AQAP Leader Qassem Al-Rimi: We Must Focus On Fighting The U.S.

On December 18, 2015, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] released a new video produced by its media company, Al-Malahim, featuring a lecture by its leader Qassem Al-Rimi.

Following are excerpts:

Qassem Al-Rimi: Allah said: "Fight the leaders of disbelief – for surely their oaths are nothing to them – so they may desist."

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Who are the leaders of disbelief today, who lead all the people [against us], whose call will exist as long as they exist, and whose call will vanish when they vanish? Who are they? It is the Americans. Nobody disputes this.

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The entire world is now one battlefield. The far has become near. If I come to a place in the Hadhramaut [Governorate in Yemen], and wage Jihad only there – that would be a mistake.

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Who is the real enemy, from the perspective of the entire Islamic nation, not from the perspective of Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Somalia alone? Who is the real enemy from that perspective? The Americans.

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When fighting, should I target the head or the limbs? Where should I strike in order to kill an enemy? Should I strike where it would kill him, or should I aim for his legs?

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If I reach a certain area and want to implement the shari'a immediately, that's great, but the preparations have not been completed. Are you allowed to do that, according to the shari'a? If I pray happily even though it's not noon yet, I prayed at the wrong time, and my prayer is null and void. There is disagreement among Muslims, among the ulema, regarding the application of Quranic punishments in "the Abode of War." Is it possible to establish an Islamic state in "the Abode of War"? Who are we kidding? The conditions have not been met yet. We need authority and protection first, or else the judge would make his ruling, and the next day, he would be killed.

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We don't talk about an "internal enemy" and an "external enemy." We talk about the "close enemy" and the "far enemy." Who should be fought first? The one that is harming us. These are the leaders of disbelief, who have attacked us. That is the enemy that prevents us from implementing the shari'a. I cannot go all over the place… Ibn Qayyim gave a beautiful metaphor, when he spoke about reaching Allah. He said: Let's say that you want to pray on a certain mountain. You are walking towards the mountain, but you see snakes and scorpions before you. If you started killing all the snakes, you would be late and never reach your target. Although you are commanded to kill those snakes, you have a more important thing to do right now, which is to reach the mountain. If you got busy killing the snakes, you would be wasting your time, and you would never reach your target. But if there is a snake on the road in front of you, kill it before moving on, because it is in your way. But if you treat all the people as your enemies, when will you reach your target? The bottom line is that the Americans are creating lots of enemies for us, in order to keep us busy instead of fighting them [Americans], and move the battlefield to our land, far from their own land.

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