The Global Jihad In 2006

Al Jazeera TV channel disseminated on December 20, 2006, extracts from a video recorded message of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 to Osama bin Laden in Al Qaeda. The message is titled "The Realities of the Conflict Between Islam and Unbelief." The message is purported to have been produced by As-Sahab, the media unit of Al Qaeda. The previous message of Zawahiri, who has been more communicative than bin Laden, was disseminated on September29, 2006. 

Though the unedited (by Al Jazeera) message does not say so, it reads like a year-end review of the state of global jihad by Zawahiri. Its special focus is on the situation in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, but it also touches upon other areas such as Somalia, Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria etc. It touches upon a number of recent events such as the raid on a madrasa in the Bajaur agency of Pakistan on October30, 2006, the US Congressional elections of November 5, 2006, and the recent talk of a fresh election in the Palestinian territory. It would seem that the message must have been recorded sometime inDecember, 2006. 

From the point of view of India, a significant aspect is the absence of any critical reference to the Hindus and Hinduism and to India's relations with the US. Past comments in Al Qaeda propaganda that the global jihad is directed against the joint anti-Islam conspiracy of Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism do not find repetition. When it talks of the on-going global jihad against what it describes as the Crusaders and the Jewish people, it refers to onlyPalestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chechnya and Somalia. It does not seem to project the on-going jihadi militancy in India, Southern Philippines, Indonesia and Southern Thailand as part of the global jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish people. It seems to look upon them as purely local jihadi phenomena unconnected with what it projects as the global crusade against Islam and theUmmah. 

It cautions against any tendency on the part of the Muslims to regard what has been going on in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chechnya and Somalia as separate conflicts unconnected with each other. It projects them as intrinsic parts of the global Crusade against Islam and, therefore, stresses the need for the Muslims all over the world to join hands to defeat this Crusade. It stresses the importance of the armed as well as the unarmed components of the jihad against the so-called Crusaders and Zionists. While talking of the unarmed components of the jihad, it says: 

"The Muslim Ummah must exploit all methods of popular protest, like demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes, refusing to pay taxes, preventing cooperation with the security forces, refusing to provide the Crusaders with fuel, hitting traders who supply the Crusader forces, boycotting Crusader and Jewish products, and other ways of popular protest.The students must take their anger to the streets, and they must make the mosques, universities, colleges and high schools centers of support for Jihad and resistance." 

It has been strongly critical of not only the US, but also the UN, which it projects as anti-Islam for giving membership to Israel and for legitimising through its Charter what it describes as the occupation of historic Muslim lands by non-Muslims. In its criticism of the UN Charter, it says: 

"It (the Charter) also obligates them to recognize Russia’s occupation of Chechnya and the Muslim Caucasus, China’s occupation of East Turkistan, Spain’s occupation of Ceuta and Melilla and the occupation of other Muslim lands by non-Muslim governments which are part of the UN." 

There is no specific reference to J & K in this context. J&K, however, figures in another part of the message, which appeals to the Palestinians to support thecause of the Kashmiri Muslims. It appeals to the Palestinians in the following words: " My Muslim brothers in Palestine: all Muslims stand with you, and wish to offer their lives in exchange for the liberation of al-Aqsa, so stand with your Muslim brothers in Islam in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Iraq, and let the world hear your support of them." 

It praises the poor Muslims of Afghanistan for relentlessly waging a jihad for threedecades— initially against one super power (the USSR) and now against the other (US) and calls upon the Muslims of the world to emulate them. Itsays:

"The Afghan people, in a quarter of a century, have defeated – by the grace of Allah – the two superpowers in this world, so may Allah grant long life to this poor, steadfast, Mujahid people. It is the duty of the Muslim Ummah to back them, and this is the least it can do to fulfill the duty it owes to them. The religious, military and political history of mankind shall bear witness that the strongest power in history was defeated by a power much stronger, greater and purer than it: the power of Mujahid Islam." 

