ABSTRACT
How did Salafi-jihadists attempt to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic? And how successful were they in achieving their objectives? This chapter finds that Salafi-jihadist groups and individuals hoped that COVID-19 would be helpful in conducting five main types of activities: increase terrorist attacks around the globe, conduct biological warfare, expand recruitment and other support, outperform local regimes, and weaken the West. But organizations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State generally failed to achieve most of their objectives, and their statements were largely rhetorical. Salafi-jihadist groups did not increase attacks (including in the West), they failed to outperform local regimes in responding to COVID-19, and their apocalyptic predictions about the collapse of the West did not materialize.
