A growing gang of Islamic State supporters is taking root in the Philippines

From the Washington Post (Jan 12): A growing gang of Islamic State supporters is taking root in the Philippines

In a video released last week, members of at least three different insurgent groups from the Philippines pledged allegiance to the Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "Allah is great!" the fighters in the video shouted in Arabic. "The Islamic State ... is remaining!"

While the groups have all previously pledged allegiance to Baghdadi separately, their new level of cooperation has led to new concerns. "In the Philippines, the next step ISIS is likely to take is the proclamation of wilayat Mindanao," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the International Center for Political Violence & Terrorism Research in Singapore told local news site Rappler, referring to the designation the Islamic State gives to its provinces.

In Australia, publications drew ominous conclusions from the unifying of the groups. "Terror on the doorstep," ran a headline in the newspaper, the Australian.
While the Islamic State's so-called caliphate mainly holds sway over parts of Syria and Iraq, the group has officially recognized a number of provinces farther afield, including Libya and Nigeria. Aaron Zelin, an expert in jihadist movements at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says there has been no sign yet that the central Islamic State group has accepted the Filipino fighters' pledges. "So for now, it's not mutual," Zelin said via email.

The new video is another reminder, however, that the idea of the Islamic State holds considerable sway overseas and often has the ability to intertwine its message with local concerns and movements – such as the concerns of the Philippines' minority Muslim population. The Philippines may be a majority Catholic nation, but roughly 5 percent of its population are Muslims, most of whom live on the southern island of Mindanao. Since the 1970s, some in this Muslim minority (dubbed "Moros") have waged an insurgency that has used guerrilla and terrorist tactics.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/12/a-growing-gang-of-islamic-state-supporters-is-taking-root-in-the-philippines/