Whether the man behind the recent New Orleans killing spree, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was recruited from abroad or merely acted “alone,” as the FBI claims, is beside the point, as he is part of a trend at the start of 2025: the rise around the globe of terrorism inspired by Islamist teachings.

“The idea that radical Islamicism has gone away as a problem for the United States or our friends and allies — ask Israel — is really a huge mistake,” a former national security adviser, John Bolton, told CNN. One case he mentioned is how the Khorasan group, known as ISIS-K, has established itself in Afghanistan.

ISIS-K is a globalist jihadist group that is strictly opposed to any group that does not adhere to its vision of Sunni Islam, including Christians, Jews, and even Shia Muslims. In 2024 it struck a memorial service in Iran, a church in Turkey, and a concert hall in Russia. Altogether, these attacks have killed 250 people.

The group is recognized by the U.S. counterterrorism center as one of the most lethal ISIS branches. Among its other enemies, the terror group is fighting its Afghani host, the Taliban. In December, a suicide car bomber killed a senior member of the Taliban government, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani.    

Once host to Al Qaeda, the Taliban is back in power in Afghanistan courtesy of America’s disastrous flight from the country. It too is steeped in jihad. Among the Taliban’s new enemies is its one-time benefactor, neighboring Pakistan. Border skirmishes between the Pakistani military and Taliban fighters have come to a boil in the last weeks of December. 

“The Taliban has resurfaced, and we cannot move forward without crushing this menace,” the Pakistani prime minister, Shehaz Sharif, said Friday. “Defeating this monster is our shared target.”

Terrorism is also on the rise in the Mideast. The Islamic Republic’s last remaining proxy with power, the Houthis, has used its perch in Yemen to block international shipping and attack Israel almost daily. Millions of Israelis rushed to shelters at 4:30 a.m. Friday, as a Houthi cruise missile was intercepted overhead. 

So far, global attempts to combat the Houthis have been unsuccessful, and in a worrisome development that is bound to make the Yemeni group even more dangerous, Communist China is now aiding the group. 

Beijing is no fan of the Houthi branch of Islam, known as Zaydi, or any Islamic sect for that matter. It oppresses its own Muslims, the Uighurs. Yet the Chinese are aiding the Yemeni branch of Iran’s “axis of resistance” as part of a transactional deal. 

Through a clandestine network, Beijing is supplying advanced components and guidance equipment for the Houthis’ ballistic and cruise missiles, the news network I24 is reporting, citing unidentified American security sources. In return, the Houthis are allowing Chinese-flagged ships to sail freely in the Red Sea, where the largest Western shipping firms have stopped traveling for fear of Houthi attacks. 

Red Sea terrorism, then, is paying off for the Houthis. It is also becoming a weapon in the competition between a global Beijing-led group that includes Russia, Iran, North Korea, and others. They are united behind the goal of unseating America as world leader. 

One place where that competition could soon be tested is Syria. The fall of President Assad is likely to shift alliances in the Mideast and beyond. Americans, Europeans, and others are rushing to meet with Damascus’s new power holder, Ahmed a-Sharaa.

Earlier known as Abu Mohamed al-Joulani, Syria’s new leader is steeped in the Islamist teachings that guide the world’s most prominent terrorist groups. Mr. Sharaa started out his militant career as a member of ISIS in Iraq. He then became a disciple of an Al Qaeda chief, the late Ayman al-Zawahiri, before changing the name of his Syrian branch of Al Qaeda to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from al -Nousra.

Mr. Sharaa is advertising himself as an open-minded nationalist who would lead a pluralistic democracy in Syria. On Friday, though, he refused to shake the hand of a female visitor, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock. Some of his allies are committing atrocities against Kurds and other minorities. While Mr. Sharaa is decisively anti-Iran, concerns are growing that his top benefactor, Turkey, could become the new Islamist menace in the Mideast. 

“It is time to stop treating President Erdogan’s declarations about resurrecting the Ottoman Empire as idle dreams, and look at them as a plan of operation,” an Israeli journalist, Pazit Ravina, writes in Makor Rishon. Among other Turkish aspirations, she notes Mr. Erdogan’s explicit talk about conquering al-Aqsa and the rest of Israel. 

The war that Hamas launched on October 7, 2023, has inspired jihadists around the world. Chants of “globalize the intifada” lead Western extremists to adopt its tactics. Whether Jabbar adorned his murderous truck with an ISIS flag on his own or was ordered to do so from abroad, he is part of a global challenge that will be on America’s agenda for years to come.