Kavkaz Center reports the Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Dokku (Abu Usman) Umarov named Emir Aslambek as his successor

Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Dokku Abu Usman has officially announced the appointment as his deputy (naib) and future successor, case of his death, the commander of the Eastern Front of the Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate Emir Aslambek (Aslambek Vadalov).
In a special message sent to commanders and governors of the provinces of the Caucasus Emirate, Dokku Abu Usman indicated that he took this decision after careful consideration, in connection with the importance of succession of power and the need to be ready for any situation.
Emir of the Caucasus Emirate urged Mujahideen to accept his choice and emphasized that in case of his death, commanders of the Mujahideen and governors of provinces of the Caucasus Emirate should pledge bayat (oath) to Emir Aslambek and obey him as long as long as Emir Aslambek obeys Sharia of Allah and adheres to Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Emir of CE Dokku Abu Usman also appointed as Wali (governor) of Province Nokhchicho (AKA Chechnya) of the Caucasus Emirate the deputy commander of the Eastern Front of the Armed forces of the Caucasus Emirate Hussein Gakayev (Emir Mansur).
Kavkaz Center

Al-Andalus Media presents a new video from al-Qā’idah in the Islamic Maghreb: "The expedition of Al-Mansura"

NOTE: al-Qā’idah in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), based in Algeria, but conducts activities in other countries such as Mali, Mauritania and Morocco, has released a new propaganda video, which according to AbuMandM, who has watched the video already, alledges that AQIM has infiltrated the Algerian security services.


New statement from the Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan: "Concerning Kabul Conference"

Sha’ban 08, 1431 A.H, Wednesday, July 21, 2010
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
American and its allies with the representatives from a number of other courtiers have gathered apparently to launch Kabul conference, the latest in succession of futile efforts, the ones ended into a failure as in the past, in order to hand over the military and administrative control of the country to the coming surrogate administration and review and monitor the past assistance evaluation.
Despite the fact that the US forces have deployed 1200 troops into the area to maintain a one-day security measure, while Kabul has been kept under constant observation by both aerial and ground forces for the past few days, barring the people from entering and leaving Kabul, Mujahideen targeted Kabul international airport which turned the moments of peace and safety of the US invaders into disaster and chaos and made the participants of the conference scared to death, has proved a categorical manifestation of Mujahideen’s military upper hand .
The International Community, which is to launch Kabul conference in a couple of days under the name of handover of the economic and administrative control to the stooge regime, has announced that 4.2 billion worth of drugs and other stuff have been smuggled out of the country via air over the last three years.
On the other hand, country’s security measure from military aspect, apart from financial corruption and malpractice, is so unreliable and unstable that the head of the country, in spite of the existence of 150000 occupation troops in the country, is unable to travel by land, he is to fly from one place to another into Kabul city, even for shorter distances such as Intercontinental Hotel in the heart of Kabul city.
With all the shortcomings and inabilities, the Kabul puppet and humiliated regime, by the order of America, is to be imposed on the Afghan masses, while the International Community, by its own admission, has declared the handover of the economic control to the failed, corrupt and disgraceful regime.
Kabul so-called and futile conference has proved that the America has lost the initiatives and is unable to resolve Afghanistan issue, whatever actions are taken in this regard have already been doomed to a failure.
As a matter of fact, the strategy being worked out by America and the actions taken by it are only to prolong war in Afghanistan and ensure the stay of the foreign invaders in Afghanistan; which is what the Afghan Islam-loving masses will never compromise on and will continue to much strongly resist against.
It is evident from the vague and terrible agenda of the conference in a sense that the America and the International Community intend to pull out of Afghanistan and pass the back, pinning all the coming destructions, humiliation and defeat on Kabul puppet regime.
How can a five-hour long stressful conference in Kabul whose some of the foreign participants, under the death threat, disembarked in Kazakhstan, while the others took refuge in Bagram airbase who were flown back into Kabul city, come up with succinct and rational solution to the financial, economical, administrative and security problems; which have not been resolved by the US invaders over the past 10 years
In fact, by making such futile efforts as holding Kabul conference, America wants to distract the global attention from its shameful defeat in Afghanistan, not to put an end to the agony and tragedy of the people in Afghanistan.
Thus, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as it has always done, regards the US invaders and their allies the only and main cause of the distraction, chaos, disorder and misfortune in Afghanistan; and considers the key solution to all this the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of all the occupation forces from Afghanistan.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is aware of the decisions made in the Kabul conference and the America’s prolongation of the war and its chaotic strategy, therefore call on the world not to support and rubberstamp its plans and decisions blindly but offer logical solution to help resolve the issue which may be satisfactory for both Afghan masses and the foreigners.
The Islamic Emirate will, by the virtue of Allah’s bounty and his help and in close collaboration with honor-loving Afghans, strive for the setup of the independent Islamic system; nevertheless, any honest and selfless service offered in this respect may be welcomed.
The Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan

