Senior Lebanese Jihadi Calls on Syrian Rebels to Wage Jihad against Assad's Regime, Urges Mujahideen to Kill and Replace Him

Al-Masada, the media company of the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam, published an article by Sheikh Osama Al-Shihabi, also known as "Abu Al-Zahra Al-Zubaidi," a senior member of the Lebanese jihadi organization Fath Al-Islam, titled "Advice for the Syrian Revolution" and dated November 23, 2011. The article addresses two separate audiences: the Syrian rebels on the one hand, and Syria's jihadi organizations on the other. Shihabi calls on the former to work toward implementing the shari'a in Syria; not to limit themselves to nonviolent action, but to take up arms and wage jihad against the Ba'ath regime; not to trust the U.S., the West, or the secular Syrians, as these have brought the Syrian people nothing but humiliation and corruption; and to rally around the Muslim clerics and the mujahideen. He calls on Syria's jihadi organizations to oust and replace Bashar Assad; to coordinate their activities against the Ba'ath regime with the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI); to take action for the sake of the Muslims in Syria and in order to free the mujahideen imprisoned there, since it is these two groups, especially the prisoners, that will help the jihadi organizations achieve their longed-for victory; to attack Israel in the Golan Heights as soon as the Ba'ath regime is toppled; and to unite their ranks under one Syrian leader....