Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2016 Part 4-1-AQIS-23

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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2016 Part 4-1-AQIS-22

Why is There No Storm in Your Ocean1?'Shariah or Democracy’

Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and India: Global terror is here, stop being smugThe “Arab Spring was wasted and lost” by groups claiming to be Islamist, but that

compromised “with secularists,” Zawahiri charges . The “Islamic Spring” that has replaced it is based on “rule by sharia,” dawa [proselytization] and “jihad in the cause of Allah” until the caliphate is reestablished “on the prophetic methodology,” Zawahiri claims.

Zawahiri says that the “upcoming victory in the Levant” by Uighur jihadists (in the TIP) and their comrades will show the people of Egypt and Tunisia that the “path of dawa and jihad” is the only way to achieve victory for ummah.

AQIS includes elements from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Harakat-ul-Muhajideen, Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Brigade 313, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Indian Mujahideen (a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Turkistan Islamic Party, Junood al Fida, and other groups based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent incorporates regional jihadist groups.]

AQIS expands While State notes the high profile attacks executed by AQIS, it omitted two key threats posed by AQIS: the re-establishment of training camps in Afghanistan, and a burgeoning cadre of fighters and operatives loyal to al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda’s massive expansion in Pakistan and Afghanistan can be directly attributed to AQIS emir Umar and Zawahiri, who carefully plotted al Qaeda’s path in the Indian Subcontinent.

Zawahiri said that AQIS reported directly to the emir of the Afghan Taliban.While the State Department recently described al Qaeda’s network in Pakistan and

Afghanistan as “severely degraded in the region,” al Qaeda is know to have operated three training camps in Afghanistan over the past year.

Zawahiri holds up the Taliban’s Afghanistan as a counterexample to the Islamic State, claiming it was a model of jihadist unity.

Hundreds if not thousands of al Qaeda operatives and recruits are thought to be operating in that Pakistani Karachi city alone

Obama repeatedly promised to end the US mission in Afghanistan before the end of his administration in 2017, but a worsening security situation stemming from previous ill-timed reductions in force and a resilient Taliban proved that to be impossible. “Instead of going down to 5,500 troops by the end of this year, the United States will maintain approximately 8,400 troops in Afghanistan into next year, through the end of my administration,” Obama said in a briefing at the White House.

Target IAS and IPS officers: Al Qaeda chief to Indian MuslimsBy: ABP News Bureau | Last Updated: Friday, 8 July 2016 9:33 AM

1 http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/India/document/papers/Wts.pdf The general mandate of authority..1The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. –Winston Churchill

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http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/India/document/papers/Wts.pdf


The chief of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent,Maulana Asim Umar (Image Courtesy: AFP)New Delhi: Al Qaeda has instigated a reign of terror with the new video that has been released by the terrorist organisation on Monday. In the video, the chief of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent(AQIS), Maulana Asim Umar has made a startling statement and has asked Indian Muslims to start jihad by killing senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officers and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. According to the reports, Umar who has been the AQIS chief since September 2014 has said that the state and its departments are equally responsible for the attacks on Indian Muslims. Otherwise no one could have dared to slaughter Muslims so easily. He asked for a free hand for the Muslim youth as given to Hindu mobsters if the Indian state is not responsible for the killing of the Muslims. The Al Qaeda chief urged Muslims in India to take a stand for themselves and follow the examples of their militant brothers in Syria where one one single terrorist after another has disturbed the entire continent.Umar asked the Indian Muslims to cause the IPS and IAS officers financial losses and and kill the senior officers of administrative departments that provoke people to start riots.Indian investigators will now look into the new development and try to measure the extent to which the statement has affected people.

NEW DELHI - A regional branch of al-Qaida urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks, a US monitoring site reported, days after the rival jihadi movement Islamic State claimed responsibility for Bangladesh's worst militant attack. The call by al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) follows warnings by security officials and experts that the two groups are trying to outdo each other in the region and claim the mantle of global jihad. An online audio message purportedly from Asim Umar, the head of AQIS, said Indian Muslims must follow the example of youths in Europe and strike against Indian police and senior officials, holding them responsible for communal violence.

