Al-Qaeda vs. Islamic State
Al-Qaeda chief Zawahiri launches al-Qaeda in South Asia
September 4, 2014 — BBC News reports: “Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has announced in a videoed message the creation of an Indian branch of his militant group to ‘raise the flag of jihad’ across South Asia.
In the 55-minute video posted online, Zawahiri pledged renewed loyalty to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Correspondents say his stated allegiance is an apparent snub to Islamic State (IS) militants.
IS is challenging al-Qaeda to lead worldwide Islamist militancy.
Announcing the formation of ‘al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent’ using a mixture of his native Arabic and Urdu widely spoken in Pakistan, Zawahiri appeared eager to regain some of the limelight, correspondents say.
‘[Al-Qaeda] is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam, Sheikh Osama Bin Laden. May Allah have mercy upon him,’ Zawahiri said.
He urged the ‘umma’, or Muslim nation, to ‘wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate’.
Zawahiri said ‘al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent’ would be good news for Muslims in Myanmar (Burma), Bangladesh and in the Indian states of Assam, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, where they would be rescued from injustice and oppression…” (Al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is bitter because of losing to ISIS and so is attempting to lead worldwide militancy again as it was under Osama bin Laden. James 4:1 is the reason for another killing spree among Muslims: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” See the next report.)
Indian Muslims Reject al-Qaida Call for Jihad
September 7, 2014 — Voice of America News reports: “Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s announcement that a newly launched wing would ‘liberate Muslims from injustice and oppression’ in India has triggered a furious response from Indian Muslim community leaders.
While some Indian Muslims called al-Qaida a ‘terrorist outfit’ and criticized it for killing innocent people and threatening peace, others said that any action by al-Qaida would be detrimental to the interests of Indian Muslims and urged communities to ignore the group.
In a video statement released Wednesday, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced formation of a new wing called ‘Qaedat al-Jihad fi’shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya’ or al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent [AQIS], which would launch jihadist activities in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The statement said AQIS would fight for Muslims who are allegedly ‘suffering’ in India’s Assam, an eastern state bordering Bangladesh; Gujarat, the home state of India’s prime minister; and Kashmir, a flashpoint for hostilities with Pakistan.
Zafarul-Islam Khan, president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, a New Delhi-based umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, said Muslims will fight al-Qaida if it tries to spread its ideology or networks.
‘We, the Indian Muslims totally reject the al-Qaida chief’s offer to help us and consider it a disservice to the cause of Muslims in the subcontinent. We do not want any meddling in our affairs by a foreign terrorist outfit,’ Khan told VOA…”
Metro Detroit Muslim leaders denounce ISIS as ‘crazy criminals’
August 26, 2014 — The Detroit Free Press reports: “Muslim leaders gathered Monday on the steps of Dearborn City Hall to strongly condemn ISIS, saying the militant group in Iraq and Syria doesn’t represent Islam or Muslims.
ISIS members are ‘crazy criminals who are abusing our religion,’ said Imam Mohammed Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights. ‘You’re a bunch of gangsters … you’re not Islamic.’
Organized by imams with the Michigan Muslim Community Council, the speakers included both Shia and Sunni leaders of different ethnicities and races, all united in saying ISIS doesn’t speak for them…” (If the above headline were meant I would believe some Islamists were changing. But there are another 46 Muslim organizations who have also slaughtered thousands of their own Islamic apostates as well as all other infidels, all members of non-Islamic religions. Matthew 23:15 pictures this murderous group: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”)
Islamic authority in Egypt launches campaign against Islamic State
August 24, 2014 — Haaretz reports: “The top Islamic authority in Egypt, revered by many Muslims worldwide, launched an Internet-based campaign Sunday challenging an extremist group in Syria and Iraq by saying it should not be called an ‘Islamic State.’
The campaign by the Dar el-Ifta, the top authority that advises Muslims on spiritual and life issues, adds to the war of words by Muslim leaders across the world targeting the Islamic State group, which controls wide swaths of Iraq and Syria. Its violent attacks, including mass shootings, destroying Shiite shrines, targeting minorities and beheadings including American journalist James Foley, have shocked Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, previously said the extremists violate all Islamic principles and laws and described the group as a danger to Islam as a whole. Now, the Dar el-Ifta authority he oversees will suggest foreign media drop using ‘Islamic State’ in favor of the ‘Al-Qaida Separatists in Iraq and Syria,’ or the acronym ‘QSIS,’ said Ibrahim Negm, an adviser to the mufti…” (Egypt has had a change of thinking. They were controlled by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, a deadly Islamist organization for years. Presently the new president has forbidden Egypt’s clergy to speak in their mosques without permission because their sermons are hate filled messages for holy jihad [war].)
