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.)
Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to media@memri.org. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
In a new video titled "Why Is There No Storm In Your River?" and addressed to Indian Muslims, Al-Qaeda wonders why Muslims of India are absent from the jihadi battlefields across the world despite their role in jihad against the British rule in the 19th century.
The video, released by Qaeda al-Jihad fi Bilad-e-Khurasan (Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan), features a speech by Maulana Asim Umar, a militant cleric who began issuing statements in Urdu for Al-Qaeda sometime in the past year. So far, Asim Umar has appeared in jihadi videos with his face masked.
The video was released through a jihadi internet forum called Ansarullah, and also linked from its social media accounts. It was produced by As-Sahab, the media production house of Al-Qaeda. It urges Indian Muslims to think about their glorious Islamic past in India and stresses that they should join the global jihad of Al-Qaeda.
On June 9, 2013, Al-Jazeera published a copy of a letter purportedly written by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri in which he relates to the ongoing internal dispute over the leadership of the jihad front in Syria. In the letter, Al-Zawahiri revokes the decision to unite Al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq, namely the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), with its branch in Syria, namely Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN). The unification was declared on April 8 by ISI leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi but rejected by JN commander Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani.
The following are the main points of Al-Zawahiri's letter:
Al-Qaeda's leader begins the letter by stressing that the dispute between Al-Baghdadi and Al-Joulani saddened "the people of jihad" everywhere. After praising both groups, he says that Al-Baghdadi's statement took him by surprise and that he was not consulted regarding to it.
On June 6, 2013, the Mauritanian website saharamedias.net reported that, on the day before, a Mauritanian preacher of the Jama'at Al-Da'wa Wal-Tabligh organization had been run over in Nouakchott by a U.S. "Marines officer" driving a vehicle with diplomatic license plates. The report stated further that dozens of people surrounded the officer and prevented him from leaving the area until the Mauritanian police arrived.
The head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM) media company Al-Andalus, Ahmad Abu 'Abd Al-'Ilah, published an article claiming that the U.S. Embassy in Algeria, which he says is controlling the country, seeks to replace Algerian President Bouteflika – whose state of health has not been made public – with a leader who will continue to serve the U.S.'s interests in the country.
He called on Algerians to rebel against this situation, after years of "drifting between the East and the West," and also called on Arabs and Muslims in general "to break free of the illusion of Western hegemony" after having witnessed the U.S. military's defeat by "the men of sacrifice and martyrdom."
'Abd Al-'Ilah began his article by stating that the Arab and Muslim countries are ruled by the U.S. Embassies in them, and that this is why Algerians had to wait for a statement by the U.S. ambassador to Algeria to learn about President Bouteflika's health, and, according to that, to determine their own destiny from among the U.S.-approved options.
Clip No. 3854 The Internet - April 22, 2013 - 01:02
[To view this clip you must be a JTTM subscriber]
An unidentified Al-Qaeda fighter
Al-Qaeda's media wing As-Sahab has released the 9th episode of "The Days of Mujahideen," a video series showing the life of Al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and various problems confronted by them, including hurdles in supplying logistics, shortage of resources, retreat of experts in different fields, snowfall, and fighting their own egos.
In the 18-minute video produced in Urdu language, an unknown improvised explosive device expert can be seen making a bomb by pouring some liquids in a plastic can placed in a water tub. Al-Qaeda fighters are seen walking through trenches in the rough mountains in Afghanistan, as well as supplying logistics by motorcycles and a pickup vehicle.
In a review of press reports and articles regarding a Taliban delegation's visit to Tehran following an official Iranian invitation, a Taliban website views the government-level contact with Tehran as a diplomatic victory for the Taliban.
Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, a main spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government in the country), recently confirmed that a Taliban delegation visited Tehran and that similar previous visits have taken place.
In the review, the Taliban website noted that articles appearing on BBC and various Afghan websites see the Taliban visits to Iran and their bilateral talks on Afghan issues as recognition of the Islamic Emirate as a state and political entity representing Afghanistan.
