Former Al-Qaeda Ideologue Exposes Al Zawahiri

By Mohammed Abu Shamaa

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- Dr. Fadl (AKA Sayyid Imam Al Sharif), former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group and former chief ideologue of the al-Qaeda movement reveals in his forthcoming book 'The Exposure' new details regarding the terrorists group's second-in-command, Ayman al zawahiri.

Dr. Fadl, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison in Egypt, has renounced terrorism. He criticized Al Qaeda and Al Zawahri in particular, in his previous book 'Rationalizing Jihad in Egypt and the World' which was written from prison, and was published in 2007. Before being imprisoned Dr. Fadl was one of the leading figures of Islamic fundamentalism, and his ideas have influenced Al Qaeda and countless others terrorist groups. His book 'The Master in Making Preparation (for Jihad)' is considered a global manifesto for Jihadist groups, and was used as a manual in Al Qaeda training camps. Read more ...

Source: Asharq Al-Awsat

Just married and determined to die

Umm Anas was at the centre of a highly-staged event, but she was far from a cipher

There is a ceasefire in Gaza, but the BBC has found evidence of militant groups preparing for a return to violence. One group, Islamic Jihad, is training female suicide bombers.

Middle East correspondent Paul Wood went to meet a Palestinian woman who has volunteered.

The young, veiled woman was sitting quiet and still as the room bustled around her.

The black flag of Islamic Jihad was pinned on the wall behind her and two Kalashnikovs were carefully placed in camera shot. Her husband, an Islamic Jihad fighter himself, tied on her "martyr's" headband.

Umm Anas - not her real name - had just graduated from a programme to train female suicide bombers in Gaza.

Our meeting was a highly-orchestrated propaganda event laid on by Islamic Jihad. It was almost theatre - and certainly Israel accuses the Palestinian leadership of manipulating young women like 18-year-old Umm Anas. Read more ...

Source: BBC

Gaza summer camps teach kids to fire rockets

Palestinian children on annual vacation can choose between Hamas or Islamic Jihad summer camps, both of which boast militia-style training, Koran classes, lessons on political prisoners

By Ali Waked

In the Gaza Strip, as in Israel, children are currently in the midst of summer vacation, and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s “summer camps” are in full gear. In the past few weeks, the Palestinian groups have been holding camps throughout the strip, some of them proudly displaying rockets and other weaponry.

Hamas alone is currently conducting no less than 300 summer camps for tens of thousands of children, and the focus is on familiarizing kids with the Palestinian towns and cities destroyed in 1948, as well as instilling religious fervor in them. The camps also feature sports and military-type trainings such as crawling under barbed-wire.

Islamic Jihad has also launched its own summer camps, offering some 10,000 children activities similar to those of Hamas. The kids study passages from the Koran and participate in quizzes on religious matters, with emphasis on the required commitment to political prisoners and Palestinian land. They also learn how to hold a Qassam rocket-launcher. read more ...

Source: Y Net News

Obama and Islamic Jihad

By Robert Spencer

On Sunday CNN aired an interview Barack Obama recently gave to Fareed Zakaria, in which the candidate expressed the opinion that Islamic jihad is a result of U.S. foreign policy failure. This is, of course, an assumption that he shares with virtually everyone of any influence in both parties. It is conventional wisdom that the United States, or the West in general, can make the global jihad problem go away by doing something that is not being done now, or by stopping doing something else. The possibility that the jihad might have arisen not as a reaction to actions of America and the West -- and cannot be ended by our actions, either, with the possible exception of overwhelming military and cultural force -- never seems to occur to anyone.

Zakaria asked Obama: “Do you believe, when looking at the world today, that Islamic extremism is the transcendent challenge of the 21st century?” In reply Obama spoke of “terrorism and groups that are resisting modernity,” as if Islamic jihadists were Amish with AK-47s, and avowed that “the fact that they can be driven into extremist ideologies, is one of the severe threats that we face.” Read more ...

Source: FrontPage Magazine

Bulgaria drugs trade funds Hezbollah: report

SOFIA (Reuters) - Profits from drugs trafficking through Bulgaria have been used to fund organizations like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, the parliamentary security commission said on Tuesday.

Bulgarian crime groups trading in synthetic drugs and Arabs linked to militant groups had been cooperating in the trafficking, said the draft report obtained by Reuters and due to be debated in parliament this week. Read more ...

Source: Reuters
H/T: Jihad Watch