Articles of the Week – 7/10-7/16

Saturday July 10:
“Is Nothing Sacred in the Islamic Republic of Iran?” – Naghmeh Sohrabi, The Crown Center for Middle East Studieshttps://bit.ly/crspht
“We Must Not Forget about Yemen” – Chris Harnisch, The National Reviewhttps://bit.ly/d5nWe6
Sunday July 11:
“Counting al Qaeda- Leon Panetta’s numbers aren’t to be trusted” – Bill Roggio & Daveed Gatenstein-Ross, The Weekly Standardhttps://bit.ly/a1LzIz
“Full AQAP Inspire Issue Posted Online” – J.M. Berger, IntelWire: https://bit.ly/cLcvhm
Monday July 12:
“Inspire Magazine, This Time it’s for real” – Aaron Weisburd, The Internet Haganah: https://bit.ly/czTlsk
“The Homegrown Terror Threat” – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, inFocushttps://bit.ly/cvKbQA
“How Al-Qaeda Prepares Attacks Against the West: What the July 7-8 Rollup Revealed – Charlie Szrom, Critical Threats Projecthttps://bit.ly/aHmU8Q
Tuesday July 13:
“Al Qaeda in Norway”  – B. Raman, International Terrorism Monitorhttps://bit.ly/b5UfkP
“Thoughts on the attacks in Uganda” – Leah Farrall, All Things Counterterrorismhttps://bit.ly/agwfgc
“Expanding the Campaign of Violence: al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s English-Language Magazine” – Katherine Zimmerman, Critical Threats Projecthttps://bit.ly/9Vbpf9
“Why Does al-Qaeda have a problem with Norway?” – Thomas Hegghammer & Dominic Tierney, The Atlantichttps://bit.ly/cIsMgB
“What’s the Minbar doing in Moscow? (Part 3)” – Joas Wagemakers, Jihadicahttps://bit.ly/dBWYva
“Lions, SalafiMedia.Com, Oh My…” – Jarret Brachman: https://bit.ly/ckJvML
Exclusive Interview with Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī of Revolution Muslim – The al-Maktabah Bloghttps://bit.ly/9DyYAe
“Democracy on Hold in Yemen” – Ginny Hill, Arab Reform Bulletinhttps://bit.ly/ccWz4k
Wednesday July 14:
“Is al-Qaeda Racist?” – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, LWJ’s Threat Matrix Blog: https://bit.ly/9J1Xgx
Interview with the wife of Abu Mus’ab al-Suri: https://bit.ly/ccmxCh
“Al Shabaab’s First International Strike: Analysis of the July 11 Uganda Bombings” – Chris Harnisch, Critical Threats Project: https://bit.ly/agnurS
“Why We Should Care About Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United States” – Madeleine Gruen, Investigative Project on Terrorismhttps://bit.ly/apieB5
“Al Shabaab’s Grim Milestone In Uganda” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, FOX News: https://bit.ly/av5up7
Thursday July 15:
New issue of CTC Sentinel released: https://bit.ly/b8yLPF
Friday July 16:
This week in the Legal War on Terror – 7/10-7/16 – Andrew Lebovich, Foreign Policy: https://bit.ly/cq3RNC

Al-Katāayb Foundation for Media Productions presents statement from Ḥarakat al-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn “Regarding the Blessed Kampala operations”

UPDATE 2: An individual from the forums has translated Shaykh Mukhtar Abū az-Zubayr message:

“And those who, when great wrong afflicts them, defend themselves” Sura Alshura/39
Allah most Gracious And High described the believers that they are against injustice and avengers from the ones who assaults them.
The so called “AMISOM” in Mogadishu committed bloody massacres worst than ones committed by their predecessors the Ethiopians and Americans. The cannons are constantly targeting the civilians, the tanks leveled to the ground the buildings of Mogadishu, and the machine guns are targeting civilian transportation, all this has become a habit known by the “AMISOM”.
We say to Islamic Ummah in general, and in particular to the people of Mogadishu: inshallah, we will revenge all who were martyred by the AMISOM guns, and what happened in Kampala is only the beginning.
Secondly, we congratulate the brigade of Shaheed Salih Alnabhan who were blessed by execution of the operation in Mogadishu, and we say to them: “These faces are of success, and may Allah reward you on behave of us, and Islam and Muslims.
And finally, we say a message to Mosifini, the leader of the massacres committed against our people:
“Poetry in Swahili”