Following are excerpts from the article:
"Taliban Spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi Acknowledged… That Their Political Representatives Have Repeatedly Visited Iran On The Invitation Of The Iranian Government And Have Held Official Negotiations"
"[On June 9, 2013] Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi acknowledged, in a newsletter sent to the media, that their political representatives have repeatedly visited Iran on the invitation of the Iranian government and have held official negotiations with … [Tehran] concerning various regional issues. Some political analysts called the abrupt announcement of this declaration as a diplomatic coup d'état against the Kabul government which … made the Foreign Ministry of the Karzai government [appear] very lax. While the internal [i.e. Afghan] and regional media are warmly commenting on this diplomatic progress of the Taliban, the Karzai regime is unable to identify … [its] stance and proclaim it.
According to a Pakistani media report, Lashkar-e-Taiba, a jihadi organization backed by the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and another jihadi group are planning attacks on the bases and supporters of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Ansarul Islam, a jihadi organization fighting against the TTP-backed militant group Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber Agency, were accused by the TTP of planning attacks on its bases and supporters in Mohmand Agency, a Pakistani tribal district.
Encryption software released in the second issue of Azan, April/May 2013
In the latest two issues of their newly launched English-language magazine Azan, the Taliban in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region released encryption-based contact details initially released in AQAP's Inspire magazine.
In this second issue, the Taliban gave a new contact email ID as azan_2013@mail.ru and released an encryption code (see above image), noting: "The procedure for communicating with us is the same as with the Inspire Magazine. All communications will go through the Asrar-ul-Mujahideen Ver. 2 Program. Instructions on using that program can be found in the first issue of Inspire Magazine."
Below is the text of a fatwa issued by the Taliban Shura Council Pakistan that appeared in the second issue of Taliban's English-language magazine Azan. The fatwa draws on Koranic verses and the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad and his companions to justify the killings of journalists. It calls upon Taliban fighters to kill journalists who put forward a point of view different from that of the Taliban and other jihadi fighters.
The second issue of Azan, which was recently released through a jihadi internet forum, also carries an image of Maulana Waliur Rehman, the TTP commander recently killed in a U.S. drone strike. The image is accompanied by the words "No Negotiations" – a reference to the Taliban's cancelling of their recent offer of talks with the Pakistani government.
The fatwa is accompanied by the following note: "The world media is indeed a powerful tool – one that has been brutally utilized to cause harm to Islam and Muslims, especially the mujahideen. Let alone the Kuffar [infidel] media, even the media in the so-called 'Muslim' countries has aggressively aided the Crusader-Zionists in their war against Allah's believing slaves. They use terms such as 'terrorists', 'extremists' to describe the mujahideen while they make light the American and Israel war crimes and their massacre of millions and millions of Muslims. It should not come as a surprise though because everyone knows that the major media companies of the world are owned by a people who hate the religion of Allah to the very core.
In a new fatwa posted June 9, 2013, on the leading Salafi-jihadi website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad (MTJ), prominent Salafi-jihadi cleric Abu Mundhir Al-Shinqiti says Muslim in Tunisia who are engaged in da'wa activities should adhere to the Tunisian government requirement to obtain licenses to hold such activities. Al-Shinqiti says that seeking permission from the government does not constitute an acknowledgment of the government's legitimacy, but rather it is an unavoidable act that stems from the fact that Muslims in those countries are in a state of weakness, and that they rely on the government to manage many aspects of their lives.
The fatwa was issued in response to a query by a user named Abu 'Abd Al-Rahman, who said that the "brothers in Tunisia" have recently been under scrutiny due to the "apostate [Tunisian] government's decisions" vis-à-vis the former's ability to engage in da'wa activities. It is worth noting that this comment is a reference to the recent Al-Nahda-led Tunisian government decision requiring entities and individuals engaging in public da'wa activities to obtain licenses. The decision was directed against the leading Salafi-jihadi group Ansar Al-Shari'a in Tunisia (AST), which relies heavily on public da'wa activities to promote its agenda. 'Abd Al-Rahman noted in that regard that some brothers were of the opinion that the Tunisian government has no authority over them, and thus, the act of obtaining a license was to be avoided, "even through [the use of] force;" others, however, said 'Abd Al-Rahman, looked upon the act as permissible in order to maintain their da'wa.
