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.)
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EXCLUSIVE: Dispute Over Takfir Rocks ISIS
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Even as the Islamic State (ISIS) is involved in fierce battles in Iraq and Syria, its official organs, clerics and supporters are engaged in an intense internal dispute over issues of theology. There are indications that the top ISIS leadership has adopted a new and even stricter view on the issue of takfir – accusing fellow Muslims of heresy or unbelief – and that senior ISIS clerics, as well as many ISIS supporters, disapprove of this change. Takfir is a key issue, since, in Islam, heresy is punishable by death. Hence takfir constitutes religious license to target and kill an individual. The shift was apparent in a memo published on May 17, 2017 by the organization's top executive council, the Delegated Committee, which redoubled ISIS's commitment to takfir.
On July 30, 2017, the Islamic State (ISIS) information office in Raqqa province, Syria released a 30-minute video titled "Withdraw Themselves From Their Own Tribes," which shows the fighting by ISIS members in Raqqa and emphasizes the foreign fighters participating in it.
On July 29, 2017, the Ashhad media organization, which is identified with the Islamic State (ISIS), released four banners calling on ISIS supporters to step up their ISIS information and promotion activity on social media. The main message of the banners, which were disseminated, inter alia, via the Islamic State's Telegram account, is that if ISIS supporters cannot carry out the commandment of jihad in the battlefield, they can provide massive support for and promotion of the organization on social media.
Platform(s): Facebook
Type of account: ISIS supporter
Additional information: Shared that he is of Mexican descent. It appears that he is a recent convert to Islam who resides in the Tampa area.
Sharing of jihadi content: Is a fan of the late Yemeni-American preacher Anwar Al-'Awlaki.
On July 21, 2017, A British man who resides in North London was charged with both a terrorism offense and a forgery offense. He is Facebook friends with a group of pro-ISIS individuals.
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On July 31, 2017, a poster announcing the launch of a fundraising campaign on Snapchat and Telegram was published on the Telegram channel of Sheikh Abd Al-Razzaq Al-Mahdi, a former member of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) who left the group in March 2017.
ISIS Al-Hayat Media Video Highlights Group's Enforcement Of Its Own Currency System
On July 28, 2017, the Islamic State (ISIS) Al-Hayat Media Center released a three-minute video highlighting ISIS's enforcement of the use of its currency system, which the group unveiled in September 2015.
ISIS Media Activists Called Upon To Resume Activity On Twitter, Facebook
In a series of messages, a user on a pro-ISIS Telegram channel called on ISIS media activists not to confine their activity to Telegram but to renew it on Twitter and Facebook as well.
On August 1, 2017, Haqqu Media Center, a Maldivian pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media group, released on Facebook and Telegram a video titled "Glad Tidings Are For the Strangers."
On July 22, 2017, Jamaican pro-ISIS Sheikh Abdullah Al-Faisal, delivered a sermon titled " Siege Of Al-Aqsa Masjid [mosque]" on Paltalk. The link to the sermon was circulated on various pro-ISIS Telegram channels.
Jamaican pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Sheikh Abdullah Al-Faisal's website provides instructions for interested individuals to donate to the "dawah [preaching] of Sheikh Faisal."
On July 27, 2017, Al-Malahem, the media office of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released a video featuring the group's senior commander Khaled Batarfi condemning Israel for enhancing security measures at the Al-Aqsa mosque and praised Palestinians who had carried out attacks against Jews by using knives or vehicles.
On July 27, 2017, Al-Kataib Media released a Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen video titled "Are You Content With The Questions To The Muslims In Kenya?" In the video, a few different militants express, in various dialects spoken in Kenya, the alleged hardships that Muslims endure living under the Kenyan government.
On August 2, 2017, Al-Sahab, the media arm of Al-Qaeda, released an audio recording featuring the group's leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri. In the recording, Al-Zawahiri commemorated two senior operatives who were killed in Waziristan and commended Al-Sahab and those involved with it, naming the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks Khaled Sheikh Muhammad as Al-Sahab's founder. Al-Zawahiri described U.S. national and senior Al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn aka Azzam Al-Amriki along with others as "Al-Sahab martyrs."
Al-Qaeda Affiliate GSIM Claims IED Attack Against French Forces In Mali
On August 2, 2017, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for Supporting Islam and Muslims (GSIM) claimed responsibility for an IED attack against French forces in Mali the day before. GSIM said the attack targeted an armored vehicle belonging to the "Crusader" French forces, wounding at least four French soldiers. The attack occurred three kilometers northeast of the village of Tessalit in the Kidal region.
Second Issue Of Pro-Al-Qaeda Online Weekly 'Al-Hijrah' Distributed On Telegram, WordPress
On July 28, 2017, the second issue of the pro-Al-Qaeda online magazine Al-Hijrah was released on Telegram and on WordPress. This issue is five pages long.
On August 1, 2017, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) released the first issue of its English-language online magazine Sunnat E Khola: A Magazine from muhajirat fi sabeelilah In Khurasan. The 45-page issue includes six articles: "Rise! Oh Daughters of Hazrat Hawwa Time Of Martyrdom has come;" "Believing Women;" "Come Let's Do Jihad With Little Omar Mujahid;" "Interview of the respected wife of Ameer Tehrek E Taliban Pakistan;" "My Journey From Ignorance To Guidance;" "Pak-India Decisive War."
Jihadi Announces New Domain For Text-Sharing Website Risala
On July 26, 2017, a pro-Al-Qaeda Telegram channel announced that the Risala website has migrated to a new domain.