9/11 Video By Al-Qaeda Central Command Urges Islamic Scholars To Lead Jihad, Form Cells To Target U.S., Israeli, Western Interests

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On September 11, 2024, Al-Sahab, the official media outlet of Al-Qaeda's Central Command, released a 26-minute video titled "Resolutions of the Abu Dhabi Meeting Place and the Role of Scholars and Preachers in Confronting Them."[1] Accusing the UAE rulers of spearheading a plan to eliminate jihad in Palestine, it calls on Islamic scholars to incite jihad and wage it personally, warning that Islam will be eliminated if they do not take up arms.

U.S. Leads Wars On Muslims In Gaza And Elsewhere

Opening with images of "destruction whose likes humanity has never seen" from Gaza in the ongoing war with Israel, the video labels the U.S. a partner in the war, noting that Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel in November 2023 to meet with "the Zionist-American war cabinet." Its narrator calls Blinken's remarks about Israel's obligation to follow the laws of war "hypocritical," asserting that the U.S. has never respected human rights in "its aggression against the Islamic ummah [nation]" or its other wars and conflicts, and arguing that such remarks are intended only to "throw sand in the eyes of American voters, especially the Arab and Muslim vote," which helped elect the "Zionist killer of children, Biden." Parenthetically, the narrator asserts that Al-Qaeda does not permit Muslims to participate in U.S. elections and reminds them that the Prophet Muhammad "disavowed those who reside among the unbelievers."

Declaring that "the real commander of the genocidal wars on Muslims in general and our people in Gaza specifically is the Americans," both Republicans and Democrats, the video calls American non-Muslims "the worst borne by humanity," accusing them of establishing and supporting Israel; massacring Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and other countries; plundering the resources of Muslim countries; supporting "tyrants" ruling Muslim countries – such as Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman – in their "war against Islam and Muslims"; and establishing military bases – such as Al-Udaid in Qatar – to "destroy Islamic lands."

UAE President MBZ Is "Pure Evil," Plots Against Palestinian Jihad Together With U.S.

The narrator notes that after Blinken's visit to Israel, he went to the UAE to participate in the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) – presided over by "the brother of the Devil, the Satan of the Arabs," UAE President and Abu Dhabi ruler Mohammed bin Zayed – to "weave plots against our people and mujahideen in Gaza." According to the narrator, who compared the meeting to "Dar Al-Nadwah" [Meeting Place], where the polytheists of the Quraysh tribe plotted to assassinate Muhammad, the U.S. and UAE discussed proposals to put Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas – who is compared to the leader of Quraysh, Abu Jahl – in charge of Gaza, install an international peacekeeping force, and imprison, kill, or expel mujahideen from the strip.

Accusing bin Zayed of committing "crimes" throughout the Islamic world by backing "the rapists from the Hemedti gang" in Sudan, the "militia of apostates" in Somalia, militias of "the criminal Haftar" in Libya, and the Russian Wagner group in Mali and Niger, the narrator describes the ruler as "pure evil." The video calls on Islamic scholars and preachers to follow the example of the caliph Abu Bakr, who fought Abu Jahl, in fighting the "resolutions of the Meeting Place in Abu Dhabi."

Call For Islamic Scholars To Form Cells Of Mujahideen, Target U.S., Israeli, Western Interests

Quoting Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Omar's description of how he founded the group with a small cohort of madrassa students, the narrator assures scholars that they are capable to "lead the masses toward victory and empowerment" and only lack resolve. Urging them to learn from Palestinians' "decades of resistance, steadfastness, and refusal to surrender" in their struggle against "Zionist, American, Western, and even Arab instruments of criminality and repression," the video declares that Gaza urgently needs "jihadi military action."

The video features a message by slain jihadi ideologue 'Abdallah 'Azzam, who declared that while jihad is difficult, one should not cowardly refrain from it since death is inevitable in any case. The narrator notes that because the Quran mandates "warfare," "teaching, seeking [religious] knowledge, and writing Tweets and statements" do not suffice," and urges "our honored sheikhs … to leave the stage of writing statements to the stage of implementation … by fighting for the sake of Allah."

