Lone Wolves, Stray Dogs or Roaming Hyenas? A Modern Terrorist Bestiary

"Perhaps a new paradigm, one of roaming hyenas, best describes [such violent Muslims]�"

by Timothy R. Furnish, PhD, Mahdi Watch �May 6, 2015

The hashtag seen round the world...

The bodies of ISIS epigones Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi had not yet even fallen to room temperature before the mainstream media was braying about them being �self-radicalized� terrorists�a liberal obsession by now, despite recent eviscerations (like this) of that myopic analytical lens.  

A �self-radicalized� (Islamic) terrorist is almost always, as well, labeled a �lone wolf.�  I dealt with this issue in an article about the Boston Marathon-bombing Tsarnaevs, back in spring 2013:  

�[I]t is no longer necessary to be formally attached to a terrorist organization in order to engage in Islamic-based terror.  Heretofore, solo jihadists were likely to be identified as exhibiting �Sudden Jihad Syndrome�  or as being �lone wolves.�  Now the neologism �stray dogs� is being applied to them. 

The first term at least has the virtue of acknowledging the Islamic element in attacks by Muslims who say they are engaged in, well, jihad. But no one suddenly decides to ascribe to Islamic holy warfare and wage it; only a fairly long process of indoctrination can bring a person to that point.  

A lone wolf is a terrorist who takes up his bloody trade sans formal support from any larger group�.The classification of stray dog, however, posits �men for whom Islam as a religion is less important than the search for adventure and a desire to be part of a historic, epic struggle�---striking me as yet another attempt by analysts to remove Islamic ideology from the calculation, for apologetic and emotional rather than rational reasons� 

[Thus] viewing [Islamic terrorists]�analytically, as lone wolves, may give them too much credit; while classifying them as stray dogs neutered of religious ideology gives the Islamic element too little.  Perhaps a new paradigm, one of roaming hyenas, best describes [such violent Muslims]��

Hyenas, like wolves, hunt in packs; but the former are more often scavengers who, if they do attack the living, prefer to go after weakened prey (while the latter will pursue more formidable foes). 

The proper care and feeding (hot lead) of an attacking hyena...

What better way to describe ISIS, as well as its minions in the West�especially as ISIS has specifically called for attacks against unarmed �Crusaders� (rather an oxymoron, that), in �Dabiq� issue #4:  

�At this point in the crusade�it is very important that attacks take place in every country that has entered into alliance against the Islamic State, especially the US, UK, France, Australia and Germany�.the citizens of crusader nations should be targeted wherever they can be found. 

"Let the muwahhid not be affected by �analysis paralysis� stemming from undertaking only operations that cannot fail. �He should be pleased to meet his Lord  even if with just one dead kafir�s name written in his scroll of deeds.��  

IS even doubles down on this incitement to jihad:

�Every Muslim should  get out of his house, find a crusader, and kill him.  It is important that the killing becomes attributed to�the Islamic State�. Otherwise, crusader media makes such attacks appear to be random killings.�

Exhortation to jihad in the West fi sabil Allah goes on:

�If you can kill a disbelieving American or European�especially the spiteful and filthy French�or an Australian or a Canadian or any other disbeliever�wag[e] war�then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way�.Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian, or military�.�  

Hyenas follow the pack mentality (Qur�anic- and Hadith-literalist, violent Islam);  cravenly prefer to assault the weak or unarmed (Christians in the Middle East; cartoonists in Texas); and are known to feign death to escape being killed themselves (a self-serving, duplicitous animal form of taqiyya).

Furthermore,  hyenas have a very negative image in Islam�all the more reason to apply that label to those who would kill in the name of Allah.  They also suck�literally, at least in east Africa, where hyenas are believed to hoover up jinn.  Whether hyenas, four- or two-legged, are thereby possessed by such spirits is a topic for another day (although I have touched on this topic, at least tangentially, before).