UPDATE: al-Shabāb released an audio recording of its leader, Shaykh Mukhtar Abū az-Zubayr, regarding the recent bombings in Uganda. Here is a link to the audio in Arabic and Swahili: https://bit.ly/aZdcEG. Here are some highlights of the audio message courtesy of Evan Kohlmann:

“We would like to congratulate the Martyr Saleh Nabhan Brigade which graciously fulfilled the mission [in Kampala].”
“I say to the Ugandan president that what has happened in Kampala was only the beginning. Our revenge will continue.”

Also, check out Michael Scheuer’s, former CIA analyst, thoughts on the al-Shabāb bombings over at his website Non-Intervention.

NOTE: For more on the al-Shabāb bombings in Uganda, see the following analyses: Leah Farrall of All Things Counterterrorism (https://bit.ly/agwfgc), Christopher Harnisch of AEI’s Critical Threats Project (https://bit.ly/agnurS) and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (https://bit.ly/av5up7). Due to al-Shabāb password-protecting the document, I cannot upload it to Scribd, though, there is a safe PDF file you can download below. The statement is in English.


Statement Regarding the Blessed Kampala operations

Exclusive Interview with Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī of Revolution Muslim

UPDATE: It has been reported today, July 21, that Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī was arrested on July 10. For more on the arrest see the Washington Post story. Here is a brief excerpt:

[He] was stopped July 10 after he was placed on the no-fly list and denied aboard a commercial flight from New York City to Uganda, U.S. authorities said.
Chesser allegedly told agents that he twice attempted to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab, an extremist Islamic insurgency group that has tried to topple Somalia’s weak internationally backed government and that the State Department designated as a terrorist group in February 2008.


NOTE: This interview came about as a result of the dialogue between IbnSiqilli (Christopher Anzalone, graduate student at Indiana University) and Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī in the comments section of an earlier post about Taqī ad-Dīn Ibn Taymīyyah, one of the most prominent and respected figures in the broad sweep of Islamic intellectual history. After a while, IbnSiqilli, who maintains the blog Views from the Occident, and I thought it would be worthwhile to conduct an interview with Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī on a variety of topics. Therefore, I would like to thank IbnSiqilli and Dr. Jytte Klausen, who served on my master’s thesis defense committee at Brandeis University, for contributing some of the questions I asked Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī. For those who do not know, Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī was the individual who caused much of the controversy surrounding South Park’s 200th episode this past spring dealing with Muhammad and censorship. This interview was originally conducted through e-mail on June 29. I hope you enjoy the interview below and comments are welcomed!

Click here for a safe PDF copy of the interview: Interview with Abū Talḥah al-Amrīkī

Sixth issue of the Turkestan Islamic Party's magazine "Ṣawt Al-Islām" released

NOTE: According to the NEFA Foundation, the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP; Ḥizb al-Islāmī al-Turkistānī):

is a terrorist organization primarily based in Waziristan and elsewhere in the North West Frontier of Pakistan. The TIP is composed of Uighur Muslims from western regions of China – who have sworn to wage war against the Chinese government and have carried out scattered shooting and bombing attacks. It is a splinter faction of an organization known as East Turkestan Islamic Movement



Sawt Al-Islam- The 6th issue of the Turkestan Islamic Party magazine

New essay from Ḥizb ut-Taḥrīr: "Who will fill the government posts in a future Khilāfah and from where in society will they be selected from?"

NOTE: Ḥizb ut-Taḥrīr (The Party of Liberation) is a Sunni pan-Islamist movement whose goal is to unite the Muslim ummah (community) and reinstate the Caliphate (al-khilāfah). Once the Caliphate is reinstated, the government would be ruled by Islamic law (sharī’ah) with the Caliph (khalīfah) being the head of state elected by a shūrā (consultation) council. Ḥizb ut-Taḥrīr was founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by Taqī ad-Dīn al-Nabhānī who was an Islamic scholar (‘ālim). Currently, Ḥizb ut-Taḥrīr is located in more than forty countries and is especially active in the United Kingdom and maintains a branch in the United States. The essay is unedited below.

