The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to jttmsubs@memri.org with "Membership" in the subject line.)
Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to media@memri.org. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
Main French-Language Jihadi Forum Supports Islamic State, Bans Dissenting Opinions
The ongoing disagreement amongst the jihadi factions regarding the status of what was formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and has now become the self-proclaimed Caliphate (Islamic State – IS) has led to severe disagreements and schisms among the online jihadi community. The French-language forum Ansar Al-Haqq has hosted numerous debates on the IS issue since the disputes began in late 2013. Forum members who are currently fighting for IS and other IS supporters have recently taken over moderation of the website and have banned members who have expressed opinions considered to deviate from the IS's religious line.
The main French-language forum Ansar Al-Haqq has recently come under the control of IS jihad fighters and supporters, who have create a new and strictly pro-IS policy. In an August 11, 2014 forum post, member Ibn Amar, a former moderator of the site, complained of being kicked off the moderating team. He states: "Brothers and sisters, I wanted to tell you that I have been victim of an injustice from a brother who relieved me of my function as a forum moderator for no reason." Another moderator replied, "I am also a moderator; this decision is fair because you were not managing the forum as it should have been administered by letting people defend theSahawât [militias] and even allowing them to criticize the Islamic State and call them khawâridj."
In an August 14, 2014 communiqué, released following the recent US airstrikes on the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, Al-Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula (AQAP) expressed solidarity with the mujahideen in Iraq and pledged to kill as many Americans as possible. It also called upon all the Islamic organizations and upon Muslims everywhere to do the same, especially anyone able to enter the US itself.
AQAP stressed that the US is heading the war against the Muslims at the present time, and noted that Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri "always advised to crush the head of the American serpent, in order to make it easier to eliminate its agents, the leaders of the Muslim countries." At the same time, AQAP assured the mujahideen in Iraq that experience teaches that these airstrikes, though destructive, "cannot defeat those who place their trust in Allah," and that jihad continues from generation to generation.
On August 13, 2014, Al-Qaeda media wing Al-Sahab released a short statement regarding Warren Weinstein, the American hostage it is holding. Al-Qaeda asks Weinstein's family to do everything in their power to pressure the Obama administration to work for the release of Weinstein. It also says that the U.S. government has yet to make any "serious efforts" for his release and that the U.S.'s continued "deliberate and prolonged neglect" of Weinstein's case will end up leading to him dying a "lonely death in prison."
The statement was released in Arabic and English, and was dated August 2014.
AQAP Mufti Hints Support For ISIS
In a video posted August 12, 2014 on the jihadi website Al-Fida, the mufti of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Rubaish, congratulates the mujahideen and the Muslims everywhere for the victories in Iraq, without explicitly naming the Islamic State (IS, aka the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS). It should be noted that, hitherto, AQAP has not taken sides in the conflict between Jabhat Al-Nusra and the IS, and this statement by its mufti may indicate support for the latter.
In a new video, Al-Qaeda's Pakistani scholar Maulana Asim Umar urges Muslim women to join the war against the infidel world and sacrifice their lives, saying that they and jihadis across the world are fighting for the establishment of the Islamic caliphate.
On August 9, 2014, the Al-Manara Al-Baida media company, which is associated with Jabhat Al-Nusra, released a 15-minute video featuring an interview with the organization's spokesman, Abu Firas Al-Suri. The following are its main points.
Abu Firas Al-Suri
Al-Suri starts by addressing an announcement recently made by JN leader Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani in a message to his troops, in which he said that JN had declared an emirate in Syria.
On August 6, 2014, President Obama said he had authorized military strikes against the Islamic State (IS) if the group continued its advancement towards the city of Irbil, where U.S. military personnel and the U.S. consulate were located. On August 8, 2014, U.S. military jets carried out two airstrikes against IS's targets. One was said to have targeted IS artillery near Irbil that was shelling Kurdish forces. The decision to strike the IS came after it achieved substantial gains on the ground over large areas in northern Iraq in the last few months. During the last week, the IS announced a number of victories against the Kurdish Peshmerga, while saying that it took over a number of towns with Kurdish populations, as well as strategic locations like Mosul Dam.