Secret Al Qaeda cell knew about IC-814 hijacking, also met 26/11 plottersThe AQIS is trying to attract South Asian youth while competing with Islamic State, which claimed last week's deadly attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh. An arrested member of al Qaeda's India wing was in touch with Pakistani jihadi outfits since the mid-1990s and was aware of Jaish-e-Mohammed's plan to free terrorist leader Maulana Masood Azhar from jail, a Delhi Police chargesheet says.The operative, Mohammed Abdul Rehman, was told by a Pakistani terrorist in 1999 that 10 JeM members were in Nepal, ready to strike to secure Azhar's release. Days later, the Indian Airlines flight IC 814 was hijacked from Nepal's Kathmandu city and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The Indian government was forced to swap the JeM boss with the passengers who were taken hostage.Intelligence agencies remained clueless about Rehman and several others like him who had a free run for nearly two decades. Giving Indian sleuths the slip, they travelled to Pakistan for terror training, returned, and got involved in radicalising and influencing youths for jihad. Some of them also played host to Pakistani extremists on occasions who had come to carry out strikes. AQIS VS ISISThe AQIS is trying to attract South Asian youth while competing with Islamic State, which claimed last week's deadly attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh. The charge sheet filed by Delhi Police last month on the module that is now being dubbed as a branch of AQIS reveals that the members were veterans who attended terror training in Pakistan and were indoctrinated to carry out jihad.

WASHINGTON – The taking of hostages by gunmen in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter is the latest in a string of attacks that have sparked international alarm and prompted the United States and Bangladesh to promise more cooperation against violent extremism in the Muslim-majority nation.

2The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. –Winston ChurchillCees de Waart: CdW Intelligence to Rent of 10

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But the two governments still tiptoe around the divisive issue of whether transnational terrorist groups like the Islamic State are involved in the mounting bloodshed, which has included a wave of killings of liberals, foreigners and religious minorities. The identities of the attackers in Dhaka on Friday were not known, but IS claimed its fighters had carried out the assault, issuing a statement through its media arm, Amaq, that was reported by the monitoring group SITE.IS and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the previous attacks, typically by smaller groups of machete-wielding assailants, which have claimed nearly two dozen lives since 2013. The frequency of attacks has increased in recent months.

US adds Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, leader to terrorism listBY BILL ROGGIO | June 30, 2016 | [email protected] | @billroggioThe Department of State added Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organization and listed its emir, Asim Umar, as a specially Designated global terrorist. The US government and intelligence services have consistently underestimated the strength of AQIS, which is an official branch of al Qaeda that is based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Burma.

“Today’s action notifies the US public and the international community that AQIS and Umar are actively engaged in terrorism,” State notes in today’s press release announcing the designation.State’s designation says that Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s emir, announced the formation of AQIS in September 2014. However, when Zawahiri announced the formation of AQIS, he noted that al Qaeda worked to create the group for over two years.Additionally, Zawahiri said that AQIS reported directly to the emir of the Afghan Taliban. This fact was omitted from State’s designation of AQIS.

“This entity was not established today, but it is the fruit of a blessed effort for more than two years to gather the mujahideen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity to be with the main group, Qaedat al-Jihad, from the soldiers of the Islamic Emirate and its triumphant emir, Allah permitting, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid,” Zawahiri said in September 2014. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda opens branch in the ‘Indian Subcontinent’.]State also notes that Asim Umar is “a former member of US designated Foreign Terrorist Organization Harakat ul Mujahideen.” Umar also served as a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan as well as a sharia official in al Qaeda’s branch in Pakistan, before it merged into AQIS.

Umar’s previous positions in Harakat ul Mujahideen and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan should come as no surprise. Al Qaeda has relied on what it used to call the “deep bench” of jihadist groups in South Asia to bolster its ranks after suffering losses from US drone strikes and counterterrorism operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. AQIS includes elements from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Harakat-ul-Muhajideen, Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Brigade 313, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Indian Mujahideen (a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Turkistan Islamic Party, Junood al Fida, and other groups based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent incorporates regional jihadist groups.]The State designation also noted some high-profile AQIS attacks in the region, including the Sept. 6, 2014 attempt to hijack a Pakistani frigate in Karachi. AQIS used Pakistani naval personnel to aid their plot. “AQIS has also claimed responsibility for the murders of activists and writers in Bangladesh, including that of US citizen Avijit Roy, US Embassy local employee Xulhaz Mannan, and of Bangladeshi nationals Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Ahmed Rajib Haideer, and A.K.M. Shafiul Islam,” State notes.AQIS emir Umar claimed those killed in Bangladesh were “blasphemers” as they were atheists,


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homosexuals, and other activists who insulted Islam. Umar also said the attacks were order by Zawahiri. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent leader says attacks on ‘blasphemers’ ordered by Zawahiri.]

