College Professor speaks out on ISIS becoming a threat across the globe

November 17, 2015 5:36 pm

By Ana Bottary

abottary@abc6.com

Just hours after multiple terrorists stormed Paris, killing 129 people and injuring more than 350, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks. UMass Dartmouth Professor Brian Glyn Williams says the attacks did not come as a surprise.

"We’d been expecting something. ISIS had announced about two months ago that they would be sending infiltrators in with these hundreds of thousands of refugees," says Williams.

Williams began studying jihad and the militant Islam more than 30 years ago, and says ISIS is a growing threat.

"Amazingly enough, ISIS has done what al-Qaeda could only dream of doing in a country larger than Britain," Williams says.

He says one thing most Americans don’t understand about ISIS is that it is a manifestation of Sunni Islam. In 2003, the United States overthrew the Sunni Ba’athist who ran Iraq for thousands of years.

"In many ways ISIS is an attempt by the Sunni’s to regain power against the Shiites in Iraq and, of course, overthrow the Shiite dynasty in neighboring Syria," he explains.

Williams says the horrific attacks are not limited to Paris–they’re attacking across the globe.

Over the past month Paris, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt have all been targeted, claiming hundreds of lives. He says, sadly, the ones who suffer the most are the ones living under their reign in Syria and Iraq, and that grouping them with the people they are running away from is not the answer.

"We need to vet these people coming in, make sure there is no one among them with sympathies with ISIS. I think for the most part we should stand by our traditions. Give us your huddled masses, as it says on the Statue of Liberty," Williams adds.