The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), a transnational jihadi media outlet, in partnership with the al-Falujah al-Islamiyyah online discussion forums announced on October 6 the launching of a media campaign against the Palestinian religious-nationalist group HAMAS. The campaign is being launched in retaliation for HAMAS' August 14 battle against Jund Ansar Allah ("Soldiers of the Partisans of God; JAA), a small jihadi Salafi group operating in the Gaza Strip. HAMAS decided to crack down on JAA, as it has with other like-minded groups that have emerged in Gaza in the past decade, after it declared the symbolic, yet significant, establishment of the "Islamic Emirate of Bayt al-Maqdis," or "Holy House," a religious name in Arabic for Jerusalem, which houses two of Islam's holiest shrines, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.
Shaykh Abu'l Nur al-Maqdisi and a Jund Ansar Allah gunman overlooking al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the site Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad arrived at on his mystical Night Journey from Mecca.
I previously wrote about the significant differences the conflict between the two groups demonstrates between religious-nationalism (or Islamist-nationalism) and transnational jihadism HERE. The GIMF/al-Falujah media campaign is named after the former spiritual guide of JAA, Shaykh 'Abd al-Latif Musa, who is more commonly referred to by his kunya (in this usage, akin to a nom de guerre) Abu'l Nur al-Maqdisi. He was one of the JAA members killed in the battle with HAMAS in the southern Gaza city of Rafah at the Mosque of Ibn Taymiyyah, which is named after a prominent medieval Sunni jurist whose works are popular with contemporary Salafis (and not just jihadi Salafis either). A special forum has been established for the campaign, currently housing threads linking to video and sound files related to the group. The campaign is being dubbed a "raid":
غزوة الإمام الشهيد أبي النور المقدسي الإعلامية
"Lion of the Shari'ah," Shaykh Abu'l Nur al-Maqdisi, in front of the Mosque of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in Rafah.
The announcement of this campaign is yet another significant example of the differences between Islamist-nationalist movements such as HAMAS, whose goals are bound to a specific geographic location, and transnational jihadis, who see local and regional conflicts as being part of a larger whole.
The "Mujahid-Shaykh" Abu'l Nur al-Maqdisi (in color at the far right) has quickly entered into the pantheon of martyrs heralded by transnational jihadis, which includes (from top left, clockwise): the Egyptian Islamist intellectual Sayyid Qutb (hanged in 1966 by Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir), the revolutionary Palestinian religious scholar and jihad theorist 'Abdullah 'Azzam (assassinated in November 1989 by an unknown party), the deputy Imam of the Red Mosque in Islamabad 'Abd al-Rashid Ghazi (killed with many of his students by the Pakistani government in 2007), the late Saudi commander Khattab (head of the Arab contingent of the Salafi branch of Chechnya's mujahideen, assassinated in 2002 by Russia), HAMAS' late spiritual guide Shaykh Ahmad Yassin (assassinated by Israel in February 2004), and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, founder of al-Qa'ida in the Land of the Two Rivers (Iraq; AQI) who was killed in a June 2006 U.S. airstrike.
The goals of the campaign are described thus (explanatory notes are included in brackets):
(1) Show the truth of the heinous and horrific massacre [in Rafah], and refute the lies and allegations [against JAA] being spread by HAMAS.
إظهار حقيقة القضية و ملابسات الجريمة البشعة و المجزرة المروعة و تفنيد أكاذيب و ادعاءات حماس
(2) Demonstrate the truth [true identity] of the HAMAS of today and its deviations from the HAMAS of yesterday [the original HAMAS movement].*
إظهار حقيقة حركة حماس اليوم و انحراف مسارها عن حركة حماس الأمس
*Jihadis differentiate between the "HAMAS of today" and the "original" HAMAS under the direction of founding members Shaykh Ahmad Yassin, 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Rantissi, Salah Shehadah, and Nizar 'Abd al-Qadir Rayyan, who were all assassinated by Israel.
Some of Jund Ansar Allah's "martyrs" in the battle with HAMAS. Based on my research on this event for an article draft, it appears that some of the "martyrs" were younger members, or former members, of HAMAS' Islamist rivals, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ) and the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the Nasir Salah al-Din Brigades.
(3) Issue a warning to Muslims against donating money to HAMAS because such donations will become bullets used in targeting the Muslims.
إبراء الذمة تنبيها لعامة المسلمين أن الاموال التي يتبرعون بها لحركة حماس إنما هي رصاصات في صدور المسلمين
(4) Support/Assist the mujahideen [warriors of faith], the ones who believe in absolute monotheism [Tawhid; the muwahideen], who fight so that the word of God is supreme and [because] His law [Shari'ah] is absent.
نصرة المجاهدين الموحدين الذين يقاتلون لتكون كلمة الله هي العليا و لتحكيم شريعة الله المغيبة
(5) Publish the intellectual heritage of the Imam-Shaykh Abu'l Nur al-Maqdisi, may God embrace him and his brothers [the martyrs of Rafah, the mujahideen].
نشر التراث العلمي للشيخ الإمام أبي النور المقدسي تقبله الله و إخوانه
HAMAS is condemned for "slaying" the "mujahideen" of JAA "simply because they say, 'There is no god but God,'" and because they sought to implement (their version) of "God's law," Shari'ah.
بينما عندما يتم رفع راية لا إله إلا الله نجدهم يستنفرون جميع أجهزتهم الأمنية بما فيها كتائب القسام و ذلك لهدم الجوامع على رؤس المصلين العائذين بها و البيوت على رؤوس ساكنيها لمجرد أنهم قالوا ربنا الله و طالبوا بحق يقره كل مسلم ألا و هو العيش تحت شريعة الرحمان
The statement repeats a charge leveled by Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, the most preeminent jihadi Salafi religious scholar and theorist alive today, within days of the August 14 battle in Rafah.
Ahmad al-Washah, one of the young Jund Ansar Allah "martyrs" in the mosque battle; Photos of his body were also released to jihadi online web sites.
The GIMF/al-Falujah staff vows that "shedding of the blood of the believers" will "not be forgotten," and the "shameful falsehoods" being spread by HAMAS will be revealed.
خبروهم ما نسي سفك دمّ المؤمنين ، خبروهم أننا قوم أباة لن نهون و لن نلين ، سوف نمضي نكشف الزيف المشين
The statement ends, "Glory be to God and His Prophet and the Believers, and not to the Hypocrites [HAMAS], who know not [who are ignorant]."
ولله العزة ولرسوله وللمؤمنين ولكن المنافقين لا يعلمون
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