AQIS expandsWhile State notes the high profile attacks executed by AQIS, it omitted two key threats posed by AQIS: the re-establishment of training camps in Afghanistan, and a burgeoning cadre of fighters and operatives loyal to al Qaeda.While the State Department recently described al Qaeda’s network in Pakistan and Afghanistan as “severely degraded in the region,” al Qaeda is know to have operated three training camps in Afghanistan over the past year. One of the two camps, in Shorabak, Kandahar province, was a massive facility that was well stocked and covered over 30 square miles. In October 2015, a large US military strike force took four days to clear the two al Qaeda camps in Shorabak and killed over 150 al Qaeda operatives. The US military was shocked by the size of the facility. [See LWJ reports, US military strikes large al Qaeda training camps in southern Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda’s Kandahar training camp ‘probably the largest’ in Afghan War.]The Shorabak raids forced the US government and military to admit that its previous long-held estimates on al Qaeda’s strength in Afghanistan were wrong. Since 2010, US officials have claimed that al Qaeda has been “decimated” in Afghanistan and has maintained a consistent minimal presence of 50 to 100 operatives in contry. In April, Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, the top spokesman for Resolute Support, told The Washington Post that al Qaeda has forged close ties to the Taliban and is resurgent in the country.Additionally, Buchanan told CNN that al Qaeda may have upwards of 300 operatives in the country, “but that number does include other facilitators and sympathizers in their network.” [See LWJ report, US military admits al Qaeda is stronger in Afghanistan than previously estimated.]In addition to underestimating al Qaeda’s strength in Afghanistan, US officials have maintained for years that the jihadist group has been weakened in Pakistan due to drone strikes, and that no more than 400 operatives were in country. But The Washington Post shattered that long-held estimate on June 3 when it reported on al Qaeda’s growing presence in Karachi, Pakistan. Hundreds if not thousands of al Qaeda operatives and recruits are thought to be operating in that Pakistani Karachi city alone.

“Counterterrorism officials in Karachi have a list of several hundred active al Qaeda members, which makes them assume there are at least a few thousand on the streets,” the Post reported. “In Karachi, AQIS has divided itself into three operational segments — recruitment, financial and tactical — made up of four-to-six-person cells. The recruitment cells work in madrassas and schools, casually preaching Islam before targeting certain students for potential recruitment, officials said.”

The Post report did not touch on al Qaeda’s presence in other traditional areas of Paksitan, such as the tribal areas, Peshawar, Lahore, and a host of Pakistani cities.Al Qaeda’s massive expansion in Pakistan and Afghanistan can be directly attributed to AQIS emir Umar and Zawahiri, who carefully plotted al Qaeda’s path in the Indian Subcontinent.Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal.

Bangladesh Launches Crackdown on Islamist ThreatAnimesh RoulAfter months denying the existence of transnational jihadist groups on its soil in the face of a violent campaign against secular and progressive forces, Bangladeshi authorities appear to have woken up to the reality of extremist militancy. Following a series of knife and machete attacks, shootouts, and sectarian assaults usually directed against those criticizing Islamists prejudices and religious


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fanaticism, the Bangladeshi government initiated a countrywide crackdown on Islamist extremists on June 10. The search and sweep operations covered most of the hotspots of Islamic militancy, including the capital Dhaka, Chittagong, Bogra, Khulna, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Kushtia, Gaibandha, and Rajshahi. An unprecedented number of suspects engaged in criminal activities in the country were apprehended during the weeklong operation.

Among those arrested were at least 194 militants linked to outlawed local Islamist networks such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). The police also seized large amounts of firearms, explosives, machetes, motorbikes, and jihadi literature during the raids.Bangladesh’s Internal Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal underscored that to contain the violent attacks on secular individuals, free thinkers, and the country’s minorities (generally speaking, a reference to Hindus, Christians and Buddhists) there may be another round of crackdowns soon.

