The goal of IS and its offshoots is not just to radicalise Islam but to radicalise the West.
Eventually, the grayzone will become extinct and there will be no place for grayish calls and movements. There will only be the camp of Ä«mÄn versus the camp of kufr.
These attacks follow the classic revolutionary pattern of seeking to sharpen the contradictions between opposing forces.Ā
I recommend, if you can wade through it, reading the rant "Extinguishing the Grayzone" that starts on p. 54 of the issue of Dabiq (the perverted online IS magazine) published after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
(NB: the link goes to a large PDF)
https://pietervanostaeyen.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/dabiq71.pdf
What these words demonstrate is the vital importance of showing solidarity towards the great majority of Muslims identified as "apostasising hypocrites" by IS, the inhabitants of the "grayzone" that IS seeks to remove. They identify Middle Eastern nationalists (rather than religious fundamentalists) and those Muslims living peaceably in the west as among the enemies of their cause.Ā
To IS it is abundantly clear that so many practising Muslims have no affection for their violent causeāif only it were equally clear to the right wing western commentators and ideologues who will now begin to attach the blame for these attacks to Muslims living among them.
