by R. Green
Threats and Attacks against Christians in the Middle East
The affair of Camilia Shehata – a Coptic Egyptian woman who allegedly converted to Islam and is now being held against her will by the Coptic church – triggered a wave of incitement and calls for action from jihadists. Prominent Salafi-jihadi clerics issued fatwas sanctioning the use of force to bring about Shehata's release. For example, Abu Basir Al-Tartousi called on the Muslims "to break down the doors of the churches and search them one by one – even if this means you must trample the corpse of the [Coptic patriarch,] the wicked Shenouda... and of the other wicked bishops and priests the abductors of women. This is no crime, Allah willing, but a [religious] duty."[1] A fatwa by Mauritanian cleric Abu Al-Mundhir Al-Shinqiti stated: "In principle, the killing of those [Egyptian] Christians…is permissible…" Gazan sheikh Abu Walid Al-Maqdisi, head of the Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad organization, stated that Christians living in Islamic countries no longer enjoy dhimmi status, i.e., are not entitled to protection and are legitimate targets.
Iraq
The response to this wave of incitement came in the form of the deadly October 31 attack on the Our Lady of the Salvation church in Baghdad, carried out by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated organization Islamic State of Iraq, in which 52 people were killed and dozens were wounded. In a statement it released during the attack, the ISI stated that the operation was a response to the Camilia Shehata affair, and described the Baghdad church as "a corrupt den of polytheism" that has "long been used by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarters for the battle against Islam." The group issued an ultimatum to the Coptic church in Egypt, giving it 48 hours to release Shehata, otherwise the Egyptian Christians and their religious facilities and organizations would become legitimate targets for the mujahideen.
The attack was retroactively sanctioned by Sheikh Nasser Al-Din Al-Baghdadi, a member of the Shari'a Committee of the Salafi-jihadi website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, who ruled it legitimate to target Iraqi Christians because of their "war on Islam and Muslims."
The attack on the church was followed by additional attacks on Christian homes throughout Baghdad. On December 14, a prominent writer on the jihadi forum Shumukh Al-Islam posted a "hit-list" of Iraqi Christian clergymen, and advised the ISI to kill them, or to kidnap them in order to exchange them for the Muslims allegedly held by the Coptic church in Egypt.
Egypt
On December 17, the Global Jihad Media Front released the 37th issue of its e-journal Sawt Al-Jihad, most of which was dedicated to the Camilia Shehata affair and to the issue of the Egyptian Copts. The lead article, by Abu 'Abdallah Anis, portrayed the Copts as agents planted in the heart of the Muslim world by "the global Crusade." According to Anis, they control Egypt's politics and economy and use their hold on its cultural life to steer the youth away from Islam and towards Christianity; they yearn for the day the U.S. conquers Egypt, and plan to assist it in this conquest – whereas the U.S. uses them to weaken the Muslim resistance to its conquest of their lands and to wage psychological warfare against the Muslims. The ultimate goal of the Copts – shared by Christians everywhere – is, says Anis, to steer the Muslims away from their religion; they also collaborate with Israel, and aim to establish an autonomous entity separate from Egypt.
Also in December, the jihadi media company Yakin Center published a list of prominent Copts living in Egypt and abroad, in response to the ISI's demand that the Coptic community pressure its church to release the Muslim women it is holding. The threat implicit in this list is clear.
Threats of Attacks during the Holiday Season
In the West, the most significant and disturbing event of the recent weeks was the December 11 attempted suicide attack in Sweden by Iraqi-born Swedish citizen Taimour 'Abd Al-Wahab Al-Abdaly, who planned to detonate a car-bomb in a Stockholm shopping area during the Christmas rush. It is not clear yet whether Al-Abdaly, who spent the last 10 years in Luton, England acted alone or was part of an organized cell. In a recorded message sent to a local news agency on the day of the event, he made threats against Sweden and other European countries.
A senior counterterrorism officer at the Iraqi Interior Ministry disclosed last week that the ISI was planning to carry out attacks in the U.S., Britain, and Europe during Christmas. This information was revealed by an ISI commander recently arrested by Iraqi security forces.
The idea of Christmas attacks in the West was also discussed by members on jihadi forums. A prominent writer the Shumukh Al-Islam forum, Yaman Mukhadab, advised the mujahideen to strike at America's "soft belly" during the holiday by sabotaging the electric grid. He explained that it was possible to cause massive blackouts by in big cities by hacking into their SCADA [Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition] systems through the Internet. These blackouts would be "a Christmas gift not to be forgotten," he said.
Another idea discussed on the forums was to overwhelm the security services and news agencies in Europe and the U.S. with a flood of false threats about imminent attacks during the holiday season, in order to produce an overall state of confusion among the enemy.
A forum member calling himself "Ayman435" called to bomb Egyptian churches during Christmas, and provided an extensive list of such churches, as well as Coptic churches in the U.S., Britain, France, Sweden, Holland, Australia, and Germany. In addition, he posted an illustrated manual for making homemade bombs, which was previously posted on the forum, to assist in the preparation of "deadly and surprising" attacks.
Another participant on the forum made threats against the West, bragging that "the countdown has begun." He posted a picture of the Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, and of explosive charges, which he called "Christmas presents."
Finally, Islamists are also waging a theological and ideological campaign to persuade young Muslims in Christian countries not to take part in Christmas celebrations. Izharudeen.com, the English-language website of the Syrian-born sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is the former leader of the Islamist Al-Muhajirun organization in Britain, posted an article titled "Christmas – The Path to Hellfire." The author warns Muslims to stay away from the "evil" Christmas celebrations, saying that Islam forbids them because they celebrate the birth of Jesus. The article called to Muslims to, "[p]rotect yourself and your family from Christmas."
R. Green is a research fellow at MEMRI.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment