The al-Qaeda chapter that hacked an Atlanta man to death two years ago and a USAID worker last year said they’re flummoxed by America’s “enmity” with Sharia law and convinced that the current commander in chief shows the U.S. is down, “dumbstruck and distressed.”
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent spokesman Ustadh Usama Mahmood said in an interview released by al-Qaeda’s as-Sahab media that while they’re focused on creating an “Islamic subcontinent” the group “is also a part of the global jihadi movement” and ranks Americans as their top enemy along with “the alliance of Crusaders, Zionists, Mulhids [apostates], polytheists, and secularists.”
“We believe an important aim of this jihadi movement is to build deterrence in front of the enemies of the Islamic Emirate [Afghanistan], and to revive the jihadi movement on a public level to counter them,” Mahmood said. “…The first target is the ‘ringleader of criminals,’ America, because America is the biggest enemy of Islam and the Muslims, its hands are stained with the blood of Muslims, it is the biggest supporter of oppressors of Islam and it is the biggest protector and leader of the global system of injustice.”
The second-priority target is India, which is “allied with the global devils that include America and Israel.”
He referenced the 22-page “Code of Conduct” published by AQIS in June that discussed legitimate targets and stressed “jihad is a communal obligation, and thus the results of personal actions of an individual, or of a single organization are not limited to that individual, or that organization; rather they impact all mujahideen operating in the battlefield, and in fact, the entire Ummah [Muslim community].”
In February 2015, Bangladeshi-American secularist blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death by AQIS on a Dhaka street. Roy was a dual U.S.-Bangladesh citizen who lived in Atlanta and was in Bangladesh for a month. His wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonna, was with him at the time of the attack and was severely wounded, with one of her fingers severed by the pair of machete-wielding attackers.
In April 2016, Xulhaz Mannan, 35, who previously worked for the U.S. Embassy as a protocol officer and also founded the country’s only LGBT magazine, and Mahbub Tonoy, 25, a magazine contributor, were killed by machete when AQIS attackers posing as delivery couriers gained entry to Mannan’s building.
The U.S. designated the al-Qaeda chapter as a terrorist organization in June 2016.
The AQIS spokesman was asked if fighting America, India and the Pakistani military at the same time is packing too much jihad onto their plate.
“We know in war lowering the number of enemies should be the foremost priority,” Mahmood replied. “However, to shut the eyes on an attacking enemy is tantamount to destroying your ideology, your jihad, and your movement, with your own hands.”
Mahmood gave a plug for al-Qaeda forces and Taliban allies in Afghanistan. “America came here with few targets, and she had some objectives. Have those targets and objectives been achieved? … The jihadi movement that they wanted to bury in Kandahar and Tora Bora is now spread all over the world.”
Today, he added, “America is not just facing Afghanistan, but also Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, the [Indian] Subcontinent.”
Mahmood then questioned why the U.S. would be against al-Qaeda’s Sharia-implementation goals in the first place. “Why try to end Sharia? Why the enmity with the Sharia? It is because where there is Sharia there are slaves of Allah, there is hatred for injustice and love for justice, and there is hatred for the culture of ignorance and corruption,” he said. “This is why they cannot tolerate Sharia in any part of the world. So, the reason for [American forces] coming here was also to end Sharia. So did the Sharia end? Is their dirty and satanic culture enforced here?”
Underscoring al-Qaeda’s guidance that all jihad counts regardless of allegiance claimed, Mahmood gave a nod to attacks claimed by ISIS. “America is spending a huge part of her budget on herself and her coalition for security, but despite this their New York, Manchester, and Paris could not be saved from the heat and flares of the same fire that they themselves had set to our homes,” he said.
“So, these are loss after loss — looking at which, the American public stands dumbstruck and distressed; for a stupid man to become an American president best describes this mood.”
The AQIS spokesman did not refer to President Trump by name, only as “stupid man” and “stupid person.”
“America is not the same America it used to be — its defeat is obvious. Alhamdulillah, this defeat of American is not a
mere claim by the mujahideen, but now you can hear this admission from Americans and its coalition,” Mahmood added. “…America can see its destruction; this is why its senselessness has increased.”
Mahmood lamented that these days the “mere demanding” of “Sharia implementation is not allowed in this democracy, let alone making any serious effort to implement Sharia.”
“Meaning, in the past countrywide movements and public protests used to be held demanding Sharia and stopping evil, but today in its place there is clamor and uproar using the empty and false slogans of ‘democratic rights,’ ‘human rights,’ ‘national interests,’ etc.,” he said.
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