The Observer view on the New Orleans attack: lone terrorist threat calls for wisdom, not divisive rhetoric | Observer editorial

Donald Trump blaming immigration will do nothing to counter the pernicious and lethal online influence posed by IS

The FBI says the man who drove a speeding truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, early on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people, acted alone. Bureau officials also believe they know the man’s motive. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, an American citizen from Texas who served eight years in the US army, some of it in Afghanistan, was “100% inspired” by Islamic State, said Christopher Raia of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division. An IS flag was affixed to his rented Ford pickup, Raia said.

What is less clear is why Jabbar came to so closely identify with the extremist Sunni Muslim terrorist organisation that seized Mosul in 2014. Under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s leadership, IS created a so-called caliphate in parts of Iraq and war-torn Syria. It became notorious for public executions, kidnappings and sexual enslavement. Baghdadi was killed in 2019. His followers were jailed and the caliphate smashed. But the IS brand was not.

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