Islamic State group releases latest Dabiq magazine attacking Christianity

The latest issue of the Islamic State group's infamous Dabiq magazine has been released carrying a strongly anti-Christian and anti-Western message.

Themed 'Break The Cross', the magazine attacks Christianity throughout the issue, with writers attempting to use scholarly and theological justifications for IS' war on the West.

The cover features an image of an IS militant tearing a cross from a church roof, while the back show a desecrated Christian grave stone.

Issue 15 of the magazine appeared to have been hit by delays, but the release of the strongly anti-Christian and Western edition coincides with a series of lone wolf murder attacks by suspected IS sympathisers in Europe and the US.

Dabiq praises a bloody attack in Nice on 14 July, when a man drove a lorry into crowds on packed streets and showed images from the murder scene. 

It also mentions a mass shooting in an Orlando gay club by a lone gunman, the beheading of a priest in France, two attacks in Germany, and murderous assaults claimed by IS in Bangladesh. 

It said that these led to the "martyrdom [of] twelve soldiers of the caliphate" and "killed or injured 600 Crusaders".

These militant attacks were all on civilian targets, and murdered young and old, women and children indiscriminately. Many analysts believe these attacks are a sign of weakness of the group, and were likely copy-cat attacks rather directly ordered by the leadership in Raqqa.

The latest issue of Dabiq features profiles and articles from IS fighters from Christian backgrounds.

The IS' propagandists also attack secularism, democracy and women's rights in Europe and the US, taking particular aim at Western concepts of liberalism.

— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) July 31, 2016 " style="color:#fff;" class="twitter-post-link" target="_blank">Twitter Post #ISIS released the 15th issue of its Dabiq Magazine dubbed "Break the Cross" pic.twitter.com/lJz9MxivIu — Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) July 31, 2016

The magazine includes pictures of "pagan" cannabis' rights protesters, the White House lit with rainbow colours associated with the LGBT community, and an image of a clean shaven man among US soldiers who it describes as "effeminate".

The inventor of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud is also attacked, who Dabiq describes as "one of the engineers of Western decadence".

Most of the focus of the magazine appears to be Christianity and the "debauchery" or "paganism" of the West, and emphasises the stories of converts from the religion. 

Many believe the issue could be an attempt to boost morale among its foreign fighters, many of whom come from Europe.

Dabiq takes its name from a town in Syria, which IS followers believe will be the site of a final battle between Muslim and Christian armies.

The vision of Armageddon and emphasis on this relatively obscure and insignificant Syrian town has been frequently employed in IS propaganda.

The concept is also said to have been used to encourage foreign recruits to come to its territories.

IS has lost huge tracts of land from Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian rebel forces and come under sustained attack by US-led coalition war planes.

Kurdish and rebel forces have been advancing on its self-declared "capital" Raqqa in Syria, while Iraqi-Kurdish forces appear to be preparing for a final assault on its largest city Mosul, in Iraq.

Iraq's Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi claimed on Sunday - the same day the magazine was released - that IS leaders and their families had sold their belongings and were fleeing Mosul as Kurdish-Iraqi forces close in on the city.