“Those who applaud the new government and those who are against it must stop and turn to the strict application of Sharia.” That is always and everywhere the goal.
Note here, yet again, the strong Islamic content of Al-Qaeda’s communiques — while the U.S. government has decided to refrain from any discussion of Islam and the jihad theology in connection with the terror threat. How they can make any sense of messages like this one while ignoring Islam and jihad is beyond me.
“Al-Qaeda denounces Mauritania’s ‘infidel’ military junta: report,” from AFP, August 25 :
NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) “” The suspected head of Al-Qaeda in Mauritania urged the country’s Muslims not to recognise the ruling military junta, calling it an “infidel regime,” AFP learned Monday.
The denunciation came as the head of the African Union (AU) Commission said he held an “optimistic” meeting with the junta’s leader General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, aimed at restoring a constitutional government.
In a two-page letter, handwritten in Arabic from prison and signed with his name, El Khadim Ould Esseman wrote that Muslims must not support or recognise the junta that seized power earlier this month.
“Even if (the head of the junta) linked by blood and membership of the same tribal group, the Muslim faith disqualifies him from leading the Muslim nation because he is comparable to an infidel,” the letter said.
“Those who applaud the new government and those who are against it must stop and turn to the strict application of Sharia.” […]
The suspected head of Mauritania’s branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is accused of being the mastermind behind February’s attack on the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott, for which Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
He was arrested at the end of April after he escaped prison in 2006.
A court charged him with “using the territory (of Mauritania) to lead terrorist acts against a foreign country” (Israel) and “belonging to a terrorist organisation.”
Earlier this month a statement by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb appeared on the Internet condemning the coup in Mauritania and urging the Mauritanian people “to prepare for war.”…