The Caliphate Has Gone Remote

Soldiers of Allah, WhatsApp division

On July 3, French investigators began looking into the "jihadist activities" of a WhatsApp group called "Soldiers of Allah". Three men were arrested on September 1, then charged with terrorist criminal conspiracy and jailed on September 5. Prosecutors suspect them of preparing to join the Islamic State in Africa and/or a "violent action" targeting the Jewish community.

According to Le Monde, one of them, a foreign national, was arrested in an immigration detention centre near Paris. The French state was already preparing his departure. Prosecutors suspect the group had another destination in mind.

A bomb for an empty chamber

According to RTL, one of the suspects, aged 20, was in touch with a 35-year-old American convert arrested by the FBI on August 19 in Albany. She allegedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State online and planned to bomb the New York State Capitol "on a day when the most amount of senators are there". The legislature had been out of session since June.

"I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well."— The Albany suspect, according to the federal complaint, August 2026

The Islamic State members she plotted with were FBI informants. They gave her money for the nail-bomb ingredients, which she bought at Home Depot, then handed her an inert device, and she was arrested. After the attack, she planned to flee to Islamic State territory in Syria. The group lost its last village there in 2019.

Four countries, one brand

This summer, Kuwait broke up a cell plotting to attack a Shiite mosque, arrested two minors trained in explosives and a man who had built an attack drone. Israel charged a 19-year-old accused of planning to attack an army base, a man accused of preparing a car bomb for a Beersheba nightclub, and a former soldier training to fight for the group in Syria or Africa. In Istanbul, a suspected operative and a civilian were killed in a police shootout. The Long War Journal sees no operational link, only a shared brand.

Jihad, now in cartoons

A report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, shared with Wired, describes "Slop Jihad": memes, fan edits and cartoons made with generative AI by young supporters of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Its author found 150 such videos on 71 TikTok accounts, viewed over 5.4 million times. One remakes an Islamic State execution video as a SpongeBob cartoon. TikTok dismissed the report's method and conclusions. It also said:

"All the content referenced in this report has been removed from TikTok."— TikTok spokesperson, to Wired, September 2026

Dozens of the videos were deleted after Wired sent them to TikTok, and many accounts keep backups. The old guard sulks: some veteran supporters doubt that the cartoonists are true believers.

The caliphate, relocated

The Islamic State remained the world's deadliest terrorist group in 2025, according to the Global Terrorism Index. Its attacks in sub-Saharan Africa nearly doubled, from 111 to 221, while falling by 39% in the Middle East and North Africa. Hence, perhaps, the French suspects' travel plans.

The caliphate lost Mosul and Raqqa in 2017, and its last village in 2019. It kept the group chat.