Islamic State says it singled out non-Muslims for death in Dhaka attackBY BILL ROGGIO AND THOMAS JOSCELYN | July 2, 2016 | [email protected] |The Islamic State says it separated non-Muslims from Muslims and killed the former in yesterday’s assault on a bakery in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. This tactic, which was first used by al Qaeda, had not been used by the Islamic State in the past. At least 22 people, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, and two police officers were killed in the attack and the ensuing raid to end the siege.The Islamic State initially claimed credit for yesterday’s attack as it was underway, noting that its “commandos” attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, killed 20 people, and was holding hostages.

In a follow-up statement today that was released on Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency, the group said the assault team separated Muslims from non-Muslims during the attack . “The Islamic State fighters detained patrons of the restaurant to verify their identities and released the Muslims, and killed 22 foreigners in addition to two officers from the Bangladeshi police, who fell during the clashes, and also, nearly 50 people were wounded,” Amaq stated, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Additionally, Amaq noted that the cafe “is popular with foreign visitors.”Amaq also said that its fighters “carried out the attack using knives, cleavers, assault rifles, and hand grenades,” and released gory photographs purporting to show the bodies of some of their victims laying in pools of blood, according to SITE. The images could not be verified.

These details were confirmed in press reports on the Dhaka attack. The Islamic State fighters reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is greatest,” during the initial assault, divided Muslim customers from non-Muslims, and then brutally executed the non-Muslims, some with knives and machetes. Also, the Islamic State fighters repelled the initial police assault to free the hostages with a barrage of assault rifle fire and hand grenades, killing two policemen and wounding several more, according to Reuters.The tactic of dividing Muslims from non-Muslims and then executing the latter was pioneered by al Qaeda in order to deflect criticism that the group wantonly kills Muslims. Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, divided Muslims from non-Muslims during the siege of the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya in September 2013, that killed 67 people, including 19 foreigners.Shabaab mirrored this tactic in several other attacks, including the assault on Garissa University College in Kenya in April 2015. “We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters after the attack.If it is confirmed that the Islamic State’s loyalists repeated this practice in Dhaka, then they likely borrowed this tactic from al Qaeda.Officials in Bangladesh have often sought to downplay the growth of jihadism in their country, but both the Islamic State and al Qaeda have established a foothold. A wing of Al Qaeda in the Indian


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Subcontinent (AQIS) has targeted accused “blasphemers” and others repeatedly in individual attacks. Ayman al Zawahiri announced the creation of AQIS in September 2014, saying that it was the result of two years of recruiting and negotiating with existing jihadi groups. It is possible that the Islamic State has grown inside Bangladesh by poaching from this extremist base. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s campaign has also grown worldwide by wooing local jihadist organizations into its camp.Correction: The word “latter” was changed to “former” in the first sentence.Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for The Long War Journal.

Bangladesh: Thirteen hostages rescued. Six ISIS attackers dead DEBKAfile July 2, 2016, Bangladeshi security forces on Saturday stormed a restaurant where armed attackers took dozens of hostages the night before. Gunfire and explosions were heard in the diplomatic district of the nation's capital of Dhaka, where the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery occurred Friday night. Thirteen hostages were rescued. There is no word on how many were killed. Police near the scene confirmed Saturday morning the operation was over, and according to police Rapid Action Battalion personnel on the scene six attackers have been killed.

Regards Cees*** Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and India: Global terror is here, stop being smug

As ASM Ali Ashraf, associate professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, points out in his article for Bangladesh newspaper Daily Star that "JMB was praised by IS mouthpiece Dabiq Magazine in its November 2015 issue."He also points to the "striking similarities" between the two groups' hostility against religious minorities. In the recent past, Bangladesh, a Sunni majority country, has seen an astonishing amount of bloodshed and JMB's name has been linked with consistent murderous attacks on atheists or those who seek reform in Islam, Hindus, Christians, those from the Ba'hai community and even followers of the Shia sect. Similarly, the IS, whose core support base is also Sunni, "has targeted the Yazidis, Christians, Turkmen, and Shia minorities in Iraq, and Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya."To understand how these terror networks function, it is crucial to grasp that IS or Al-Qaeda (which operates through its arm AQIS, or Al-Qaeda in Indian sub-continent) in their quest to break new grounds and develop footprints in southeast Asia may not always require adherents to travel to the self-declared Caliphate in Syria or Iraq for arms and training.As Amarnath Amarasingam, a post-doctoral fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told New Yorker: “The most important thing here (Dhaka attack) is that IS has taken credit, and they don’t take credit for things they didn’t do… Now, this doesn’t mean Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is calling these guys in Dhaka and telling them what to do. It doesn’t mean these fighters were in direct contact with the top leadership or funded by them. What you can say is that linkages exist.”A month back, for instance, an Islamic State spokesman urged sympathizers to launch lone-wolf attacks on civilians there if they are unable to travel to the group’s self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Primarily targeted on US and European soil, the message nevertheless encouraged lone wolf attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramzaan, which starts early in June, “to win the great award of martyrdom”.In the recent past, the Al-Qaeda has been relegated to a bit-part player and the Islamic State has been under increasing pressure from the 66-country coalition led by the US to hold on its core territories in


