January 31, 2015: In December 2014 India banned ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) within its borders. Pakistan has not officially banned ISIL but has made it clear that the government is very hostile to ISIL and any of the growing number of local Islamic terrorist organizations that have declared their allegiance to ISIL. Many factions of Pakistani Taliban have pledged allegiance to ISIL. In mid-2014, at the same time ISIL was beginning to show up in South Asia (India, Pakistan, and so on) al Qaeda announced the formation of AQIS (Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent). This has not amounted to much.

What the South Asian governments and established Islamic terrorist groups are afraid of is the clever recruiting tactics ISIL has developed. ISIL plays on the appeal of Islamic radicals and their legendary (but never fulfilled) goal of establishing a religious dictatorship that eliminates all the corruption and injustice that cripples most Moslem communities. This sort of idealism is especially popular with young (teenage and 20s) Moslem (and some non-Moslem) men and even a few women. In response many Western nations with Moslem minorities have also banned ISIL. For the rational it just seems like the right thing to do.

These bans make it more difficult for ISIL to recruit and raise money, but not impossible. For a Moslem nation it also demonstrates a determination to defeat Islamic terrorism. That’s why the failure of Pakistan and some other Islamic nations to ban ISIL. For many Moslems Islamic terrorism is bad only if it is a personal threat.