ISIS Aims to Behead Pope Francis

According to Muslim scholars, Muhammed prophesied that the two great Roman cities would be conquered: Constantinople and Rome. Constantinople is now Istanbul, a Muslim city. The other city, of course, is Rome.

“ISIS thinks that Rome is one of its primary goals and is in its timetable,” Robert Spencer, author of The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS, said. “One of the chief stepping stones to that Armageddon battle is the conquest of Rome, which they think they’re going to be able to do with the next five years, by 2020.”

While the Islamic state has maintained the importance of conquering Rome since their beginning, many in the west have not taken the threat seriously. However, the most recent threat at the end of September has triggered a new debate on the plausibility of such an attack.

As North Africa continues to decline since the Obama administration destabilized Libya, the Islamic State continues to grow within the ruined region.  With a new caliphate established in Libya, the radical terrorist group attracts hundreds of new members a day. They are a mere day’s trip from reaching Rome.

Hoping to destabilize Europe through sleeper cells, the Islamic State will undeniably take advantage of the Muslim migration from Syria. With hundreds of thousands of Muslims flooding European cities, the time to infiltrate has never been better for the Islamic State.

“And so this is the plan, to convert St Peter’s Square into a huge site of executions to people judged to be enemies of Allah, chief among them the Pope, in order to cow and frighten the rest of the world into submitting to their rule,” a member of the Islamic State recently said.

With the advances of the Islamic State, as well as the Syrian migration crisis, any threat needs to be taken seriously. Although Pope Francis might believe all religions should be treated with equal respect, he should know the Islamic State disagrees.