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Raqqa and Mosul. The Dhaka attack, therefore, indicates a quid-pro-quo among south-Asian terror networks and its global counterparts. While the local militant groups increasingly seek to internationalise their operations, the IS and Al-Qaeda find in countries like India and Bangladesh a large Muslim population that is demographically young, making them a prime target for fresh recruits.Though lone wolf attacks are not really the style of Al-Qaeda, the group seems to be changing its mindset. On Saturday, a day after the terror attack in Dhaka in which 20 people were killed and over 40 injured, AQIS issued a statement "inciting Indian Muslims to rise up and to follow the example of lone wolves in Europe and kill administrative and police officers in India". AQIS, formed couple of years ago by Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, is headed by Indian national Asim Umar. According to Indian Express, Umar is from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and was known as Sanaul Haq. He studied at the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary before moving to Pakistan in the late 1990s.Global terror network watchdog SITE Intelligence Group — a Maryland-based organization headed by terror analyst Rita Katz — tracked the 15-minute, 32-second Urdu speech entitled 'No to the Slogan of Disbelief' which was posted on the 'Deep Web' al-Fida' forum on Sunday. It was accompanied with Arabic, Bengali and English translations.Umar claimed Hindus in India are "imposing their faith on Muslims" and trying to make them break the foundations of Islam. "You (Muslims) are over 350 million in India. You have the best land of India. Your localities are in every province of the country. Even if you come out carrying merely knives and swords — history bears witness — Hindus cannot withstand you. They strike the fleeing enemy more and more, they turn into lions before the weak enemy and then tyrannise it to the point that it would not be able to stand up ever again."It seems probable that Al-Qaeda is changing its tack to counter the growing popularity of Islamic State (the two are sworn enemies of each other). Lone wolf is the best strategy for global terror networks to increase their influence in locations such as India for two reasons.

One, it takes away the need for an extensive terror network that operates through above-ground membership organizations. The lone wolves seemingly act on their own without a visible command structure (as for instance, Omar Mateen did in the US in a gay bar) but they crucially advance the ideological or philosophical beliefs of an extremist group while doing so. And simply by owing allegiance to IS or Al-Qaeda, the terrorists manage to give these terror groups maximum media coverage that serves to further their influence.

Two, lone wolf attacks are extremely difficult for counter-terrorism officials to track, since they may not come into contact with routine counter-terrorist surveillance. India's Intelligence Bureau officials told Times of India that terror groups like Al-Qaeda and IS were focusing on this strategy especially in India as they were not able to make much headway and also because working individually makes it difficult, almost impossible, to track the activities of a person who is planning an attack.The challenge to India, therefore, is manifold. Delhi Police, for instance, last year busted an AQIS module with the arrest of two while NIA and state police forces have arrested 54 IS members at the stage of planning. Just last week, NIA arrested six from Hyderabad who were part of a dozen-member group swearing their allegiance to IS. One of them even called their interrogators as “kafir” or infidels.As Bangladesh fulminates on IS links, terror has already reached our shores.

