Documenting the Global Jihad

One of Faloja’s adminsitrators is claiming that the forum is under attack by the Shia.  As evidence, he cites suspicious messages that have been sent to individual members and some information gleaned from the inner workings of the forum.  He does not say why he thinks it’s Shia in particular who are involved.

Document (Arabic): 11-16-08-faloja-forum-under-attack-from-shia

Telnik reports that the Jihadis in Ingushetia have set up a website, Hunafa.com, to serve as an information hub for their activities.  Although not as slick as its parent site, KavkazCenter.com, it has the same function.  According to Telnik, if the new site remains online and serves its purpose, it will indicate that the Jihadis in Ingushetia are growing stronger.  

The Hesbah forum’s reaction to two recent rumors is instructive. First, the claim by a Hamas official that Obama’s advisers met with members of the organization during the U.S. election is being met with derision.  The derision is directed not at Obama but at Hamas for selling out and walking down the trail blazed by Fatah.  Interestingly, the credibility of the story is not doubted. 

In contrast, many Hesbah members are skeptical of a recent report that the U.S. is trying to cut a deal with Taliban ally Hekmatyar (a seriously bad dude).  Respondents doubt that someone of his stature, ideology, and ties to Bin Laden would cut a deal.

Three thoughts:  First, Hesbah members believe the news about Obama’s advisers because it makes Hamas look bad; they don’t believe the news about Hekmatyar because it makes the Taliban look bad.  The Taliban is one of the Jihadis’ last, best hopes for establishing an Islamic state, whereas Hamas has long been viewed as a sell out by most Jihadis.  

Second, Jihadis are splitting or becoming demoralized on the mere rumor of talks, either with Hamas or with the Taliban.  What will happen when serious deals are made?  In the case of Hamas, deals will only disturb the minority of Jihadis who have been sticking up for the organization; everyone else views it as a lost cause.  But in the case of the Taliban, it will be an earthquake and cause serious cognitive dissonance among the Jihadis outside of Af-Pak (those inside already know how fractious the Taliban is).

Finally, to state the obvious, the Jihadosphere is having trouble coping with the shades of grey that color the current U.S. approach to counterterrorism and COIN.  

Document (Arabic): 11-11-08-hesbah-reaction-to-news-of-obama-advisers-meeting-with-hamas

Document (Arabic): 11-12-08-hesbah-reaction-to-news-of-us-seeking-to-split-hekmatyar-from-taliban

That’s the question posed by a member of the Shumukh forum.  Below are a range of answers:

Abu Hajir (failure in Saudi):

• Clerics of beggary [i.e. they have their hand out for state money]
• The proximity of a theater like Iraq
• No suitable environment to move about or hide from the state
• The above only applies to Saudi Arabia; the brothers in Yemen are doing well

Abu Hajir (success in N. Africa):

• The rulers are manifestly not Muslims in the eyes of ordinary Muslims
• Rulers who impoverish their countries for the sake of warlords and the French
• Total war on the religion of God
• The experience of the militant groups in Algeria
• The desert that connects the Islamic countries of N. Africa with the Horn of Africa.  It is unprotected.

safyahh (success in N. Africa):

• The long experience of the Salvation Front fighting the French
• Difficult terrain
• Diffusion of weapons
• Islamists have greater legitimacy because power was snatched from them by the military

Zanki2010 (failure in Saudi):

• Historical background of the Saudi state
• Saudi successfully duped all of the clerics in the ’60s and ’70s.
• The existence of sects in Saudi Arabia, particularly the Shia, that the Saudi state uses to scare the Sunnis, particularly Sunni clerics
• Major differences between traditional Salafi clerics and the Sahwa Salafi clerics who entered Saudi from other countries
• The jihads in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya drained the enthusiasm of the youth.
• The Saudi state fought the clerics with prison, buying them off, and heavy surveillance.  It also duped them by implementing some of the more showy Islamic laws.
• The topography of Saudi Arabia makes guerrilla wars or wars of attrition difficult.
• Logistical and intelligence support from America and the Gulf States against the jihad
• Breaking Saudi society into factions by cultivating tribalism and buying the loyalty of tribal chiefs
• Passing laws that limit an individual’s activities

Since July al-Qaeda in Yemen has not released its monthly journal, Sada al-Malahim (The Echo of Glorious Battles).  This period of silence included the September attack on the U.S. embassy, which made it hard to confirm if al-Qaeda in Yemen had carried it out.

