ISIS tells its followers to 'break the cross' as it takes aim at 'cross-worshippers and democratic pagans of the West'
The Islamic State (ISIS) is urging its supporters worldwide to "break the cross" and launch more attacks on "cross-worshippers and democratic pagans of the West."
In the 15th and latest issue of its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, ISIS also made clear that it is an Islamic group fighting the West.
It issued the statement days after Pope Francis said the terrorists do not represent true Islam and that the conflict gripping the world is not a "war of religions," according to the Daily Mail Online.
Dabiq said people are too scared to call ISIS Islamic because it's "politically incorrect."
The propaganda publication then gives the reasons why ISIS hates the West. "We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers; you reject the oneness of Allah – whether you realize it or not," it says.
The article gives five other reasons at the core of ISIS' hatred. It says the jihadist group hates people who are "liberal," who are "atheist," who commit "crimes against Islam," who commit "crimes against the Muslims" and who invade "our lands."
"As long as there is an inch of territory left for us to reclaim, jihad will continue to be a personal obligation on every single Muslim," it states.
Dabiq says ISIS is taking responsibility for all recent terror attacks carried out by its followers, including the massacres in Nice, France and Orlando, Florida, and the grisly murder of French priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy, France last July 26.
The ISIS mouthpiece said the operations were carried out by "the hidden soldiers of the Caliphate," which "led to the martyrdom" of 12 of its "soldiers" and the "deaths and injuries of more than 600 Crusaders." The attacks, it said, were all aimed at "cross-worshippers and democratic pagans of the West."
Dabiq admitted that "our brothers" and "soldiers of the caliphate" – apparently referring to foreign sympathisers –were the ones who launched the recent attacks in France and Germany.
In the Orlando nightclub terrorist attack, the publication said Omar Mateen "succeeded in massacring the filthy Crusaders, killing and injuring more than 100 of them before he was killed."
It noted that the operation was the deadliest attack in America since 9-11.
Showing that it could react quickly to fast-moving world events, the ISIS publication weighed in on the controversy surrounding Donald Trump and the parents of a dead Muslim U.S. soldier Capt. Humayun Khan.
The magazine showed a picture of Khan's grave with the caption: "Beware of dying as an apostate."