Zawahiri praises Uighur jihadists in ninth episode of ‘Islamic Spring’ seriesBY THOMAS JOSCELYN | July 7, 2016 | [email protected] | @thomasjoscelyn

The ninth episode of Ayman al Zawahiri’s “Islamic Spring” series was released on social media on July 2. The timing of the release, as with previous episodes, was likely delayed. For instance,


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Zawahiri references his bay’ah (oath of allegiance) to Taliban emir Mullah Mansour, who was killed in a US airstrike in May. The al Qaeda leader does not mention Mansour’s death.Most of Zawahiri’s words are dedicated to praising the Muslims of “East Turkistan” for their dedication to waging jihad around the globe. East Turkistan encompasses the Xinjiang region of China. Specifically, Zawahiri lauds Shaykh Abu Muhammad al Turkistani, also known as Hasan Mahsum, who founded the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is now called the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). Mahsum was killed by Pakistani forces during a raid on an al Qaeda camp in late 2003. Mahsum’s successor, Abdul Haq, is a US and UN-designated terrorist who was appointed to al Qaeda’s elite shura council in 2005. Abdul Haq currently leads the TIP, which fights alongside al Qaeda in jihadist hotspots such as Afghanistan and Syria.Zawahiri discusses the history of the Taliban’s Afghanistan at length, arguing that the Taliban has consistently offered refuge for jihadists who were forced to flee their home countries. The al Qaeda master features Mahsum in his recounting of history, even including him in a Who’s Who list of legendary jihadists.Zawahiri’s recognition of Mahsum is just the latest indication that the TIP is part of al Qaeda’s international network.Late last month, the TIP released an audio message from Abdul Haq that was embedded in a longer video. The production was littered with al Qaeda references and clearly signaled, once again, the TIP’s extensive connections to Zawahiri’s global operation. [See LWJ report, Turkistan Islamic Party leader criticizes the Islamic State’s ‘illegitimate’ caliphate.]China is an “atheist occupier” Early on in the new video, As Sahab (al Qaeda’s propaganda arm) includes footage of Muslims being oppressed by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang. Al Qaeda has consistently portrayed Muslims as the victims of various aggressors, thereby seeking to capitalize on the discontent within local Muslim populations.As the images are displayed, Zawahiri blasts the Chinese government as an “atheist occupier,” saying that Chinese authorities prevent the Muslims of East Turkistan from “performing their religious rites” and forces them to “change their religion.”Zawahiri says the Muslims of East Turkistan revolted against this “torrent of Chinese atheism,” leading to more than “40 uprisings.” Eventually, the al Qaeda leader says, this revolt was “transformed” into a “jihadist movement” against the “Chinese invaders.”The “battle” today is one in which the jihadists of East Turkistan must convince the “Muslim people…to return to rule” under Islam, Zawahiri argues, thereby thwarting the “calls of atheism” regularly “spouted” by the Chinese government. This “battle” also entails the proper education of children in “Islamic doctrine” and the “rules of sharia.” According to Zawahiri, this is the path that will supposedly “lead the ummah [worldwide community of Muslims] to return to Islam.”

Zawahiri’s rhetoric is consistent with al Qaeda’s guerrilla warfare strategy.Al Qaeda cites local grievances and then filters them through an ideological lens in an attempt to buttress the jihadists’ cause. This strategy is aided by China’s heavy-handed policies, which fuel popular discontent in Xinjiang. The government has, for example, tried to banned Muslim civil servants from fasting during Ramadan. However, jihadists are not the only ones who reject these policies, as the opposition to Chinese authorities in Xinjiang includes other organized actors and ordinary citizens.Jihadist hijrah, or migrationAl Qaeda’s new “Islamic Spring” video contains several arguments intended to undermine the legitimacy of the Islamic State’s so-called “caliphate”. At one point, a clip of Ali Abu Muhammad al Dagestani, the deceased leader of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate (ICE), is introduced. Dagestani, who was killed by Russian forces in April 2015, was a fierce critic of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s project. In the audio, Dagestani criticizes Baghdadi for splitting the “mujahideen’s ranks” and declaring a


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“caliphate” without properly consulting other jihadist leaders.

