The 18-year-old from Pennsylvania had simply been arrested for allegedly attempting to detonate two bombs at a New York City protest when he arrived to the NYPD precinct on March 7.
As specified by a prison grievance, Emir Balat waived his Miranda rights, took paper and pen, and wrote out a message: “I pledge my allegience (sic) to the Islamic State.”
Just days afterward, a 36-year-old man who had beforehand served almost a decade in jail for making an attempt to help ISIS opened fire at Old Dominion University in Virginia. He killed one individual and wounded two earlier than he was killed.
With these incidents, the boys joined an notorious group of suspected terrorists the world over who’ve expressed loyalty to and carried out violence within the title of the Islamic State, often known as ISIS or ISIL.
But why precisely do they “pledge allegiance” to a “state” that is no longer a state? And what spurs somebody to not simply assault harmless folks, however to then make a press release of loyalty whereas doing so?
Experts on extremism and jihadist terrorism stated this pledge of allegiance is a crucial facet of those assaults for the person terrorist, for the group and for the American authorized system.
“In their self-conception, they see themselves as soldiers of Allah fighting on behalf of ISIS,” stated Peter Bergen, NCS nationwide safety analyst and writer of “United States of Jihad: Investigating America’s Homegrown Terrorists.” “They conceive of themselves as doing something fairly heroic, even though of course it’s kind of the opposite.”
A pledge of allegiance “gives meaning to something that is sort of essentially meaningless, which is attacking innocent strangers. It allows them to frame themselves as heroes when often they’re zeroes.”
In Islamic custom, pledging allegiance to a frontrunner is formally generally known as “bay’ah.” But within the case of many terrorist suspects, this pledge of allegiance to ISIS is so simple as saying or writing just a few phrases.
For instance, in the course of the 2016 assault at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the attacker pledged his allegiance to ISIS in a call to 911. In the 2016 mass taking pictures in San Bernardino, California, one of many two attackers posted a message on Facebook declaring allegiance to the previous ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
For the terrorist suspect, this pledge makes them a part of a broader group and offers them a way of that means, specialists stated.
“As long as you pledge allegiance to the group and carry out actions that support the group, you are a soldier of the caliphate and a member of ISIS,” stated Lorenzo Vidino, the director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
That’s particularly the case for terrorist suspects who turned radicalized on-line by watching propaganda.
“For the individuals who are radicalized, there’s a sense of belonging to a group,” Vidino stated. “You are part of ISIS. It doesn’t matter that you’ve never traveled outside of the US or never met anybody who’s in ISIS.”
Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a nonprofit that works to stop extremist violence, stated this mentality applies to many sorts of violent actors.
“Very often they’re looking for recognition and association,” he stated. “They want to be a part of something. Then (they) end up going on sites that cater to engagement with violence as a means of association. They find some solace in that.”
In the New York City bombing incident earlier this month, Balat’s affiliate Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, stated his actions had been partly impressed by ISIS and stated he had watched the group’s propaganda on his cellphone, in accordance to the grievance.
Balat and Kayumi, each US residents, have been charged with offering materials help to a terrorist group; use of a weapon of mass destruction; transportation of explosive supplies; illegal possession of damaging units; and interstate transportation and receipt of explosives. They are being held with out bail and are scheduled to seem in court docket on April 8.
Bergen stated the pledge of allegiance offers a broader that means to base violent needs. For instance, Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub shooter, had variously thought-about becoming a member of Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah earlier than pledging allegiance to ISIS – three teams with sharply completely different views.
“These are men looking for one reason or another to carry out a violent act,” Bergen stated. “By pledging themselves to ISIS, it sort of gives them permission in their own minds to carry out some ‘heroic,’ quote-unquote, action.”
For ISIS, permitting folks to be part of the group just by stating a pledge permits them to take credit score for assaults they could not even learn about. It’s a distinct recruitment technique than Al-Qaeda, which was very selective in its membership, Vidino stated.
“In a way it’s a phenomal investment from ISIS’ point of view,” he stated.
Finally, the pledge of allegiance is usually a key a part of the US authorized system. Federal legislation makes it unlawful to “provide material support” to a chosen international terrorist group like ISIS.
Although making a political assertion of help for the aims of a company like ISIS is probably going to be constitutionally protected speech, the Supreme Court has said that speech may be criminalized if it provides recommendation, coaching or help to a terrorist group.
“If there’s an oath, that makes it easy for the prosecution,” Vidino stated.
ISIS is a great distance from its heyday of energy however stays a related power on the worldwide stage, primarily via on-line propaganda.
The group started as a splinter of Al-Qaeda 20 years in the past, and in 2013 and 2014 took over a number of giant cities in Iraq and Syria. In June 2014, the group established a “caliphate,” and its chief al-Baghdadi declared himself the authority over all the world’s Muslims. ISIS carried out brutal beheadings of hostages, organized lethal terrorist assaults the world over and inspired their worldwide supporters to perform assaults on their very own.
But by 2019, ISIS had misplaced most of its territory to a US-led coalition, and al-Baghdadi was dead.
As ISIS’ energy waned, terrorist assaults within the US of their title did, too. There had been no deadly ISIS-inspired assaults on US soil from 2017 till New Year’s 2025, when a US Army veteran with an ISIS flag drove a truck via Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 14 folks.
In 2026, ISIS is a “shadow” of what it was a decade earlier, and is now nearer to a guerilla state or rebel group, Vidino defined. Still, it has a community of associates that perform terrorist assaults, such because the ISIS-Okay affiliate working in central Asia that attacked a Moscow concert hall in 2024. And it places out propaganda and tries to radicalize folks on-line, working virtually like a “brand,” Vidino stated.
“It exists in people’s heads,” Bergen stated.