Opinion | New Zealand’s latest terror attack shows Isis survives online despite battlefield defeats

The Sri Lankan-born national responsible for the attack had previously possessed Isis content on his personal computer and was banned from accessing social media sites

New Zealand’s government is establishing a national centre of excellence on violent extremism to boost research and more effective counterterrorism policy

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A member of Islamic State waves the group’s flag in Raqqa, Syria in June 2014. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:30pm, 6 Sep 2021Updated: 1:51pm, 6 Sep 2021

As Friday’s attack by an Islamic State (Isis) sympathiser in a New Zealand supermarket has shown, the extreme Isis ideology still holds strong appeal for some disaffected Muslims living in the West. Isis ideology did not die in Syria and Iraq with the defeat of the group and its plans to establish a caliphate.

Isis continues to be a radicalising influence on those susceptible to anti-Western narratives. Social networks, the dark web and encrypted platforms continue to facilitate the global spread of its beliefs.

The Sri Lankan-born national responsible for Friday’s terrorist attack had previously been found to possess Isis content on his personal computing devices and been banned from accessing social media sites for this very reason.

That’s why we should be wary of describing him as a “lone wolf”. He may have acted alone, with no direct assistance from a terrorist group. But his ideology and process of radicalisation are connected to global groups deliberately seeking to promote their vicious world view and attract new adherents to their cause.

Why Isis is so hard to beat

While the Covid-19 pandemic may have had a temporary chilling effect on radicalism, there are concerns that in the post-pandemic era, terrorism will become a bigger problem globally.