Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, published a recorded message this week, calling on Muslims living in the countries which take part in the international coalition responsible for military actions in Iraq and Syria to carry out suicide attacks as revenge. The message comes as Al-Qaeda finds itself flagging in relevance with the rise of the Islamist State. "I call upon every Muslim that can do this in the countries of the crusader coalition countries, not to hesitate in doing so" he said. "We must concentrate now on moving the war into their houses and cities and major service centers of the crusader West and primarily America." Al-Qaeda may be looking to carry out attacks on the West as part of a tactic to gain legitimacy in the eyes of rank and file jihadists. ISIS has not carried out any large scale attacks on the West so far. "There are many young Muslims that are eager to recruit for the jihad and they are very pained because of all the pictures of the killing and the destruction that they see in Afghanistan, Waziristan, Iraq, A-Sham, Falasteen, Yemen, Somalia, Kashmir, Chechen and the rest of the Muslim homes" he told his audience. "I think that many of them would like to perform a martyrdom operation." He specifically encouraged suicide bombings in America, saying: "And why shouldn't he do it inside the houses of the crusader West, and especially in America? In its cities and its major service centers, its economic, industrial and financial centers. The martyrdom operation doesn't always need explosives and even if it needs explosives they don't necessarily have to be conventional explosives. There are many means besides explosives." Zawahiri also called for the unity of jihadists in Iraq and Syria, even though he refused to acknowledge Baghdadi's Caliphate. "The Caliphate that Baghdadi announced is only a principality without shura [authorized consultants] and a Muslim doesn't have to pledge allegiance to it" he declared, adding "we do not see Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as qualified to be the Caliph." A few days after the recording was published local sources in several Iraqi cities in Anbar and Ninewah reported that fliers distributed the night between Monday and Tuesday by unknown group. The logo used was that of Tanzim Qaidat el-Jihad Fi-bilad al-rafidayn (Organization's Base of Jihad in the land of Mesopotamia). The name is that used by Al-Qaeda in Iraq when it was headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the precursor to the current Islamic State. The fliers demanded "fixing the jihadi way in Iraq and purifying it and removing all of the oppression from the Ahl al-Sunna [people of the tradition, ie Sunni Muslims] in the country." The brochures included calls to stop accusing Muslims of being infidels (a practice known as takfir) and to stop spilling so much blood. They also called to use mercy while engaging with Sunnis and Kurds as well Ahl al-Kitab (people of the book) who are not taking part in the war. They also called to leave Sunni armed brigades as they are and not force them to pledge allegiance. "Without all of this conquering and restricting the right of jihad to only one group and without all of the takfir of the opposition people, the Ahl al-Sunna wouldn't have migrated from their houses and find themselves living outside of the states of the infidels living in tents" they argued, adding "Allah doesn't want it and his messenger doesn't want it." Arabic media outlet Al-Arabiya el-Jadid reported that the brochures were published by sleeper cells in Iraq who carry out strikes against specific targets periodically. Both Al-Qaeda's propaganda message and the leaflets point to the ongoing fissures in the jihadist movement. Despite claims to unify all Muslims under one banner, Baghdadi's Caliphate has so far failed to eliminate its older rival Al-Qaeda. The battle for jihadist legitimacy is far from over.
