Like the rest of the world, members of the Arabic-speaking Jihadi forums are closely watching the Mumbai attacks.  There’s no insider info yet, but one member of Faloja, Song of Terror, has proposed an information operation to capitalize on the event.  He suggests the following:    Spread news of the event on non-Jihadi Arabic forums Design images of the attackers Produce films calling for aid to the Deccan Mujahideen and put them on YouTube Appeal for aid on the comment sections of Arabic news sites Refute anyone who criticizes these attacks on the non-Jihadi Arabic forums   This fits with what I’ve written before, that the main Jihadi propaganda effort online is directed toward the mainstream forums.  Because its all volunteer, it’s much more nimble. As for the Mumbai attacks, they mesh with Abu Bakr Naji’s suggestion several years ago that Jihadis should target hotels frequented by tourists, which he

Sayyid Imam continues his rebuttal of Nasir al-Fahd; this time it’s for Fahd’s failure to differentiate his enemy.  In this regard, Imam adduces anti-war protests and British priests as examples of diverse political views in Western nations.  The most interesting bit comes toward the end when Imam takes up the subject of cursing the Prophet, which he did not cover in his first book.   Continuing: In the Exoneration, Zawahiri quotes Fahd as saying that a visa is a pact of safe passage that must not be violated by attacking the country that granted it.  But, Fahd says, America is like Ka`b b. al-Ashraf [see part 5] who harms God and His messenger Muhammad, so an American visa can be violated. Fahd has confused the subject of states giving pacts of safe passage to other states and states giving them to individuals.  He also misunderstands the story of Ka`b.  Moreover,

In part 5, Sayyid Imam takes up one of the more clever arguments of his earlier book: visas are the equivalent of an Islamic pact of safe passage (aman), which means that Muslims on visas in foreign nations cannot attack the citizens of those nations.  Of course, Imam throws in a little spice as well, disclosing that Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, Abu Hafs, and a mysterious third person were the only people who knew the specifics of the 9/11 plot. To continue: Only three people know of the 9/11 operation before it happened: Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, Abu Hafs al-Masri, and a third person–not Zawahiri–who found out about it only 24 hours before it happened.  Everyone else knew there would be an operation against the U.S. but didn’t know the specifics.  The Sharia Council objected on Sharia grounds because Bin Laden had not sought the permission of Mullah Omar.  It also objected

Part 4 of the Denudation is a little more techy, but there is a nice rebuttal of al-Qaeda’s principle of reciprocity, which, as Sayyid Imam says, really does underpin a lot of its members’ moral reasoning about violence.  In this vein, Sayyid Imam slaps Nasir al-Fahd hard in the face for his famous WMD fatwa. Paraphrastic translation follows: Under the illegitimate principle of attacking the far enemy first, Al-Qaeda provoked the U.S. into attacking Afghanistan, which then made jihad an obligation for every individual, without conditions.  Yet Zawahiri and Bin Laden didn’t stay and fight; rather, they fled in women’s garments.  When this is pointed out to them, they say, “Our role is only to incite others to fight.”  But the Prophet both incited and fought and so should they.  Zawahiri is only good at fleeing, inciting, collecting donations, and talking to the media. *  The heresy of excommunication and killing