ICT Bi-weekly Report – Jihadi Forums

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By ICT’s Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group

This report summarizes notable events discussed on jihadist Web forums during the first half of September 2013. Following are the main points covered in the report:

• Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri published two new sermons. In the first one, he set guidelines for the mujahideen’s strategy to employ in the field; namely, avoid friction with minorities and the civilian population, and focus on carrying out terrorist attacks against Americans and Israelis. In the second sermon, al-Zawahiri called on the Muslim Nation to carry out individual terrorist attacks against American targets, especially those on [Muslim] soil, and to concentrate efforts on damaging the U.S. economy as it is constitutes a significant weak spot liable to lead to America’s downfall.
• A spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, emphasized that the armies of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Iraq and Syria are considered heretical due to their attempts to hinder the implementation of shari’a [Islamic law] and their actions against Islam. In light of this, al-Adnani calls on Muslims, especially those in Iraq and Egypt, to wage violent jihad against their armies.
• Ansar Beit Al-Maqdes, an Al-Qaeda affiliate operating in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt on the Egyptian Minister of Interior.
• Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has focused its attention on Morocco and publicly criticized the Moroccan monarchy, which it blamed for cooperating with the West in preventing the implementation of shari’a, embracing the democratic system, persecuting its critics, and more.
• Jihadist Web forums affiliated with Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, reported the murder of jihad activist and member of the movement, Omar Hamami (also known as Abu-Mansur al-Amriki) by other members over internal conflicts. The administrators of these Web forums expressed their understanding of the movement’s motivations for killing al-Amriki and blamed him for his own death since he had deviated from the path of jihad and begun to display personal whims that threatened the unity among the movement’s ranks.
• The Global Islamic Media Front published a mobile encryption program for sending text messages on Android and Symbian mobile phones, on different jihadist Web forums.
• The media institution Al-Sham, which supports the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (The Levant), published three editions of a new jihadist periodical called Sawt Al-Sham (The Voice of The Levant).

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Click here to view the full report in PDF format.