Early Thursday morning, Feb 3. United States special forces conducted a raid in Syria, killing the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. Al-Qurayshi became the leader of the IS in October 2019 just days after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid. 

While many officials and insiders first thought that the special forces killed al-Qurayshi, the leader ended up blowing and killing himself and his family. President Biden announced the overnight raid and how the mission was months in the planning. “Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” said Biden, according to the Associated Press. 

With tensions in the Middle East only growing since the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan, it seems to many Americans that this region is only becoming more unstable. “My expectation is that the U.S. will have to keep dealing with these acts of terror especially in Yemen, which has become a hotspot for terrorism,” said Mrs. Winiarski, a social studies teacher at Lemont. 

“While terrorism will still occur around the world, I don’t necessarily think ISIS will be the leading force in that,” said Winiarski. As it is seen with many past terror groups, they usually have their peak years of reigning terror throughout the world, yet that control soon diminshes and that is what ISIS is dealing with right now. “[The killing of al-Qurayshi] will probably not mean a whole lot on the war on terror because ISIS simply isn’t the threat that it once was,” said Winiarski. “With COVID and political issues, ISIS has not really been in the public eye and has not been a major issue for many Americans.” 

In fact, in a recent poll taken by PEW Research, international terrorism was the second to last issue American’s viewed as a problem with issues such as health care and violent crime leading the way. “Terrorism in general has taken a back burner to some of the COVID stuff. I think it’s just that people have other things that they want to deal with and other priorities,” said Winiarski. “While terrorism will still occur around the world, I don’t necessarily think ISIS will be the leading force in that.” 

The fact that nearly 26% of respondents to the PEW poll said that international terrorism is a major threat compared to 50% for violent crime, shows that the Islamic Styate and other terrorist organizations are not on the U.S. radar. However with the raid and killing of al-Qurayshi comes the typical stereotypes on the Middle East and it’s people. “I think one of the struggles too is that the Middle East is a monolith, meaning that every country has the same beliefs, and stereotypes are placed on these people and places,” said Winiarski. 

But while places like Afghanistan were once a significant threat to U.S. security, there is a new threat that the world faces. “I think we are always going to have certain relationships in the Middle East where we get along with some countries rather than others but I truly think the big problem is with Russia,” said Winiarski. “Russia is clearly testing us and the relations with the Middle East as they see certain regimes that are against us and they are trying to exploit these feelings.”