Indeed, democracy truly irks al-Qaeda. Ayman Zawahiri himself, writing nearly twenty years ago in his book The Bitter Harvest and after expounding on the antithetical nature of democracy to Islam, concludes, “Thus whoever claims to be a ‘democratic-Muslim’ or a Muslim who calls for democracy, is like one who says about himself, ‘I am a Jewish Muslim,’ or ‘I am a Christian Muslim’ — the one worse than the other. He is an apostate infidel,” from The Al Qaeda Reader, 119. “Mauritania: Al-Qaeda warns Muslims over ‘unbeliever democracies'” from Adnkronos, August 12:
Nouakchott, 12 August(AKI) – Mauritania’s military junta consulted the United States, France and Israel before toppling elected president Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi in last week’s coup, Al-Qaeda’s North African arm has claimed.
“The latest coup in Mauritania could never have succeeded without the agreement of America, France and Israel,” said a statement posted on Tuesday to Islamist websites.
The message is signed by Abdel Malik Droukedel, leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb and dated 10 August.
Several Al-Qaeda cells are believed to be present in Mauritania. The country’s security forces in April recaptured five suspected Al-Qaeda militants including a fugitive accused of killing four French tourists last December, officials said.
The 24 December killing of the French tourists and a shooting attack against the Israeli embassy in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott in February raised fears of a rise in Islamist militant violence in the Saharan state
“For this reason, we warn Muslims to be wary of all forms of unbeliever democracy, because they are just a ploy by the Zionist-Crusader alliance to trick you,” read the statement.
“O people of Mauritania, you need to get back to Islam and and don’t hesitate to wage holy war (Jihad) to fight the Jews and the Christians together with the apostate governments,” the message continues.
The military junta set up a ‘State Council’ which has promised to hold free and fair elections in Mauritania “as soon as possible.”