The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On June 29, 2020 Al-Qaeda's general leadership issued a letter addressing "the vulnerable people" of the U.S. and the West in general, in light of the current protests and unrest in the U.S. and Europe following the killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, 2020.[1]
"From the jihad Jam'at [group] to the oppressed, the vulnerable, and the revolutionaries of the American people, and the rest of Western people. We have watched, like the rest of the world, the suffering that George Floyd went through before he died, oppressed under the foot of his arrogant killer, who did not blink an eye when he killed him and destroyed the hearts of billions around the world," said the letter.
The letter then commended the "American people for responding to George Floyd's rescue appeal when he shouted, 'I can't breathe.'" Their protests "against racists and the arrogant White House" brought joy to the group, said the letter.
Pointing to the similarities between Islam and the protesters, the letter highlighted that Islam rejects injustice regardless of race: "We were pleased to see vulnerable people rejecting and repelling injustice, because our religion seeks firmly to free people from worshiping another human being and invites them instead to worship the creator of human beings."
It continued by noting several incidents from the Quran involving prophets, such as the story of the Prophet Musa (Moses), who revolted against the Pharaoh, Jesus, who rebelled against "priests," and finally, the story of the Prophet Muhammad, "who completed the journey of his predecessors when he took their holy message beyond the borders of the tribes and the region, giving it a wider scope that grew to reach all human beings and the whole planet."
Addressing non-Muslims residing in Western countries, the letter emphasized that the rejection of injustice is a shared religious and "human" principle, and one which all of mankind is subjected to, including Al-Qaeda, because of the ill-practices of the "tyrant Western rulers." Therefore, the letter urged Westerners to "force [their] governments to return to the rule of law. If they do not, people should 'revolt' against them and establish justice with their own hands." It further warned that revolution is imminent, because it is an "instinct" for those who are oppressed.
After citing several examples of other prophets from the Quran, the letter once more urged the American people to revolt against the rulers of the White House from both parties, Democrats and Republicans, as well as against "bloodsucking bank owners, giant corporations and those behind them, the oppressive racists whose sole objective is to secure their personal interests, enslave entire nations including the Americans and steal the resources of your states as their income, without benefiting the residents of these states."
The letter then argued that Al-Qaeda's fight against the U.S. is part of a larger war against injustice. "Know that our fighting against you [the American people] is to repel injustice and tyranny. It is similar to your reaction to the killing of Floyd and his ancestors." The letter added that "Muslim nations have suffered for decades under the oppression of your tyrants, your killing of our children and women, your theft of our resources, and your desecration of our sacred places."
The statement then called on protestors to convert to Islam, saying that "the religion of Islam is the religion whose glad tiding was conveyed by Jesus, because it is a religion which ensures that people live in freedom, dignity, and peace, and doesn't allow discrimination of any sort between white and black."
After stressing the call to convert to Islam, the statement said that "defending the oppressed among you and us is an integral part of our religion, and there is no contradiction between this call [to convert] and our fight against the oppressors." The statement concluded by wishing that Western readers "and the entire world may attain the acceptance of Allah and succeed in entering the spacious paradise which Allah has prepared for his faithful, pious, and just worshipers, and may the sun of Islam, the sun of justice, freedom and peace rise on all corners of the world."
[1] Source: Archive.gnews.bz, June 29, 2020.