Boko Haram on course to create an Islamic state in Nigeria
August 19, 2014 — ChristianToday.com reports: “Boko Haram’s attacks in northern Nigeria have been well documented in the past year, but now its aim of forming an Islamic caliphate in the region is becoming a reality in the predominantly Christian Yobe and Borno States.
But while the British and American forces support the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, the Nigerian Army struggles to combat the surprisingly sophisticated militant group with limited international support.
‘The possible dangers for Nigeria and the region if this insurgency is not contained may have been underestimated, as has Boko Haram’s military capacity,’ says Dr Khataza Gondwe, team leader for Africa and the Middle East at Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Residents of Gwoza Town, Borno State in northern Nigeria, have been too afraid to sleep in their homes for several months fearing the terror group’s threats. Instead they’ve slept in the hills and come down during the day. But on August 6, Boko Haram militants overran and destroyed the town, conducting house to house killings and causing many to flee to the hills, which are now encircled by the militants…” (Another hate filled Islamic state is in the making. Jesus mentioned hate filled religious organizations in His day: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” – Matthew 23:33. See more of the same in the next three reports.)
Hezbollah sees Islamic State insurgents as threat to Gulf, Jordan
August 16, 2014 — Reuters reports: “The Hezbollah leader described the radical Islamist movement that has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria as a growing ‘monster’ that could threaten Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states, according to an interview printed on Friday.
In a separate speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Islamic State also posed an existential threat to his own nation, Lebanon, the target of an incursion by Islamist insurgents from Syria this month. He said his heavily armed Shi’ite Muslim group was ready to fight the threat in Lebanon – if required.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fight a Sunni Islamist-dominated insurgency that spilled into the Lebanese border town of Arsal on Aug. 2, triggering five days of battles between the Lebanese army and militants including members of Islamic State.
‘Here we live, and – if the battle is imposed on us – here we fight and here we will be martyred,’ said Nasrallah. Hezbollah said it stayed out of the Arsal battle, wary of inflaming sectarian tensions with Lebanese Sunnis, many of whom have supported the uprising against Assad.
Nasrallah was speaking on the eighth anniversary of the conclusion of Hezbollah’s one-month war with Israel.
Addressing the wider threat to the region from Islamic State, Nasrallah said it could easily recruit in other Arab states where its hardline ideology exists. Even Turkey, the passage for many foreign fighters into Syria, should beware.
‘Wherever there are followers of the ideology there is ground for (Islamic State), and this exists in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait and the Gulf states,’ Nasrallah said in the interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar…”
Rise of Islamic State Significant Development in Jihadism
September 3, 2014 — Voice of America News reports: “The Islamic State’s rise seems sudden. It caught the U.S. by surprise this summer when it captured large portions of northern Iraq and spread its wings in neighboring Syria. But many analysts contend that the group – which grew out of al-Qaida in Iraq – has been rebuilding for years.
Even before U.S. forces left Iraq in 2011, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) was forging a professional military force, stoking Sunni unrest, mounting brutal bombing campaigns – and barbaric killings. It boasts of 50,000 fighters in Syria and 30,000 in Iraq while recruiting 6,000 more last month alone.
This is a group whose cruelty alarmed even al-Qaida, but is successfully exploiting the Syrian civil war and sectarian rule in Iraq to assemble arms, wealth and influence at great speed, says David Kilcullen, the architect of the Iraq War troop surge in 2006.
Kilcullen currently heads CAERUS, a security and intelligence strategy firm in Washington. He says ISIS has overshadowed al-Qaida.
‘It is much more capable militarily, it’s much richer, it controls territory, it controls key infrastructure and it is really a much more dramatic threat than we have seen from al-Qaida,’ Kilcullen said.
‘They have literally made millions of dollars by kidnapping and ransom. They are now the richest terror group in the world, north of $500 billion worth of resources,’ he said…”
1 common link among world’s most brutal terrorists
September 1, 2014 — WND.com reports: “Radical Islam expert Brigitte Gabriel says ISIS is capable of anything from shopping-mall shooting sprees to nuclear attacks in the U.S. and believes the best way to ward off calamity is for Americans to wake up their elected officials and demand they ‘throw political correctness in the garbage can’ and confront the radical threat as it truly exists.
She also revealed the one common link motivating the worst terrorists in the world today: the words of the Quran.
Gabriel was a victim of terrorism in her native Lebanon. She is founder and president of ActForAmerica.org and is author of numerous books, including ‘They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It.’ She said the danger to the U.S. posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is significant but the threat is nothing new…
‘They are basing their actions on the words of the Quran,’ she explained. ‘What IS is doing right now is no different than what Prophet Muhammad himself did.’
Gabriel added, ‘They are using scriptures from the Quran. For example, Quran 8:12 talks about striking fear into the hearts of disbelievers. Therefore, they cut off their fingers and toes because they disobeyed Allah. So what ISIS is doing is no different than what any other group or devout followers of the Quran will do.’…”