Mullah Omar was declared caliph — Emir al-Momineen, or Leader of the Believers — by his followers in Afghanistan in 1994. Omar went to the Shrine of the Respectable Cloak of Muhammad in Kandahar and wrapped himself in the cloak, while his followers hailed him. But Omar’s claim to the caliphate has been complicated by a number of matters since then. This is the first group outside Afghanistan to acknowledge it.
The restoration of the caliphate, of course, is foremost on the agenda of the global mujahedin. The caliph alone can declare offensive jihad against infidel nations — which is why Osama casts all his present actions as defensive.
“Algerian terror group seeks Zarqawi’s help,” from UPI, with thanks to DFS:
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 2 (UPI) — Algeria’s most feared militant Islamic group has pleaded for the help of al-Qaida’s chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, following painful setbacks by the army.
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, led by Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud Abdel Malek, sent a letter to Zarqawi hailing his activities in fighting the enemies of Islam and declaring Taliban leader Mullah Omar as the “caliphate of Muslims.”
The letter urged Zarqawi to “support brothers in Algerian jihad groups by making sermons that call for defeating the tyrants.”