A terrorist group chose a burqa-clad cover model and a column for grammar-school-age wannabe-jihadists to kick off the first edition of its English-language ladies’ jihad magazine.
(Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan )
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched “Sunnat E Khaula” — the Way of Khaula, a 7th century Islamic female warrior — because they “want to provoke women of Islam to come forward and join the ranks of mujahideen,” according to the magazine’s introduction.
The kids’ column, “Come Let’s Do Jihad with Little Muhajid Omar,” is purportedly the voice of a 6-year-old who vows “when I will grow up I will do jihad like my father, I will fight kuffar” and says he’s currently learning English at his madrassa.
“I everyday do physical exercise so that I can become a good, brave mujahid. I also serve mujahideen in my spare time. My mother cooks meals and I take it to mujahideen in hujra (man’s sitting room). I feel very happy when I look after mujahideen because it makes Allah pleased with me,” Omar writes.
He says of his jihadist father, “At night I asked Baba that why do we do jihad? Baba told me that we do jihad so that there remains no fitna on Allah’s earth, bad people can be removed from earth and we can live peacefully under law of Allah and that is sharia.”
The young writer describes an unrelated “brother” named Osama living with them who had migrated there to wage jihad and was killed in an operation. Omar says he told his parents, to their delight, that “I will inshAllah one day make a big gun by which I will gun down drones and inshAllah one day like brother Osama I will become a martyr.”
“Become strong and fight kuffar [disbelievers] to make this world a peaceful place to live,” the kids’ column concludes, telling youngsters to fight for a day “when all bad people will be finished from earth and everyone will obey only one Allah.”
In the magazine issue, an unidentified wife of a TTP leader does a Q&A in which she defends child marriages as a practice that averts “moral destruction of the society.”
An article showing fully veiled women wielding automatic weapons states that Muslim countries are acting as “puppets” of “America and Jews,” and “humanity is at the verge of destruction.”
Women are advised to “rise up” and “fight against the ones who have taken off clothes from you in the name of fashion and modernism, the followers of dajjal [antichrist] who have turned you into a man, if ‘modernism’ does not work then they use names like ‘culture.'”
Women are further told “it is your duty to fight,” so “if parents are obstructing your way then leave them, if husband’s love is keeping you away from haq [truth] then sacrifice his love and you will receive love of Allah in return.”
“Higher education, degrees, high status jobs, all these are glitters of this temporary life and a mere deception but what is with Allah is more lasting.”
While migrating to a sharia-practicing jihadi-controlled area is encouraged, women are given home jihad tips for if they’re unable to move: “Help to publish and distribute jihadi literature,” “write essays supporting cause of jihad,” or “organize religious gatherings at home.”
“Organize secret gatherings at home and invite like-minded jihadi sisters,” the magazine suggests. “Distribute literature reflecting on the obligation of jihad, arrange physical training classes for sisters. Learn how to operate simple weapons. Learn the use of grenades.”
Additionally, TTP suggests, women can “very cautiously” pitch the obligations of establishing sharia to family, rally against un-Islamic politicians, donate money or solicit donations for jihad, or “support mujahideen in their secret hideouts away from cities.”
“Take food for them, help to transport weapons, fidayee jackets and other requirements. Arrange to keep weapons, money, other devices at a safe place and when needed be able to transport them to the mujahideen… to plan martyrdom operations, help mujahideen. Provide them with the security information of army and government institutions, hide their weapons, provide them with money. Also, point out to them the possible men, women and institutions to be attacked.”
Noting that the “first martyrdom operation was done by a girl,” the Pakistan Taliban tell women to prepare to become suicide bombers.
The TTP, infamous for the assassination attempt on Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and the 2014 Peshawar school attack, provided the funding and training for Faisal Shahzad’s 2010 attempt to detonate a car bomb in Times Square. “They train together, they plan together, they plot together,” then-White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan told Fox News at the time of the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda relationship. “They are almost indistinguishable.”
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