The Islamic State is telling members not to travel to Europe to carry out attacks as the coronavirus ravages the continent.
After years of telling adherents to wage jihad in European countries, the terrorist group issued a set of “sharia directives” in its al Naba newsletter telling attackers to “stay away from the land of the epidemic.”
ISIS also said terrorists should wash their hands regularly and “cover their mouths when yawning and sneezing.” The newsletter describes the COVID-19 virus as a “plague” and a “torment sent by God on whomsoever He wills.”
“Illnesses do not strike by themselves but by the command and decree of God,” the directive read. ISIS also told followers who are already in Europe to stay put and not travel back to the Middle East.
The “healthy should not enter the land of the epidemic and the afflicted should not exit from it,” it said.
There are already more than 100 cases of the coronavirus in Iraq. In Syria, which once composed the bulk of ISIS’s territorial caliphate, dictator Bashar Assad said there are no cases, although that claim has been disputed. One Syrian doctor said the virus has reached the country, but the government forced him to recant the statement after the doctor was arrested by the regime.
Syria’s closest ally, Iran, has been one of the worst-hit countries. The Iranian regime claims there have been at least 12,729 cases and 611 deaths, although academics have said that number is not realistic. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a dissident group working to overthrow the regime, said on Saturday that more than 4,000 people in 166 cities have died as a result of the outbreak.
The World Health Organization recently declared the outbreak a pandemic.
As of Sunday morning, at least 2,759 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and 59 people have died from the pandemic in the United States, according to the New York Times. Worldwide, there are 155,000 cases and almost 6,000 deaths.
