Al-Qaeda: Kill the Christians
By Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 17, 2006
An al-Qaeda manual made a surprise reappearance on October 31st in
a new repackaged, reformatted edition on an online jihadi forum
associated with the terrorist organization. The manual, A Guide for
the Undecided on the Legitimacy of Killing Christians, (Irshad
al-Hayara fi Ibahat Dimaa al-Nasara) made its first appearance back
in September 2002, published by the al-Qaeda think tank, the now
defunct Center for Islamic Research and Study, in their bi-weekly
magazine, Sawt al-Jihad (The Voice of Jihad). Translated excerpts
from the 56-page manual, authored by Hafid Abu-Basir, are available
from the Site Institute.
But republication of this manual in a new format has
counter-terrorism officials concerned that its re-release might be
a sign of forthcoming terror attacks directed at Americans. In
Chapter 15 of the document, Abu-Basir offers encouragement to
dispirited Muslims that fresh attacks against the American infidels
are forthcoming:
Beloved ones, I bring you the great, joyful news, which is the
coming attack in America, with the permission of Allah, in a new
wonderful method. America will be shocked once more, and this time
Bush of the infidels will cry again.
The Guide for the Undecided is an extensive theological warrant
deeply rooted in Quranic and Hadith sources for the killing of
Americans based on what the author alleges are historical wrongs
committed by America against Muslims worldwide. An entire section
of the work, Al-Umariyah Conditions, (Chapter 9) is dedicated to
explaining that the only proper role for Christians and Jews are as
subjected and submissive dhimmis legal non-persons. It also
provides justification for attacks directed at Muslim allies and
Islamic governments working with the U.S. government and thoroughly
rejects any coexistence with America.
The republication of this manual follows just weeks after an
al-Qaeda-linked website released a manual by Egyptian Mohammed
Khalil Al-Hakaymah, How to Fight Alone, a how-to guide for Muslims
to conduct their own Jihad of One against the
Crusader-Zionists. A brief analysis of al-Hakaymahs manual by
Geostrategy describes his instructions on how lone Muslims can take
the battle to the infidels:
The recommended methods include stabbing, feeding overdoses of
cocaine or heroin, injecting air via needles, assassination with
guns, burning down homes, putting poisonous snakes in cars,
tampering with car brakes, planting explosives in vehicles, running
over people, and luring people and then killing them.
The book also highly recommends poisoning targets and includes
various methods of preparing and obtaining lethal toxins, including
botulism. The book also gives instructions on making improvised
explosives.
Al-Hakaymah is playing a more visible role in the global jihad,
attested to by none other than al-Qaeda number two man, Ahman
al-Zawahiri, who praised his fellow Egyptian by name in a video
statement released on August 5th. As counter-terrorism analyst
Chris Zambelis explained in the October 10th and October 24th
editions of TerrorismFocus, al-Hakaymah is playing a crucial role
for al-Qaeda in breaking away from the Egyptian Islamic Group
(Gamaa al-Islamiyya), who has criticized al-Qaeda and moderated
their stand towards the Mubarak regime, and forging an alliance
between his splinter group, Those Who Stand Firm for the Covenant
(al-Thabeton ala al-Ahad), to utilize violence against infidels and
Muslims rejecting al-Qaedas vision of global jihad alike.
Since the public acknowledgement of al-Hakaymah by Zawahiri, a
number of instruction manuals and statements by al-Hakaymah have
been posted online, including How to Fight Alone. One manual that
has drawn considerable interest by intelligence agencies is the
151-page, The Myth of Delusion: Exposing the American Intelligence,
which relies on a number of open source analyses to present a
picture of U.S. intelligence institutions and methods. A complete
translation of the work is available.
The Myth of Delusion is a critically important document, in that
it expresses a conspiratorial worldview where U.S. intelligence is
governed by a cabal of conservative think tanks, South Korean
intelligence, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Texas oil interests, and
of course the Israeli lobby (oddly, not much unlike anything you
can find on several prominent American leftist blogs).
But its importance lies especially in the real-world advice offered
to jihadis on evading detection by Western signals intelligence
agencies by using disposable cell phones and avoiding the use of
certain key-phrases to escape notice by the National Security
Agencys ECHELON system. As Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly
recently noted, the manual also advises with stunning detail
various CIA investigative techniques and the management of
operatives.
All of these manuals, Abu Basirs A Guide for the Undecided,
al-Hakaymahs How to Fight Alone and The Myth of Delusion, form an
integral part of the burgeoning global jihad apparatus. Norwegian
terrorism researcher Thomas Hegghammer has appropriately dubbed
this genre jihadi strategic studies, which combines theological
explication, military strategy, theory and planning, and practical
how-to advice to guide the next generation of the global jihad
movement.
This is what adds to the concern of counter-terrorism officials in
the U.S. who see manuals, such as A Guide for the Undecided, which
justifies violence against American civilians. Not only might this
document itself and its recent reappearance anticipate terror
attacks inside the U.S. in the near-term; but in the long-term, it
serves as a template of terror that is intended to be followed by
generations of followers advancing the global Islamic jihad. The
growing library of jihadi strategic studies envisions violent
confrontation with the West until the submission of the West under
the green flag of Islam is made a reality.