Jihadists hail Trump's travel ban, say it affirms U.S. is anti-Islamic

Jihadist groups have lauded President Donald Trump's executive order banning immigration from several Muslim-majority countries, claiming it proves that the U.S. is at war with Islam.

The executive order, which was signed by the president on Friday, suspended admission of refugees for 120 days and blocked citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. Additionally, refugees from Syria were indefinitely barred from coming into the country.

Comments posted on the pro-ISIS channel on social media platform Telegram suggested that the order would prompt American Muslims to take the side of the extremists. One post lauded Trump as "the best caller to Islam," while others predicted that the U.S. would soon instigate a new war with the Middle East.

"[Islamic State leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi has the right to come out and inform Trump that banning Muslims from entering America is a 'blessed ban,'" one comment read.

The commenter compared the order to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was described by Islamic militant leaders as a "blessed invasion" that sparked anti-Western sentiments across the Islamic world.

Other comments implied that Trump was fulfilling the predictions of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Al-Qaeda leader who stated that the "West would eventually turn against its Muslim citizens." Al-Awlaki died in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011, according to the Washington Post.

Another posting stated that Trump's actions "clearly revealed the truth and harsh reality behind the American government's hatred toward Muslims."

Rita Katz, the founder of the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadist websites, said that the order would make it easier for the terrorist networks to recruit new followers.

"Jihadists would have to argue to lengths that Obama, Bush, and others held anti-Islam agendas and hated the religion — not just radical terrorists," Katz said.

"Trump, however, makes that argument a lot easier for them to sell to their followers," she added.

Current and former U.S. officials have also expressed concern that the ban would undermine the global fight against Islamic militants.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he is worried about how the ban would affect Muslim troops who are fighting alongside Americans against ISIS.

Robert Richer, a 35-year CIA veteran and former chief of the agency's Near East division, described the order as a "strategic mistake" and said that it would make it more difficult to recruit spies from Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria.

"It fuels the belief out there that Americans are anti-Islam. Otherwise, it accomplishes nothing, because the ones we are most concerned about can still get to the United States," Richer said about the executive order.