The public martyrdom of twenty-one Egyptian Christians on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea was no doubt intended to serve the strategic purposes of ISIS in several ways. The public nature of the act gave cause to galvanize radical Muslims and further establish this conflict as one between faithful Muslims and the infidels. ISIS operatives yearn for this interpretation of their movement, and their public relations machine is bent on bringing it about.
Second, like all acts of terrorism, this one is also meant to inspire fear in their enemies. The fact that the massacre occurs on the banks of the Mediterranean drives home the point they want to make, which is that ISIS can project their power far away from their base in Syria and Iraq. They want to be perceived as a global movement so that their threats against Rome and other symbolic Western hubs might be taken seriously.
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