MEMRI published posts, pictures and social media messages by Muslims in support of Vegas attacker, Stephen Paddock.

Where did ISIS get this photo of Paddock?

“America has sunk and there is no savior, and became a prey to the caliphate in every corner of the earth.”

“Know that #IslamicState won’t stop fighting you in every Corner of the globe until you accept Islam or Pay Jizyah [poll-tax on Non-Muslims] with Submission.”

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the prostitution, gambling, and alcohol in the city of Las Vegas.”

ISIS Supporters Rejoice At Las Vegas Attack On Social Media: ‘What Now Trump? You Banned “Radicalized Muslims” From Traveling To America! Allah Sent His Soldier From Within Your People’

On October 2, 2017, the Islamic State (ISIS) news agency A’maq claimed responsibility for the previous evening’s deadly shooting attack at a country music festival in Las Vegas, in which over 50 people were killed and several hundred were wounded.[1] Police identified the attacker as 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock. Subsequent posts on numerous ISIS-affiliated Telegram channels noted the ISIS claim that Paddock was a recent convert to Islam. In the hours after the attack, and following the A’maq Agency claim, there have been many celebratory posts on pro-ISIS social media accounts on platforms such as Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram. The following report will include some of the reactions to the Las Vegas attack.

A pro-ISIS channel named Las Vegas USA is dedicated to celebrating yesterday’s attack, criticizing President Trump, and issuing further threats. One graphic shows an image of President Trump waving on one side, and the other side of the graphic shows the aftermath of an attack. The quote featured in the graphic reads: “The so called President Trump can’t help you survive, you should be scared, long night is coming Americans, either you submit willingly or be prepared for your men to be slaughtered and your women enslaved.”

In another post, the Telegram channel posted an image of Paddock with the caption: “O’ Lion of Tawhid [monotheism], May Allah Accept from you. You will be long remembered as the lion who avenged for his brothers.”

A series of posts from the channel reads: “Wishing now your Puppet Presidents stopped interfering in Muslim countries!!

“Take this what happened in #Orlando & #LasVegas was a taste of whats coming…

“America has sunk and there is no savior, and became a prey to the caliphate in every corner of the earth.

“Know that #IslamicState won’t stop fighting you in every Corner of the globe until you accept Islam or Pay Jizyah [poll-tax on Non-Muslims] with Submission.

“O’ American People: You chose your own president, your Taxes money supported your army that killed Muslims, because of that you are a legitimate target for us.”

Another graphic from the channel has a message in Arabic stating: “The Just terror… You claim [to uphold] justice, then we have to implement Allah’s justice on you. It is either death or paying jizyah [tax] with humiliation.”

A graphic reading: “Islamic State The Caliphate USA Licking Her Wounds In Las Vegas” has been circulated on numerous pro-ISIS Telegram channels.

In a conversation in the Telegram channel Muslim Tech Deen, Ya’qoob al-Kurdi stated: “Allahu Akbar I thought it was a silly white guy.” Azizz Hamdan replied: “It is a white guy, but not so silly after all.”

A message in al-Karrar stated: “So what are you waiting for brothers? You complain doors of hijrah are closed! What’s stopping you from opening doors of jihad in your cities? Can’t you kill a kafir [infidel] steal his car & run over the other kuffar? Can’t you stab a kafir with a knife? Can’t you crush his skull with stones?”

Al-Karaar circulated a graphic that reads: “Islamic State The Caliphate USA Where is your security? In Las Vegas A Single Mujahid Look At What He Has Done To You.” An additional caption reads: “What now Trump? You tweeted UK had attacker in sight, what about your agencies in your backyard?”

Another graphic shows Belgian ISIS fighter ‘Abd Al-Hamid Abaaoud, aka Abu Umar al-Baljiki.[2] The quote reads: “Oh Crusaders We Are Everywhere Soon Is the Next!” An additional caption asks: “Who is Next? Austria? Australia? England? Who?”

Another post in the group states: “What Now Trump? You banned ‘Radicalized Muslims’ from traveling to America! Allah sent his soldier from within your people.”

A pro-ISIS Telegram channel “Yemenite and Proud of my Islam” celebrated the attack and said that it was proof of the “fragility” of U.S. security services. It mocked previous promises by president Trump to eradicate ISIS within 30 days, saying now Trump is approaching the one-year mark of his presidency, yet “the strikes are coming to him in the middle of his home and amongst his citizens.” The channel further claimed that this attack exposed the illusion of the strength of the American and Western security services. The channel also threatened further attacks, saying: “Oh cross worshippers, you shall live in this terror for a long time, and the strikes shall reach you from where you do not know, and what is coming is much worse and bitterer.”

