A New American Leader Rises in the Islamic State

An article in The Atlantic provides a case study of Zulfi Hoxha, aka Abu Hamza al-Amriki, a New Jeresey man in his mid-20s who left the U.S. in April 2015 to join the Islamic State. What is unique about Hoxha compared to other Americans who traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State is that he has risen to become a senior commander in the group as well as a prominent figure in its recruitment efforts. The reasons for Hoxha’s ascendence are not entirely clear, but the article’s authors believe his willingness early on to take part in the brutal tactics for which the group became infamous played some role (he was featured in a video beheading captured Kurdish soldiers). The authors also point out that while much of the fear about the Islamic State’s foreign fighters is that they’ll return to their native lands now that the group has lost almost all of its physical territory, there is also reason to be concerned about groups of fighters who appear to have gone into hiding. From places like Syria and Turkey, they can reach out to their supporters back home, exhorting them to conduct attacks, as Hoxha has done. In a video entitled “We Will Surely Guide Them to Our Ways,” he calls on the “muwahiddin [believers]” in the U.S. to carry out domestic attacks: “Are you incapable of stabbing a kaffir [non-Muslim] with a knife, throwing him off of a building, or running him over with a car? Liberate yourself from hellfire by killing a kaffir.” Read the full article at The Atlantic.