It projects the jihad in Afghanistan as being jointly waged by the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan andsays:

"The Pushtun tribes on both sides of the border declared their allegiance to the Taliban, joined the Jihad against the Crusade and stood firm in the face of the combined bombing of the Americans and Crusaders…And the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and Pakistan wrote an honorable chapter in the history of Islam. And in this regard, I hail our Muslim brothers in Pakistan on their demonstrations against the traitorous Musharraf government after the treacherous aggression against the religious school in Bajaur, and I hail the Mujahideen of Pakistan on their heroic, martyrdom-seeking confrontation of the Crusaders’ agents in Pakistan. And I remind them that the way to deliverance is in supporting the forces of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan with their persons and wealth, and not through parliamentary ruses or elections polluted with bribery, cheating and manipulation…"

It seeks to counter the impression that Al Qaeda is anti-Shia and pro-Arab in an intriguing reference, which reads as follows: "And I tell them that the secularist traitors are striving to sow discord between you and your brothers the Mujahideen, who sympathized with you when you were hit by the crimes of the criminal, pagan Ba’athists. And you know that your Mujahid brothers, especially in Qaida al-Jihad, are—by the grace of Allah—the farthest people from ethnic fanaticism. They have pledged allegiance to the Commander of the Believers, Mulla Muhammad Umar (the Amir of the Taliban), as their commander, and he isn’t an Arab." 

Whom is Zawahiri referring to when he talks of the victims of the crimes of theBaathists—the Shias or the Kurds or both? 

It projects the objectives of the on-going global jihad as the recovery of all historic Muslim lands now under the occupation of non-Muslim powers and the formation of an Islamic Caliphate ruled in accordance with the Sharia. It debunks the idea of Western style democracy with elections for empowering the people and warns the people of Palestine against falling into the trap ofelections. It questions the right of Israel to existence in Palestrinian territory and cautions the Palestinians against being satisfied with the restoration of the pre-1967 position. 

It claims that the results of the recent US Congressional elections represented the victory of not the Democrats, but of the Mujahideen of Afghanistan and Iraq. It says that the fate of Islam is being decided in the battle-fields of Iraq and Afghanistan and appeals to the Ummah to continue waging their jihad till the Crusaders are defeated and the non-Muslims in occupation of Muslim lands are driven out. 

It projects the jihadi acts of terrorism in non-Muslim territory as justified acts of reprisals in retaliation for the attacks on the Muslims and warns the Americans: The formula for your safety is:

"You shall never dream of security until we truly experience it in Palestine and all lands of Islam," and not the fallacious formula with which Bush deceives you when he says, "We strike the terrorists in their countries so that they don’t strike us in ours." On the contrary: if we are struck in our countries, we shall never stop striking you in your countries, with Allah’s power andpermission. And as our commander, Shaykh Usama bin Ladin told you, "As you bomb, you will be bombed, and as you kill, you will be killed." 

It describes the Mujahideen leaders as the real leaders of the Ummah and tells the US that if it wants peace it has to negotiate with them. It tells the pro-US leaders of the Ummah that their days are gone and that the present era is that of the Mujahideen heroes. It says: 

"You must realize that a new period of world history has begun. The period of the offspring of Abd al-Aziz Al-Sa’ud, the grandsons of the Sharif Husayn and Sadat, Mubarak and Arafat has passed, and the period of Khalid Islambouli, Abdullah Azzam, Abu Hafs the Commander, Khattab, Muhammad Atta, Muhammad Siddique Khan, and Shehzad Tanwir has begun. And if you are unable to comprehend this transformation, then blame no one but yourselves." 

It is intriguing that of the four suicide bombers who carried out the London blasts of July,2005, it projects only two (Muhammad Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanvir) as heroes. 

Significantly, the message keeps up Al Qaeda's past policy of not criticising the US campaign against a nuclear Iran and not projecting it as part of the Crusaders' and the Zionists' conspiracy against Islam. The Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the International Islamic Front do not seem to feel comfortable with the idea of a Shia bomb. 

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies,Chennai.