Now the group has published issues 5 and 6 of Sada al-Malahim with apologies for the delay “due to technical matters.”  Issue 5 includes the following titles:

• “Exclusive Interview With Brother Ghrayb al-Taizi”
• “Call To Assist Somalia”
• “Lessons From The Tarim Operation”

Issue 3 of Qadaya Jihadiyya is out.  As I’ve said in the past, it’s the slickest of the Jihadi journals.  But this issue is a little thin on original content, indicating that the editors are facing the typical, new journal problem–waning contributions.  

Still, the original content looks interesting as it’s all focused on the global economic turmoil:

• “Did Bin Laden’s Investment In America Payoff?” (in the “strategic issues” section)
• “Russia Calls For A New International Economic Order, Freed From American Control”
• “The Enemy’s Media Creates Confusion To Hide Total Collapse And Humiliating Defeat”
• “The Serpent’s Head Without Capitalism” (the title is an Arabic pun that doesn’t translate well)

If anyone wants to summarize one or more of the articles, I’ll happily post it up under your name or pseudonym.

Document (Arabic): 11-6-08-hesbah-issue-3-of-qadaya-jihadiyya

Reaction from the members of Hesbah, the last of the top-tier Jihadi sites to remain open:

• Abu Ahmad al-Salafi: “The election of this black man to the Black House will improve the image of the New Rome in the eyes of the world.  Al-Faruq `Umar [the second caliph] was right when he said that Rome is the fastest to recover after a catastrophe.  That’s what has happened with the election of this black man.”
• Al Hakim: “Today America elected Obama because al-Qaeda wanted it, after God desired it!  In 2004 America elected Bush because al-Qaeda had wanted it, after God desired it!”
• Abu Ahmad al-Salafi: “I think the election of McCain would have been more beneficial and useful to the Muslims than this black slave.  This Christian is a fanatical supporter of the Jews and (his election) will raise the market shares of Western democratic capitalism (even though it is) in the final throes of death.”
• Al Hakim: “Brother Abu Ahmad al-Salafi, like you I believe that al-Qaeda wants the election of the Republican candidate McCain.  But the organization has been quiet until now, when Obama has been elected.  There can be only one reason for this: the organization is taking the next step after the success of its previous plan against the wildly stupid Republican Party.  The new plan requires a massive effort from al-Qaeda and we are behind it.  The Democratic Party is diplomatic and smart.”
• Abu Mus`ab al-Mujahid: “We will not stop from seeking (America’s) destruction…”
• `Abd Allah al-Harbi: “The victory of Obama means the departure of the occupier from Iraq, humiliated, exhausted, defeated, and broken.”
• Umuruzi al-Misri: “Unbelief is one community, meaning Bush, Obama, and McCain are the same.”
• Al-Nasr lil-Islam: “Obama is the black gloves that the American cowboy will wear to strike Muslims, so don’t rejoice too much.”
• elhajgamal: “Greetings noble brothers.  Is it permissible for us to address him by the color of his skin just because he is an enemy infidel whom we hate on behalf of God?”
• Al-Nasr lil-Islam: “We say ‘black’ because he is not white.  There is no place for racism among Muslims.”

Document (Arabic): 11-5-08-hesbah-reactions-to-election-of-obama

[by Chipotle Mystery]    Issue 3 of Hittin, an Urdu-language Jihadi journal, has been released.  The issue includes:

• short reports on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
• a eulogy of Mullah Dadullah, a major Taliban commander who was killed in May of 2007
• several articles that refer to the Red Mosque incident
• a collection of quotes from notable jihadi figures (e.g. Mullah Omar, Usama bin Laden, and Zawahiri) that is presented as inspirational advice for leaders
• an article on “methods” for engaging in jihad by the “Center for the Islamic Studies”  

It’s telling that although this issue was published recently, it focuses on events that occurred in the middle of 2007.  There is also older material.  For example, this issue has a fatwa issued by Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai in 2001 that justifies attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan (he had issued a similar fatwa against the Soviets following their invasion of Afghanistan in 1979).  Shamzai was a Pashtun cleric from Karachi who has been lionized in Al-Qaeda videos and who was assassinated by unknown assailants in 2004.  He issued this fatwa just prior to the collapse of the Taliban government.  

Going back even further, there is also an “article” by Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti, a 15th century Egyptian polymath who wrote on a variety of subjects ranging from theology to history (he wrote an interesting history of the caliphs).  The article attributed to him warns against getting entangled with governments, likely meant to warn readers against assisting the Pakistani government in its anti-militant clampdown.   

