Key Points

Since its fall in Iraq and Syria, the focus has been extensively on propaganda rather than running the outfit like a conventional terror group. If one were to look at the Indian scenario, it does not have its own modules, but they are inspired. Any three persons who follow the ideology of the Islamic State can come together and form a module.

Such a module is inspired by the outfit, but not funded by it. Even the creation of such a module is done by people with a common thought process, and the Islamic State does not even oversee the creation of such modules.

While the first part of its drive was largely successful following its fall in Iraq and Syria, the second part took some time to crack. The first part of the propaganda drive led to several attacks by Islamic State-inspired lone wolves in different parts of the world, such as the UK, the US and France. Even in India, there were two failed attempts by lone wolves, one at Coimbatore and another at Mangaluru.

In India, the Islamic State did create an impact, but it found it hard to convey its message to a larger audience. For instance, in the Gulf, the message could go out in Arabic. The use of English and Urdu is also quite extensive.

India, on the other hand, is a diverse country, and the people of different states speak different languages. This is what the Islamic State sought to crack and hence tasked its Al-Isabah Foundation with the task.

Not only does this foundation today circulate propaganda material by the Islamic State, but ensures that it is translated into every single language that is spoken in India. Today, such propaganda material can be found in Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Assamese, Gujarati, Bengali, and Telugu, among others.

The Al-Isabah Foundation, on its part, set up the Islamic Translation Centre to ensure that the material goes out in multiple languages.

Taking a cue from the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda too decided to follow suit. It immediately set up the Al-Kifah media to translate its material into multiple languages. Both groups are aware that language is a sensitive issue, and if the material is provided in a language of choice, then the chance of success is much higher.

A similar trend is being witnessed in other parts of the world, too. When propaganda material is sent out to Sri Lanka, the country would be referred to as the Wilayahs of Sri Lanka. The same applies in the Maldives or Bangladesh. For India, the reference is the Wilayahs of Kashmir.

What has stumped the agencies is that the messaging by these groups is not spread over a period of time. They bombard with over 15 to 20 messages a day, and this has made the job of the agencies even more challenging.

Further, these groups are also focusing largely on South India. They realise that in states such as Kerala, where the influence of Wahhabism in many parts is high, it would be easier to cater to those people. The success of the Popular Front of India (PFI) has also given these groups the confidence that there is a market in many parts of South India.

- IANS