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At the time of this writing, the IS has yet to publish an official response to the U.S.'s military strikes against it. Sources close to the IS, however, announced on Twitter that within few hours, IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi would issue an announcement declaring the beginning of "jihad against America." Pro-IS figures, on the other hand, began rallying over social media immediately following Obama's announcement. The Hashtag "#Obama_announces_bombing_Islamic_State" (in Arabic) was used by pro-IS elements to respond to the announcement, and call to target American interests and people and to bring the war home. "Today is Mosul, tomorrow is Seattle," wrote one individual on Twitter.
Following are some of the responses to the U.S.'s decision to target the IS:
@3kasha3 tweeted on August 8, 2014: "#Obama_announces_bombing_Islamic_State and the mujahideen respond: today Mosul and tomorrow Seattle. Say Allah Akbar oh Muslims, the bells of war have been sounded"
Image: Twitter.com/3kasha3, August 8, 2014.
IS Supporters Distribute Photo Of IS Logo Outside White House
On August 9, 2014, online supporters of the Islamic State (IS) distributed a photo taken in Washington DC, showing the IS logo appearing on a smartphone with the White House in the background.
Pro-IS Leaflets Distributed In Central London
Kerrar Kezman, a London-based student, uploaded a photo on his Twitter account of a pro-IS leaflet that he claims was distributed in London on August 11th2014. The leaflet calls on Muslims to join and support the Caliphate.
He tweeted: ”Pro-ISIS leaflets given out in Central London today…’Obey the Khaleef’ I hope @metpoliceuk are monitoring this”. The leaflet reads: “The darkness of following manmade law and the abandonment of the Shariah of Allah led to the destruction of the Khilafah (Islamic State) in the year 1924. Since that year for over 90 years we have been living in a constant state of ignorance.
Picture on video title page – On the right side IS members stand under a road sign pointing towards the Kurdish cities of Zakho and Duhok. On the left side youths mockingly strike the portrait of Kurdish Regional Government President Mass'oud Al-Barzani.
On August 9, the Islamic State’s (IS) information bureau for the Ninawa Governorate of northern Iraq, released on its official Twitter account page a four and a half-minute long video clip, documenting a mounted patrol by organization members in the regions conquered from the Kurdish Peshmerga in recent days. It should be noted that that while the cities were actually controlled by the Peshmerga they are not officially part of the autonomous Kurdish region.
Islamic State Destroys Tombs, Shi'ite Holy Sites In Mosul
The information office for the Islamic State (IS, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS) in Ninawa Province in Iraq recently tweeted the religious justification for destroying holy sites in the city of Mosul, which the organization recently captured. The IS also posted photo documentation of the destruction of tombs said to be those of the prophets Younis (Jonah), Sheeth (Seth), Daniel, and Jarjis (George), as well as Shi'ite burial and holy sites.
Accompanying the photos was the ruling by Imam Al-Shawkani banning the moving of tombs, the building of mosques and prayer sites on top of tombs, and the transformation of tombs into sites for ritual and pilgrimage. According to IS, the Koran and Muslim tradition state that most tombs are defiled because mosques were built above and around them, and because they are now sites of ritual and pilgrimage.
Maulana Abdul Aziz
In a new video interview, radical Pakistani cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Islamabad-based Red Mosque has endorsed the Islamic State (IS) established by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who declared himself the caliph of Islam in a statement dated June 29.
Maulana Abdul Aziz runs the Red Mosque and a madrassa for female students called Jamia Hafsa, which is adjacent to his mosque in the Pakistani capital. The mosque/madrassa were the site of the 2007 Pakistani military operation ordered after its armed female students began enforcing sharia code in the city.
A page from the magazine
The latest issue of the Taliban's English-language magazine 'Azan' criticizes Islamic clerics in the Muslim world who deliver fatwas to suit their rulers and reproduces an 8th century correspondence between the then Abbasid caliph Haroon Al-Rasheed and Islamic scholar of the era Sufyan Al-Thawri, who criticized Haroon for misdeeds.
The magazine "Azan – Call to Jihad" is published by the Taliban in Khorasan, the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The latest issue of the magazine – issue 6 – was produced sometime in June, before the fasting month of Ramadan. A PDF copy of the magazine was released through a jihadi account on Twitter associated with Omar Khaild Khorasani, a leading commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The article is titled "From the Pages of History: Scholars of Resolve" and from the magazine's content page, it appears to have been written by the 11th century Islamic scholar Imam Al-Ghazzali, who is credited to have closed the door of ijtihad (reasoning and consensus as the source of lawmaking in Islam), thereby ending the golden era of Islam. The article focuses on the life of Islamic scholar Sufyan Al-Thawri, who refused to visit his friend Haroon Al-Rasheed when he became the caliph.
