International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 36

Why Salafi-Jihadist Terrorist Groups Pledge Allegiance to Al Qaeda or Isis
vened under the umbrella of a group called the Islamic State in West Africa Province
(ISWAP), which operates mainly in the Lake Chad region. Boko Haram’s brutal
attack policies led to the loss of the group’s legitimacy and its popular support.
Former senior leaders dissatisfied with the group’s diminished status split off from
the organization and formed ISWAP, a group that was better able to establish links
with the local population by abandoning the wanton practices of Boko Haram. 102
The one group listed in Table 2 as dissolving and merging before pledging
allegiance to ISIS differs from the six groups listed in Table 1, which took the same
steps before pledging allegiance to AQ. The difference lies not only in the number
of groups, but also in the role that dissolution and merging played in the decision
to pledge allegiance to a larger group. The ISIS model in Iraq and Syria fell victim
to a sequence of events that led to its demise. First, the organization lost its territory
and financial resources. The next blow came when jihadist groups began to
head off umbrella organizations and convene under the leadership of large jihadist
groups that had declared loyalty to AQ. Table 2 (i.e., declaration of loyalty to ISIS)
shows more restructured groups compared with Table 1 (i.e., declaration of loyalty
to AQ). ISIS, at one time quite popular and the reason that jihadist groups established
ISIS-linked groups in their home countries, has seen its popularity plummet.
While some groups, such as ISIS Sinai Province in Egypt, began to use the
ISIS label as part of their organizations’ names, jihadist groups in other countries
restructured their organizations as franchises of ISIS (i.e., without including the
ISIS label as part of their organizations’ names).
Recently, an increasing number of jihadist groups have referred to their organizations
as a branch of AQ or ISIS in a given country to attract more recruits to
their organizations. There are many reasons that terrorist groups pledge allegiance
to AQ or ISIS. Groups in conflict zones lack resources and need support from internationally
accepted and well-known groups. AQ and ISIS are the main players
among terrorist organizations, making the two larger organizations quite attractive
to smaller terrorist groups that believe in the shared goals of AQ and ISIS.
Those goals are to spearhead the spread of global jihadism. These smaller groups
also find appealing the two larger organizations’ history of resilience in the face of
counterinsurgency campaigns conducted by the world’s superpowers. Some of the
smaller groups, however, simply want to upgrade their organizational status from
local to regional or even global. AQ and ISIS are seen as a means to that end.
Conclusion
The world is still experiencing the impact of the fourth wave of terrorism,103
or religious terrorism. This wave began with the Iranian Revolution in 1979
(in which the monarchy was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic re-
102 “Facing the Challenge of the Islamic State in West Africa Province.”
103 D.C. Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism,” in Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand
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