The Oath of Allegiance (bay’ at) to the Khilafah/Islamic State made manifest
The female suicide bomber with an infant in her arm who detonated her explosive vest killing herself and the baby is the most potent visual presentation to-date of what is expected by those who pledged the bay’ at to the Khilafah/Islamic State. The detonation of the explosive device, the death of the woman and more importantly the death of the infant made no impact on the strategic reality of the battlefield much less in favour of Islamic State. But this is not the operating logic of Islamic State for IS demands the death of all those that pledged bay’ at to the Khilafah. The issue is the willingness to die on the orders of the Islamic State and for the Islamic State regardless of the strategic realities of the battlefield. For the Islamic State there is only hijrah to IS there is no hijrah from an IS in tatters and facing ongoing defeat on the battlefield by those Islamic State declared enemies of Islam. When you undertake hijrah to IS the only acceptable manner to leave is as a corpse. The Islamic State is then no different from Jim Jones and David Koresh.
There is a potent lesson in the action of the woman for all those countries faced with the threat of extremist attacks especially those countries where the hijrah to the Islamic State was/is a fact of life. Note carefully! The woman is carrying the infant in her left hand, she has a bag hung on her left side beneath the infant, she is holding in her right hand her handbag and the detonator for the explosive vest. In the midst of the soldiers she has targeted she pressed the detonator but it detonates the vest after she has walked past the main group killing herself and the infant with minimal casualties inflicted on the target group. All the rationalisations of the talking heads of the west will not diminish the lesson of this woman so willing to die for Islamic State that she kills the infant used as an instrument of deception to enable her attack on the target group. A lesson most potent for those who engage with reality!