Image courtesy: project-pakistan.com
Recently, several investigative reports written by senior Pakistani journalist Kahar Zalmay revealed that the Pakistani Army, before launching its anti-Taliban operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan in June, facilitated the movement of the Haqqani Network to new hideouts. The Haqqani Network, a unit of the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been working as the long arm of Pakistan in Afghanistan.
According to the reports by Kahar Zalmay, the Haqqani Network has not only been shifted to the new hideout of Kurram Agency, but the Pakistan Army has also engaged its operational commander Sirajuddin Haqqani to hold negotiations with Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a commander of the Pakistani Taliban who has been known for his pro-government stand throughout in the past decade and more. It should be noted that Bahadur and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) did not fight against the Pakistan military during the Zarb-e-Azb operation.
Following are excerpts from the reports:
August 3 Report: "The Locals Are Left Feeling Helpless As The Military Moves Their Haqqani Ally To The Shalozan Area, Strategically Placed In The Foothills Of Kohe-Sufaid"
"Haqqani Network, key ally of the Pakistani establishment and renowned for its attacks against the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has found itself a new home in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, after being dislodged from its hideouts in North Waziristan in May of this year. Just one month before the much publicized military operation, Zarb-e-Azb. Strategically placed Parachinar, also the headquarters of Kurram Agency, is just 70 miles away from Kabul. Locals say the Haqqanis were relocated there in the months of April and May [i.e. before the Pakistani Army began Zarb-e-Azb operation against the Taliban in North Waziristan]. The local administration began imposing curfews for no obvious reason, but once it was made known that the Haqqanis were in the area the curfews started making sense.
Philippine Jihad Group Jama'at Ansar Al-Khilafa Swears Fealty To Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
In a 12-minute video posted to YouTube on August 12, 2014, fighters from the Philippine jihad group Jama'at Ansar Al-Khilafa swear fealty to the Islamic State (IS) and to its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who recently proclaimed himself caliph.
In the video, produced by the jihadi media company Al-Battar, the group members, whose faces are blurred, chant the oath in unision, and then utter several cries of "Allah Akbar" and fire in the air.
On July 26, 2014, the Twitter account of "Abumuhajir", which recently published a photo of two German nationals who were kidnapped by the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf jihad group, published an image of a man allegedly beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf group.
Report: Pakistani Taliban Commander Adnan Rasheed Marries German National
Taliban commander Adnan Rasheed was freed from jail in 2012
Following are from a Pakistani media report that reveals that Adnan Rasheed, a key commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who had previously been involved in an assassination attempt on the then-Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf in 2003, recently married a German doctor of Pakistani origin who arrived from Germany in June.
"When the Pakistani media was proclaiming that Adnan Rasheed was dead he was actually making plans for his second marriage to a German doctor of Pakistani origin whom he met on the internet. The marriage was made official on June 23, around 10 days after he was declared dead, labeled as one of the high-profile targets eliminated at the outset of [the Pakistani army's anti-Taliban] operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan.
Afghans participating in Afghan Star (Afghan version of American Idol)
In a recent statement, an official website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban shadow organization led by Mullah Mohammad Omar), slammed the popular television program Afghan Star, which is modeled after the reality show American Idol. The Taliban statement specifically used the word "idol" in order to suggest that America is imposing unbelief in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
In the statement, dated August 9, the Islamic Emirate compared the deadlocked Afghan presidential elections with Afghan Idol, arguing that those who appear in the singing show and those who participate in the country's elections were both promoting American influence across the world. The June presidential elections are deadlocked over the issue of massive vote-rigging and a winner is yet to be announced.
"Besides Violently Imposing Itself Internationally Through Invasions... The United States Has Also Been Actively Busy In Exporting Its 'Culture'; From Fast Food Chains Selling Barely Palatable Snacks To Immoral Hollywood Movies And Sitcoms..."
"Dancing to the master's tune
"Besides violently imposing itself internationally through invasions and occupations, the United States has also been actively busy in exporting its 'culture.' From fast food chains selling barely palatable snacks to immoral Hollywood movies and sitcoms, all this seems to be designed to create an international public that would be less violently opposed to the ideal of an American Empire."
