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Localizing the Global Message: Al-Qaeda Shifts Propaganda to Local Oriented Media Companies In New Al-Shabab Video, Kenyan Mujahid Urges Kenyan Muslims to Fight Islam's Enemies in Kenya Jihadi Sheikh Advises Muslim Youth in Western Countries: Either Join Jihad Fronts or Work to Spread Islam in the West Information on Somali-American Al-Shabab Fighter Posted on Jihad Forum Al-Qaeda Delivers Urdu-Language Magazine To Audiences In Pakistani Cities Al-Qaeda Releases Video Of Its Fighters Celebrating Eid In Waziristan Taliban Say They 'Cannot Be Defeated Militarily; It Is Not Far Off…That The Islamic Emirate Will Realize Its Goal Of Establishing An Independent And Islamic Government [In Afghanistan]' Jihadi Sheikh Calls on Algerians to Wage Jihad 'Until the Shari'a Is Instated and the Last Inch of Islamic Land Is Liberated' Omar Bakri Says Al-Qaeda Is Not Present in Syria, Accuses Syrian Regime Of Fabricating Attacks, Defends His Thanking Of Hassan Nasrallah New Images Of American 'Omar Hammami, Commander In The Somali Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen Organization

The following are reports published from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Monitor, on the following topics: Al-Qaeda directing its propaganda efforts through local channels; Al-Qaeda's distribution of Urdu-language magazines in Pakistani cities; statements by Al-Qaeda fighters in Waziristan, statements by the Taliban; Al-Shabab threatens Kenya; advice to Muslim youth in the West on jihad, by sheikhs on a jihadi forum; news on American jihadi 'Omar Hammami, aka Abu Mansour Al-Amriki; and an interview with Salafi sheikh Omar Bakri on Syria. MEMRI is offering an exclusive discount of membership to our Global Jihad News website to our facebook fans. “like” MEMRI on facebook to find out the savings code. The Global Jihad News website is a supplement to MEMRI's Jihad & Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) project, which translates and analyzes material from sources monitored around the clock – among them the 100 most important Islamist websites and blogs. An annual subscription to the GJN costs $360. We are pleased to offer, for a limited time, to Facebook fans the special price of $299. Localizing the Global Message: Al-Qaeda Shifts Propaganda to Local Oriented Media Companies In New Al-Shabab Video, Kenyan Mujahid Urges Kenyan Muslims to Fight Islam's Enemies in Kenya Jihadi Sheikh Advises Muslim Youth in Western Countries: Either Join Jihad Fronts or Work to Spread Islam in the West Information on Somali-American Al-Shabab Fighter Posted on Jihad Forum Al-Qaeda Delivers Urdu-Language Magazine To Audiences In Pakistani Cities Al-Qaeda Releases Video Of Its Fighters Celebrating Eid In Waziristan Taliban Say They 'Cannot Be Defeated Militarily; It Is Not Far Off…That The Islamic Emirate Will Realize Its Goal Of Establishing An Independent And Islamic Government [In Afghanistan]' Jihadi Sheikh Calls on Algerians to Wage Jihad 'Until the Shari'a Is Instated and the Last Inch of Islamic Land Is Liberated' Omar Bakri Says Al-Qaeda Is Not Present in Syria, Accuses Syrian Regime Of Fabricating Attacks, Defends His Thanking Of Hassan Nasrallah New Images Of American 'Omar Hammami, Commander In The Somali Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen Organization Special Dispatch No.4422 –Al-Qaeda/Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor Localizing the Global Message: Al-Qaeda Shifts Propaganda to Local Oriented Media Companies Announcements published on jihadi forums in recent weeks regarding the establishment of several new media companies signal a new propaganda effort on the part of Al-Qaeda and the global jihad movement to promote their worldview through local channels and in a local context. The campaign coincides with a lowering of the public profile of Al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which in the past year has been operating under the name Ansar Al-Shari'a. The establishment of these locally oriented media companies apparently marks the implementation of a strategy Al-Qaeda has laid down for the Arab countries, especially those recently freed from the yoke of autocratic rulers, namely Egypt and Tunisia. As Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri explained in a recent statement: "The war [in Egypt] is a war of da'wa, communication, information, [a war] of rallying the ummah and enlightening it so that it follows the path of salvation and evades the path of perdition." To read the full report, visit http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5994.htm. Special Dispatch 4421—Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor/Somalia In New Al-Shabab Video, Kenyan Mujahid Urges Kenyan Muslims to Fight Islam's Enemies in Kenya In a new video released by Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen, a Kenyan operative in the Somali jihad organization going by the name Ahmad Iman 'Ali said that Kenya had invaded Somalia out of the enmity it bore toward Islam and the Muslims, and called on Kenyan Muslims to come to the aid of the Muslims in Somalia by waging jihad. If they could not reach a jihad front such as Somalia or Afghanistan, he said, they should fight and kill the "infidels" within Kenya itself. 'Ali said that Kenya is considered dar al-harb – a war zone in which the rules of jihad apply. The 52-minute video, made in Swahili, was released by Al-Kata'ib, Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen's media company. Following is a summary, based on the English translation provided by Al-Kata'ib, with some quotes slightly edited for clarity. 