The narrator declares: "Enemy interests are scattered everywhere. There is no difference between Zionists and Americans, and even most governments of the infidel West. Their embassies and consulates are in many of our cities, and their military bases are scattered through all of our Islamic countries." Accordingly, he urges every able cleric to "form a group of his trusted students, make the efforts to possible military training, and take the necessary security precautions, determine the target and trust in Allah." He asserts that weapons are easily available and that manuals to train in their use and to create explosives, as well as security and operational directions, are available online. The narrator adds that there are many "people of jihad" with decades of experience who can be contacted for guidance, further recommending clerics to recruit veteran soldiers and security officers. Those who find it difficult to establish a cell can travel with their followers to the "nearest battlefront" and will be welcomed by the mujahideen.

Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani (right), a Saudi Air Force cadet who perpetrated the December 2019 Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting claimed by AQAP

Next, the narrator asserts that most leaders of mujahideen throughout history have been scholars, listing 19th-century clerics who led jihad movements, such as Abd El-Krim Al-Khattabi in Morocco, Omar Al-Mukhtar in Libya, 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam in Palestine, and Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi in India. From more recent times, he praises 'Abdallah 'Azzam and "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman; Nizar Rayyan of Hamas; Al-Qaeda ideologues 'Atiyatallah and Abu Yahya Al-Libi; Abu Al-Hasan Al-Balidi of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM); Hasan Turki in Somalia; Ibrahim Al-Rubaysh and Anwar Al-Awlaki of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP); Abu 'Umar Al-Sayf of the Chechen jihad; Asim Umar of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS); as well as Afghan jihadi commanders Jalal Al-Din Haqqani, Yunus Khalis, and Muhammad Dost. The narrator notes that despite being an American citizen, Al-Awlaki traveled to Yemen for jihad after leaving a "legacy of preaching in the English language" which has caused hundreds to convert to Islam, and masterminded the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Asserting that "the most effective jihad is that commanded by scholars," the video urges clerics to "be rulers, not ruled by the vilest of Allah's creatures" and disavow the "tyrants," featuring a message by AQAP cleric Al-Rubaysh, who said that scholars need jihad, not vice versa.

Call For Muslims In Sudan And Other Countries To Arm Themselves

The narrator urges clerics to "militarize the ummah" by encouraging Muslims to purchase weapons and train in their use, asserting that much Muslim "humiliation and subservience" today is due to weapons being taken from the masses and restricted to the "apostate armies which were formed only to repress our ummah, wage war on our religion, and serve the Zionist and crusader occupiers." Urging the clerics to ignore the "hateful double standard" of the West, which claims that free access to weapons leads to "chaos and terrorism," the narrator notes that Switzerland, the U.S., and Israel are full of weapons, and that weapons are found in most Afghan homes. He claims that "in our Arab countries, owning weapons was a given," until they "were taken away from our ancestors" and given to government military forces by the "crusaders," and that the destruction currently being wreaked by "the criminal Hemedti, the leader of ibn Zayed's gang in Sudan," would not have occurred if the country's scholars had heeded the advice of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri 15 years ago and armed themselves.

The video calls on Sudanese clerics to declare jihad, and advises: "Every imam of a Friday mosque in every neighborhood and every village should form popular committees to defend the oppressed there."

Noting that one of Mullah Omar's sons perpetrated a suicide bombing and that former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot lost a son and a nephew in the current war, the narrator urges Islamic clerics to make similar sacrifices, saying: "Let the scholars and notables of the sons of Zion not to be more sacrificing and devoted than you in their defense of their falsehood."

Reminding scholars that after 9/11, many Islamic clerics issued fatwas legitimizing and encouraging fighting for the U.S. in Afghanistan, the video warns them not to "abandon their ummah and brothers in Palestine," declaring: "If we slack off and abandon our brothers, then the fear will not just be that Muslims will be eliminated and expelled from Palestine but that Islam will be uprooted from all parts of our Islamic world."

Al-Qaeda affiliates AQAP and Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab) commemorated the 23th anniversary of 9/11, the former with a video and the latter with a statement, both inciting attacks on American and Israeli targets worldwide.[2]