Donald Trump and Islamic Terrorism

On February 20, 2025, the US State Department designated eight Latin American organized groups involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, who also operate in the US and extend their territory through violence, Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Cartel de Sinaloa; Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG); Cartel del Noreste; La Nueva Familia Michoacana; Cartel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel); Carteles Unidos; Tren de Aragua; Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). 

But this is about Islamic terrorism, for which the POTUS Donald Trump promised cooperation in his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13. The US has designated the following Islamic organizations as terrorists:

• 2021. ISIS-DRC, ISIS Mozambique, Harkat Sawa’d Misr (HASM) and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH).
• 2019. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
• September 2018. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Musilimin (JNIM), al-Ashtar Brigades, ISIS in Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS), ISIS West Africa, ISIS Philippines, ISIS Bangladesh.
• 2017. Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
• 2016. al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), ISIS Libya, Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K).
• 2015. Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq Naqshabandi (JRTN).
• 2014. al-Nusrah Front, ISIS Sinai Province.
• 2013. Ansar al-Sharl’a in Benghazi, Ansar al-Sharl’a in Darnah, Ansar al-Sharl’a in Tunisia, al-Mulathamun Battalion aka al-Murabitoun, Ansaru, Boko Haram, Ansar al-Dine (AAD).
• 2012. Haqqani Network (HQN), Abdallah Azzam Brigades, Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT).
• 2011. Indian Mujahideen (IM), Army of Islam (AOI).
• 2010. Jaysh al-Adl (former Jundallah), Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Harkat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI), Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
• 2009. Kata’ib Hizballah (KH).
• 2008. Al-Shabab,Harkat ul-Jihad-I-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI–B).
• 2005. Islamic Jihad Union (IJU).
• 2004. ISIS (former al-Qaeda in Iraq), Ansar al-Islam (AAI).
• 2003. Lashkar-I-Jhanghvi (LJ).
• 2002. Jemaah Islamiya (JI), al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, Asbat al-Ansar (AAA), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AAMB).
• 2001. Lashkar-e-Taiyyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
• 2000. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
• 1999. Al-Qa’ida (AQ)
• 1997. Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), HAMAS, Harkat ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Hizballah, Palestine liberation Front (PLF), Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), PFLF-General Command (PFLF-GC).

It can be seen from the above that the maximum radical Islamists organization branded terrorists are ISIS, al-Qaeda and their affiliates. Yet, despite taking out some leaders of these organizations, America’s deep state was fully in league with these organizations. ISIS was trained and armed in Recep Tayyip Erdogan-led Turkey under American and British instructors. The US airdropped arms for ISIS-Al Qaeda in Iraq-Syria. The POTUS Donald Trump had issued a big statement a few years back, saying, “Former US President Obama is the founder of ISIS and Hillary Clinton is the co-founder.” But aside from this daddy-mummy pair, under the influence of America’s deep state, both Democrat and Republican leaders were equally in league with ISIS.

Gen. Michael Flynn, former US NSA and former head of US Defense Intelligence Agency, had told a foreign TV channel that the rise of Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra was a “willful decision” of the US. The US used Pakistan to train the Taliban, raise Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K) in Peshawar and push them into Afghanistan. The then Director of US National Intelligence had merely issued a statement saying that Khorasan branch of ISIS formed is “amalgamation of primarily disaffected and rebranded former Afghan Taliban and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members”, and that Both Taliban largely coalesced and will continue to test overstretched Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Pakistan was also used as transit for ISIS cadres from Iraq-Syria to Afghanistan. Qatar continues to be America’s conduit to finance terrorist organizations and represent the US in Afghanistan.  We have an unstable Pakistan where the military’s stranglehold on the country refuses to budge from a state policy of terrorism. The military is inexorably linked with Al Qaeda through the Haqqani Network and the split in the TTP, with the breakaway group Jamaat-e-Ahrar proclaiming allegiance to ISIS may well have been engineered.