The Telegram group Sawt Al-Andalus, posted a photo of Paddock with the caption: “The hero brother the lion and the knight of Islam the soldier of the Islamic Caliphate. O Allah, I attest you that I love him in you. O Allah, if my brother is alive, blind their eyes of him, if he was arrested, help him remain resolute and if he was killed, accept him from among the martyrs grant him the highest class of paradise and make me follow him.”

The Telegram channel East Asia News Channel wrote: “Just Terror. Attack of the #Las_Vegas shooting is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to targeting coalition countries.”

The channel also posted a message reading: “Horror in the heart of #America this time in #Las_Vegas .. Attack after attack .. The Crusaders fell into great trouble and they were hit in their own homes .. Nothing benefited their wishes and intelligence .. If we look at the effects of these indirect blessed attacks. If we find a way we should be killing dozens of nationals of the Crusaders and injuring hundreds of them and disrupting their lives I their cities and inflict huge economic losses upon them by any means ..

“This blessed operation today in #Las_Vegas, the city of gambling and sin was a massacre in the right part of the slaves of the cross in their home, and where the threats of the idiot Trump who said that he will eliminate the Khilafah in 30 days and he almost reached a year in the presidency and strikes come to him in his home and his compatriots ..

“This blessed operation in Las Vegas showed the fragility of the security systems of America that claim to be the strongest in the world, through this type of operation, its time, location, and surrounding circumstances, where their intelligence and security is a great illusion they were lying to people through satellite screens and movies in fact their security was zero worth nothing ..

“It reveals more than a great illusion created by the media and entrenched the minds of people about the impossibility of penetrating the security measures of the crusader counties, and painful blows to came to them…

“The Crusaders will live in this horror for a long time…And the strikes will come from where you do not expect…And the future is more and more worse to come by Allah…”

One graphic circulated eulogizes the attacker, reading: “Brother Stephen Paddock.”

On Twitter, user @FA010FARI reposted ISIS’s claim and wrote: “Allahu Akbar.”

User @american15 celebrated the attack, writing: “America has drowned and there is no one to rescue [it], and it has become a prey for the soldiers of the caliphate in every region of the earth.”

User @darc_kw lamented the Arab governments’ solidarity with the U.S. over the attack, while, he says, they have forsaken the calamities afflicting Muslims in Syria and Myanmar. He wrote: “#Las_Vegas, the clocks and towers of the Arab [rulers] are colored with the American flag in solidarity with the [Las Vegas] victims, while [the victims] of Burma [Myanmar] and Syria have no one to cry for them.”

Prominent pro-ISIS body Turjiman Al-Asawirti circulated two posters (images below) on its Telegram channel (@Turjman_Media_374) threatening the U.S. and celebrating the success of ISIS’s propaganda in garnering supporters.

On Instagram, the pro-ISIS account the.moderates.back posted the cover image of the Issue 15 of ISIS’s defunct online magazine Dabiq. The caption reads: “You closed Hijrah for us?… No worries we’ll bring the Jihad to you!”

On Facebook, a British ISIS supporter named Ahmed Hussain posted: “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the prostitution, gambling, and alcohol in the city of Las Vegas.”

An ISIS supporter in Kashmir called Aamir Hussain posted on Facebook: “The flames of war has reached America. Those are the flames you ignited O Crusaders O Enemies of God, with the blood of Muslims. Children and elderly and women. These flames will now turn backfire you back and be the reason to burn you for eternity and as a wrath and punishment of God that though shall not bear and witness the Horror. Las Vegas Your today is everyday in Syria Iraq Afghanistan.”

He added a photo of Paddock and wrote: “May Allah accept your efforts your sacrifice O blessed knight of Islam Blessed are those who heard and obeyed a shame for born and coconut [moderate, secular] Muslims.”

[1] See MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Claims Attack At Las Vegas Music Festival, Says ‎Attacker Converted To Islam A Few Months Ago, October 2, 2017.

[2] See MEMRI JTTM report Dabiq VII Features Interview With Runaway Belgian ISIS Fighter Abdelhamid Abaaoud, February 12, 2015.