'Ali begins by quoting a Koranic verse dealing with the unbelievers ("And they will never cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion if they can" [Koran 2:217]), which underscores the basic theme of his message: that the non-Muslim government of Kenya espouses an enmity toward Islam and Muslims, and that it is this which motivated its attack on Somalia. Harping on a common theme in jihadi discourse, 'Ali says that the enemies of Islam can be seen fighting it throughout the world – in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kashmir, Palestine, and elsewhere – just as they are in Somalia. To read the full report, visit http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5993.htm. Jihadi Sheikh Advises Muslim Youth in Western Countries: Either Join Jihad Fronts or Work to Spread Islam in the West On January 8, 2012, the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam published a response by Sheikh Abu Sa'd Al-'Amili, a prolific writer on the forum, in answer to a query regarding the "ruling on living in Western countries." In it, Al-'Amili said that if Muslim youth faced difficulty in practicing the Islamic faith in a Western country, they must work together in one of two ways: either emigrate to another place where they could perform the duties of Islam freely, preferably one of the jihad fronts, or remain patiently where they are in the West and work to spread Islam among their peers, until salvation comes from Allah. To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5672&param=JT. Information on Somali-American Al-Shabab Fighter Posted on Jihad Forum On the Al-Jihad Al-'Alami ("Global Jihad") jihadi forum, forum member "Islami" posted information about Jamal Al-Banna, a Somali-American who had joined Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen and died in 2009 while fighting with the group. Most of the information posted was already known. To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5687&param=GJN. Al-Qaeda Delivers Urdu-Language Magazine To Audiences In Pakistani Cities Al-Qaeda is delivering its Urdu-language publications – which teach martyrdom and the need for jihad against infidels – to audiences in Pakistani cities, according to a media report. Following are excerpts from the report: "Al-Qaeda continues to preach jihad or holy war through an Urdu monthly magazine that is delivered to homes in cities across Pakistan by post… "The 200-page magazine, Hiteen, is named after the battlefield where Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi defeated the Crusaders and features articles that preach jihad and praise Osama bin Laden. The magazine was started in June of last year [2011], a month after bin Laden was killed in a U.S. military raid in Abbottabad… To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5684&param=UPP. Al-Qaeda Releases Video Of Its Fighters Celebrating Eid In Waziristan In a new video released by Al-Qaeda, jihadist fighters are shown celebrating the annual Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Fitr (August 31, 2011) and training in using rocket launchers in the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan. The video was produced by As-Sahab, the media arm of Al-Qaeda and released on a jihadist internet forum on January 11, 2012. The video has Arabic narration and a jihadist Urdu song, along with subtitles in Urdu. The militants are also shown preparing to launch attacks on Pakistani military camps. To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5683&param=UPP. Taliban Say They 'Cannot Be Defeated Militarily; It Is Not Far Off…That The Islamic Emirate Will Realize Its Goal Of Establishing An Independent And Islamic Government [In Afghanistan]' The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government) has said in a statement that it is making decisions independent of Pakistan and is on the way to establish an Islamic government in the country. The Taliban statement reiterates that Afghan national interests and Islamic principles will form the basis of an Islamic state in Afghanistan. "The Islamic Emirate also wants to establish relations with others [i.e. countries] in the light of Islamic principles and its national interests where it does not pose a danger to anyone nor does it let others interfere in its country. This has been the clear-cut policy of the Islamic Emirate since its emergence," the statement noted. To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5682&param=UPP. Jihadi Sheikh Calls on Algerians to Wage Jihad 'Until the Shari'a Is Instated and the Last Inch of Islamic Land Is Liberated' On January 10, 2012, the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam published a 13-minute audio clip, produced by Al-Andalus, the media company of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), in which Sheikh Abu 'Abdallah Ahmad urged the residents of Algeria to wage jihad against the oppressive regime of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. He called on the clerics and preachers in the country to break their silence and rush to the defense of the Islamic religion "until the shari'a is instated and the last inch of Islamic land is liberated." Sheikh Ahmad begins by clarifying that in light of the oppression of Algeria's residents by the regime's "band of robbers," he felt it his duty to advise the brothers in Algeria and to urge "the valiant and the religious zealots" among them to wage jihad against the rising corruption in the country, and to stop the "plan to sell out the land and its people, before it is too late." To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5680&param=GJN. Omar Bakri Says Al-Qaeda Is Not Present in Syria, Accuses Syrian Regime Of Fabricating Attacks, Defends His Thanking Of Hassan Nasrallah On January 9, 2012, the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published an interview with Salafi Sheikh Omar Bakri, a Lebanese of Syrian origin who lived in Britain and served as the head of the London shari'a court until his deportation to Lebanon in 2005. The interview focused on Bakri's point of view on the Syrian crisis, as well as on the alleged presence of Al-Qaeda and other Salafi-Jihadi groups in Syria. It also addressed Bakri's support, or lack of thereof, of Hizbullah. Following are the main points of the interview which was published in English: Bakri says that Sunni Muslims in Syria's neighboring countries and all Muslims in general, should unite against the Assad regime, since, according to him, "There is no salvation for the Sunnis in Syria except through jihad for sake of God to topple this oppressive tyrannical regime." To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5677&param=GJN. New Images Of American 'Omar Hammami, Commander In The Somali Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen Organization On January 7, 2012, "Ansar AQAIM," a member of the Ansar Al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF) published two new images of American jihadi 'Omar Hammami, aka Abu Mansour Al-Amriki. The post did not include any information besides the images. This is the second time in the past month that previously unreleased images of Hammami were published on jihadi forums. To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=5676&param=GJN.