The TTP is currently attacking Pakistan. With the Taliban parading US military equipment, Trump has asked the Taliban to return the USD 7 billion worth of US military equipment. Reports had emerged in 2021 that the US had left behind USD 83 billion worth of weapons, including around 208 aircraft, 2,000 armoured vehicles, 600,000 small arms, 32,000 grenades, mortars, rockets and bombs and 30 million rounds of ammunition (https://www.upi.com/Voices/2021/09/20/Afghanistan-withdrawal-US-weapons-left-behind/7181632140222/). Others called this exaggerated, but the truth is probably in between – more than USD 7 billion? However, the Taliban have become arms exporters, with some of these arms surfacing in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in the Middle East.

America’s deep state had coined the term “Violent Terrorism”; enabling Islamic radicalization to grow unabated, which in turn helped the US to continue its war-mongering. As a result, Islamic radicalization has grown worldwide to such an extent that how much Trump can do in his second presidency to curb it is debatable. Islamic radicalization is going full-blast in Bangladesh. Although, Trump says America’s deep state had nothing to change the regime in Bangladesh, but Joe Biden’ s tight embrace of Mohammad Yunus (chief Advisor to Interim Government of Bangladesh) in the US, and public reception accorded to him by Bill Clinton (though without Monica Lewinsky), proves the opposite. Trump may have cut off USAID, but Alex Soros, along with Binaifer Nowrojee (president of OSF – Open Society Forum) have visited Bangladesh and met Yunus, with both pledging full support to him.

The situation in South Asia today is that Islamic terrorist leaders of Pakistan and Bangladesh have joined hands and are planning Islamic jihad. The ISI of Pakistan is hyperactive in Bangladesh. Both militaries are visiting each other, and Pakistani military is to train Bangladeshi military in four cantonments of Bangladesh army. Hamas has emerged in Pakistan, dialoguing with the LeT, in person as also virtually both with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Turkey is sending Islamic fighters to assist Pakistan’s proxy war on India. Yunus is trying to get into the good books of Trump by reportedly bidding for F-16 fighter aircraft, as well as by asking Elon Musk to provide Starlink cover for Bangladesh.

The Trump administration is doubling down on America’s deep state. But equally important is the need to act against the likes of Alex Soros and OSF funding radicalization and terrorism globally. The US has branded many organizations “terrorists” but little action has been taken against them and their leaders, despite the Pakistani army chief being summoned to Washington periodically and Pentagon in direct contact with him, DG ISI and other Generals. Britain has been airlifting artillery/mortar ammunition from Pakistan, repackaging it, and supplying the same to Ukraine. To stop the Pakistan military/ISI generation terrorism, the Trump administration needs to warn the Pakistani military establishment and impose sanctions. Moreover, to stop the China-Pakistan genocide in Balochistan and China’s dangerous expansionism, independence of Balochistan (and Sindh) needs to be actively supported. Pressure must be built on Yunus and the Bangladesh government to hold parliamentary elections without any more delay; to restore democracy.  Provision of Starlink cover to Bangladesh would help trans-border terrorist infiltration and actions in India; this could be avoided even as Musk would be eager to enter Starlink in South Asia. Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of al-Qaeda’s affiliate Ansarullah Bangladesh, has given a call to radical Islamists to infiltrate into India and kill as many Indians.

How America’s deep state engineered the regime change in Syria by manufactured suffering and chaos has been revealed  by former Senator, Gen. Richard Black; stole wheat-rich Syria to cause famine, stole oil to paralyze transportation and freeze  civilians in winter, and facilitated arrival of terrorists from 100 countries.

Turkish President Erdogan, blue-eyed boy of America’s deep state, helped train and arm ISIS in 2012-2013 and now fuel the regime change in Syria by acting as the conduit for global terrorists once again. Trump reportedly wants to pull out troops from Syria but it is high time the US clips the wings of Erdogan, who has always nurtured the dream of resurrecting the Ottoman Empire - an Islamic Emirate with himself as its Emir. Kash Patel, with his work in progress to bury the “deep state” could look into how Syria was handed over to a terrorist regime.

Finally, the Trump Administration must acknowledge that all Islamic terrorists are linked globally and nurture the same dreams under the skin. Propping up one Islamic terrorist regime is the same as helping all.

The author is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are personal.