When the attack on a church in the Jordanian locality of al-Karak took place, the incident immediately struck me as being in keeping with Islamic State ideology, which advocates for attacking Christians (and Jews) everywhere unless they agree to convert to Islam, agree to live under the Islamic State as ‘dhimmis’ (i.e. paying a poll tax called ‘jizya’ and abiding by various restrictions) or have a ‘pact of security’ whereby they can enter the group’s territory for business or other purposes (which would have been the arrangement for German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer when he reported from the group’s territory in Iraq and Syria. As such then, the war is primarily a matter of ideological grievance: the existence of Christians who do not wish to live under Islamic authority is seen as a grievance.
The editorial issued this week in the group’s al-Naba’ newsletter does not formally claim the attack, but it does hail the attack as being in keeping with the above ideological framework.