The terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) poses a threat to Singapore and the region that is far worse than that of older terror groups like Al-Qaeda, terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said yesterday.

At least 34 militant groups in neighbouring countries have links with or pledged allegiance to ISIS, and there is a “tiny minority” of sympathisers and supporters of the group in the region.

Two years after declaring a caliphate in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq, the militant group has produced “very seductive” propaganda material, he noted.

These include “near-Hollywood quality videos” in English and languages such as Malay, Bengali and Turkish, to lure young men and women through social media, Professor Gunaratna added.

“ISIS and Al-Qaeda ideology are very similar, but ISIS is more violent and more bloody, it’s a more barbaric group,” he said.

… This was what prompted Prof Gunaratna and Ms Stephanie Kam, Associate Research Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) to produce the book to detail the emerging threat in the region.