer compared the executive order to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Islamic militant leaders at the time hailed as a “blessed invasion” that ignited anti- Western fervor across the Islamic world.
Several postings suggested that Trump was fulfilling the predictions of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born al-Qaeda leader and preacher who famously said that the “West would eventually turn against its Muslim citizens,” the report said.