ISIS calls on “Muslims in France” to launch Election Day attacks

ISIS has called upon Muslims in France to "kill candidates" and "burn down polling stations" as the country prepares to vote in the second round of the presidential election this weekend. An article appearing in the French edition of the terror group’s monthly propaganda magazine “Rumiyah” addresses all Muslims in France stating: “Don't forget your duty as a Muslim. Choose a candidate to kill & polling station to burn.” Likening Western democracies to '?âghût' or idol worship, the Islamic State advises supporters to instead put their faith in Allah over a ‘false deity’ and not vote in this weekend’s crucial runoff between Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and his rival, Right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen in which Macron is widely expected to emerge the winner. Addressing the option of voting for one candidate over the other as the ‘lesser of the two evils’ (presumably a reference to Macron), the writer rejects the argument, because both candidates are '?âghût' or idolaters. Instead, the article advises supporters to not stand idly on the sidelines but instead to destroy ‘idolatrous’ voting booths, calling them “places of shirk” or sin. Seeking to draw inspiration from history, the writer references the Biblical Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who destroyed the idols of his father’s household. “Our father Ibrâhîm was thrown into the fire by his people after having destroyed and denigrated their idols,” notes the author, before concluding with a chilling message “Burn these places of shirk (sin), kill the candidates, the voters and the polling station staff. Spare no disbelievers.” Analysis Although attempting to encourage Muslim migration to its caliphate and continuing with its reign of global terror, ISIS seems uninterested in influencing the outcome of an election by endorsing an anti-Muslim candidate that would speed up any such process. Marine Le Pen, the candidate of much anti-Islam rhetoric, has vowed to oppose Islamist fundamentalism and has been critical of Muslim women wearing headscarves. In the final days leading up to the U.S. Presidential election of 2016, ISIS released “The Murtadd Vote,” an essay advising would-be attackers to target the American voter with an argument suggesting that since “voters are directly involved in the decision making process by choosing delegates to represent them and their whims executively, judicially, and legislatively, the blood of Crusader voters is even more deserving of being spilled than the blood of Crusader combatants.” In the essay, there was no distinction between Republican or Democrat voters, nor any exception for women or Muslim voters as targets.