Zawahiri holds up the Taliban’s Afghanistan as a counterexample to the Islamic State, claiming it was a model of jihadist unity. (In reality, the jihadists argued amongst themselves in pre-9/11 Afghanistan as well.)The al Qaeda master begins this argument by pointing to the examples of Abdullah Azzam, widely considered the godfather of modern jihadism, and Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the founder of al Qaeda in Iraq. Both Azzam and Zarqawi were “unable to wage jihad against Jews” from their home countries, Zawahiri says, so they emigrated to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they joined the Afghan mujahideen. Zawahiri notes that later, after the 9/11 attacks, Zarqawi “migrated to Iran and then to Iraq.” Zawahiri and As Sahab’s propagandists emphasize that the Taliban’s Afghanistan was a safe haven for jihadists from around the globe.Osama bin Laden himself migrated to Pakistan, Sudan and Afghanistan for jihad, Zawahiri points out. Bin Laden “established the Global Islamic Front to wage jihad against the Jews and Crusaders” and then “pledged allegiance to the Commander of the Faithful” Mullah Omar, who was the Taliban’s first leader.Zawahiri argues that the jihadists were united in this approach, as Zarqawi, Abu Hamza al Muhajir and Abu Omar al Baghdadi all swore their fealty to Omar by virtue of their bay’ah to bin Laden. This argument is implicitly directed at the Islamic State, as Abu Hamza al Muhajir and Abu Omar al Baghdadi led the Islamic State’s predecessor (the Islamic State of Iraq) until their demise in April 2010. Abu Muhammad al Turkistani (Hasan Mahsum) also “pledged allegiance” to the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Zawahiri says.

Defending the Taliban’s Islamic emirate and waging jihad in the LevantTo emphasize the importance of the Taliban’s pre-9/11 rise, al Qaeda shows multiple clips of Abu Musab al Suri in the video. Suri is a key ideologue who is frequently included in al Qaeda’s propaganda to this day, even though it is widely suspected that he is still imprisoned inside Syria. Most of Suri’s classes were recorded prior to the 9/11 attacks.The clips in Episode 9 of the Islamic Spring are from one of Suri’s famous marker board lectures in August 2000. In it, Suri praised the Taliban as a true “Islamic state” that was established despite the wishes of the “international regime.” This was accomplished, Suri argued, after the last Islamic caliphate disappeared decades earlier. Suri praises the Taliban for enforcing Islamic sharia law and harboring Muslims. Zawahiri picks up on this theme several times. Among those harbored by the Taliban were the “muhajireen [emigrants] and mujahideen of East Turkistan,” Zawahiri says. He notes that Turkistani (Mahsum) was among the “prominent figures of jihad” — such as Azzam, bin Laden, Suri, and Zarqawi — who “migrated to support Islam.”Afghanistan’s “mountains and valleys” know well the “mujahideen from East Turkistan,” Zawahiri tells viewers, as the Uighur jihadists defended the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate against “hypocrites” supported by the international community.As Sahab’s video singles out Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud as one of these supposed “hypocrites.” A montage includes scenes of Massoud asking for Western assistance in order to defeat the Taliban. Al Qaeda assassinated Massoud just two days before the 9/11 attacks.The “East Turkistan mujahideen fought in Tora Bora, Waziristan, and many other areas in Afghanistan” during “America’s latest Crusade against Afghanistan,” Zawahiri says, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal.Some of the Uighur fighters who allegedly participated in the Battle of Tora Bora, and received training at a camp in the Tora Bora Mountains, were detained at Guantanamo.Zawahiri also lauds Uighur mujahideen for quickly supporting “their brothers” in the Levant. He is clearly referring to the TIP. (A clip of Al Nusrah Front leader Abu Muhammad al Julani is included to


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underscore his group’s joint efforts with the TIP.)The Uighurs’ “jihad in the Levant proves that the Arab Spring’s course will be corrected,” Zawahiri claims, according to the translation obtained by The Long War Journal. He then blasts Islamist groups that supposedly betrayed their ideological beliefs.The “Arab Spring was wasted and lost” by groups claiming to be Islamist, but that compromised “with secularists,” Zawahiri charges. The “Islamic Spring” that has replaced it is based on “rule by sharia,” dawa [proselytization] and “jihad in the cause of Allah” until the caliphate is reestablished “on the prophetic methodology,” Zawahiri claims.Zawahiri says that the “upcoming victory in the Levant” by Uighur jihadists (in the TIP) and their comrades will show the people of Egypt and Tunisia that the “path of dawa and jihad” is the only way to achieve victory for ummah.According to Zawahiri, the “mujahideen brothers” from East Turkistan have proven that the ummah “does not recognize nationalist” boundaries. “You confirm the meaning of the mujahideen’s unity against the fierce campaign of Crusaders, Safavids [Shiites], Nusayris [pejorative word for Alawites in Syria], and secularists,” all of whom seek to eradicate “jihad and Islam,” the al Qaeda master tells the Uighur fighters.


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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2016 Part 4-1-AQIS-23

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