The publication of Hittin has been sporadic, with the first two issues being published in 2007 (March 2007 and then May-July 2007 after the Red Mosque siege).  Although the length of the magazine has increased over time, it remains an eclectic collection of material, much of it recycled from elsewhere.  This fact, coupled with the magazine’s dated material, indicates that either  Jihadi Urdu-language e-journals are still in their infancy or that there is limited personnel for preparing such journals.  The fact that it had to be distributed on Arabic-language forums also tells us that Urdu jihadi forums (if there are any) don’t yet have the infrastructure or following to disseminate it.  As for the breadth of the magazine’s distribution in hard copy, that remains a mystery.

Document (Arabic): 10-31-8-faloja-issue-3-of-hittin

Hafid b. Ladin, a member of the Hesbah forum, complained last week that links to Jihadi media material on Internet Archive (www.archive.org) are under attack.  For those of you who do’t follow the forums, media materials are not uploaded directly to the forum servers but rather to third-party sites; the links are then posted to the forums.  As Aaron and Marisa have observed in the past, the third-party site of preference has been archive.org.  But now, according to Hafid, the material is being removed, which he considers to be part of the larger action against the Jihadi presence online:

All of you know of the attacks and strikes that the jihadi media has been subjected to, beginning with the targeting of jihadi forums and ending with the deletion of links for materials which have the scent of “terrorism.”  The supporters of jihadi media have exerted great effort to overcome many of these problems, but once they are about to solve one problem another one floats to the surce.  Therefore, they have to continully adapt to meet these challenges.

My discussion of this subject is particularly focused on the links for audio-visual jihadi materials, which most of the members upload to the archive [archive.org] thinking that it is the best and fastest site.  Despite the excellent features of the site (most of which have to do with downloading, not uploading), those materials are being attacked and constantly deleted.  Even I, until now, have not ben able to download a high quality copy of Shaykh Abu Yahya’s `Id al-Fitr sermon!!!

Hafid goes on to recommend that members use other third-party file sharing sites that can do the job just as well: Adrive, Zshare, FDCupload, and gettyfile.

Update: Rusty has returned from his ghayba to explain why Jihadis prefer Internet Archive to other sites.

Document (Arabic): 10-29-08-hesbah-member-complains-that-uploaded-files-are-being-removed

A quick rundown of the opinions on the Hesbah forum in reaction to news that the U.S. is negotiating with elements of the Taliban:

• `Umar: “Humilated, they [the Americans] will leave (Afghanistan) and all of the Muslim countries.”
• Al-Islam Nasir: “Aren’t negotiations with the Taliban a victory for us, brothers?  What if the result of these negotiations is the exit of the occupier from the land of Khorasan [Afghanistan]?  Is this not our objective?”
• Al-`Arabi Muslim: “It depends on what they are negotiating.  If they want to leave, then let them leave.  But if they want to negotiate for Karzai to stay, I think this should be refused.”
• Qahir al-Rafida: “A failed attempt to divide the ranks, fragment the efforts, and destroy the fruit of jihad.  These methods will do not be used by the troops of the emirate and its leaders, by the permission of God.  They are not Shamari [spokesman for the Islamic Army of Iraq], Abu Risha [Anbar Awakening tribal leader], or others.
• `Abd Allah al-Harbi: “But the Taliban will not negotiate, by the permission of God.  They [the Americans] will leave (Afghanistan) humiliated and submissive.”
• Al-Islam Nasir: “What if the result of these negotiations is the exit of the occupying power and the return of the Taliban government and with it the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan?  Is this not what we all want?”
• Qahir al-Rafida (addressing Al-Islam Nasir):  ”I don’t think you understand the news well brother.  Think about this passage [quoting a news article from the beginning of the thread]: ‘Officials in the White House and the Pentagon are considering negotiating with a part of the Taliban, excluding the leaders of the movement.’  I think you’ll now change your mind because you definitely don’t want that!”
•   Al-`Arabi Muslim: “America is begging for negotiations.  Would you have us think that America will flee in this manner without covering it with a lie?  No brother.  Do we think that there will be a split in the movement for the sake of negotiations?  Just today the mujahids of the emirate carried out an operation in Kabul, inside a top ministry.  What remains if the gates of Kabul are opened to them?” [the ministry is the the Information and Culture Ministry]

It looks like U.S. negotiations with the Taliban will fracture the Jihadi movement.  But it also looks like many Jihadis believe that the U.S. is negotiating from a position of weakness and want to press their advantage.

Document (Arabic): 10-28-08-hesbah-discussion-of-us-negotiations-with-taliban