Jihadis using Baton Rouge police shooting to invite Black community to Islam, stoke further violence

Jihadis have issued a rallying call following the Baton Rouge shooting, urging followers to reach out to members of the Black community and “invite” them to join the Muslim community and “fight the U.S. government.” As police continued to investigate Monday what motivated 29-year-old Gavin Long into ambushing and killing three police officers and leave another three injured, jihadis moved swiftly to capitalize on the current unrest in some Black communities as potential foothold for recruitment inside the U.S. In a private Telegram channel monitored by The Foreign Desk, a jihadi noted the latest shooting targeting police officers and urged “Brothers” to “take this opportunity and do dawah (invitation to join Islam) to the black community in U.S. about the level of dignity they get when joining Muslim Community and help them in fight the US government.” Telegram messenger later removed the channel, though a back-up channel later acknowledged the deletion stating, “We should in sha Allah continue to suggest, plan and help in terrorising the Kuffar from here!” Earlier this month The Foreign Desk reported on moves by both ISIS and Al Qaeda in the wake of the Dallas police shooting lauding the attack and using it as an opportunity to inspire their followers to carry out similar such attacks. Following the Orlando terror attack in June, The Foreign Desk reported that an Al Qaeda-affiliated online forum was advising jihadis to draw inspiration from that attack later claimed by ISIS but to instead target white Americans as opposed to minorities, to avoid having terror mislabeled as a hate crime.