In answer to this there are two factors that need to be considered for someone to be suitable for a ruling position in the Khilafah – capability and strength of ideology.
Capability to Rule
Capability in carrying out the task of ruling is an explicit shar’i (Iegal) condition for the Khaleefah, Assistants (mu’awinoon) and the governors (wulah).
This ruling capability is manifested in certain traits that will enable the person to fulfil the responsibilities of office and manage the affairs of state. These traits are strength of personality, consciousness of Allah (taqwa), kindness and that he should not be one who causes aversion.
1. Strength of personality – The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم stipulated that the ruler must be strong and that the weak person is not suitable to become a ruler.
Muslim narrated from Abu Dharr who said: “I said: O Messenger of Allah, will you not appoint me as a governor/ruler? He صلى الله عليه وسلم struck my shoulder with his hand then said: “O Abu Dharr, you are weak and it is a trust (amanah). On the Day of Judgement it will be a disgrace and regret except for the one who took it by its right and fulfilled his duty in it.”
Strength of personality means the intellectual and emotional strength. It is necessary that this mentality be the ruling mentality by which he understands matters and relationships, and that his emotional disposition (nafsiyya) is that of a ruler who understands he is a ruler so his inclinations are of a leader.
2. Consciousness of Allah (taqwa) – Since the personality trait of strength has within it the potential of domination there is an obvious need for the ruler to have an attribute which protects him from the evil of domination. It is therefore necessary that he has the attribute of taqwa in taking care of the Ummah.
Muslim and Ahmad from Sulayman bin Buraydah from his father: “Whenever the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم would appoint an Amir over an army or expedition, he would command him with taqwa with himself and to be good to those Muslims who are with him.”
The ruler, if he is conscious of Allah and fears Him, and accounts himself in his own soul secretly and openly, then this would prevent him from tyranny in the first instance.
3. Kindness – Taqwa alone would not prevent the Khaleefah from harshness and severity since in his taking account of Allah he would restrict himself to His commands and prohibitions. And since he is a ruler, it is natural in his position to be severe and hard, and because of this the Lawgiver (Ash-Shari’) commanded him to be friendly and not to be hostile to the citizens.
From Aisha who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم saying in his house of mine: “O Allah, whoever is appointed over any matter of my Ummah and is hostile to them, then be hostile to him! And whoever is appointed over any matter of my Ummah and is friendly to them, then be friendly to him!”[Muslim]
4. Doesn’t cause aversion – He also commanded to be one who gives glad tidings not one who repels or turns people away.
From Abu Musa who said: When the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم sent one of his companions in some of his affairs, he would say to him: “Give glad tidings and do not repel people, be easy and do not be hard (to the people).” [Muslim]
Strength of Ideology
The Khilafah is an ideological Islamic State where the Islamic aqeeda (belief) is the basis of the state, its institutions, systems and societal relationships. The Khilafah’s strength will depend directly on the strength of the ideology within the state. This means those in ruling positions must be of those who will work in protecting, implementing and propagating the Islamic ideology so the state remains strong and becomes a leading nation in the world.
This means those in ruling positions must be Muslim. This is because the Shari’a (Islamic law) has restricted ruling positions to those who believe in the ideology of the state i.e. Islam. This is no different to any ideological state within the world today. America or Western Europe for example would never accept a Muslim or Communist as President or Prime Minister. The fact that during Obama’s Presidential election campaign he was forced to distance himself from any hint of being a ‘secret Muslim’, such as removing two Muslim women in headscarfs from standing behind him in a speech is clear evidence of this.
Muhammad Asad in his book ‘The Principles of State and Government in Islam,’ writes on this point.
“One cannot escape the fact that no non-Muslim citizen – however great his personal integrity and his loyalty to the state – could, on psychological grounds, ever be supposed to work wholeheartedly for the ideological objectives of Islam; nor, in fairness, could such a demand be made of him. On the other hand, no ideological organization (whether based on religious or other doctrines) can afford to entrust the direction of its affairs to persons not professing its ideology. Is it, for instance, conceivable that a non-Communist could be given a political key position – not to speak of supreme leadership of the state – in Soviet Russia? Obviously not, and logically so: for as long as communism supplies the ideological basis of the state, only persons who identify themselves unreservedly with its aims can be relied upon to translate those aims into terms of administrative policy.”
Those in ruling positions must also be just (‘adl) and it is forbidden for them to be transgressors of the ideology (fasiq). The Shari’a has made justice a condition for the witness.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:
وَأَشْهِدُوا ذَوَيْ عَدْلٍ مِنْكُمْ
“Call two just witnesses from amongst you.” [At-Talaq, 65:2]
Since the Khaleefah, Assistants and Governors rule over witnesses, by greater reason (Bab Awla) they must also be just (‘adl).
Having established the characteristics of those suitable for taking up ruling positions within the Khilafah the next question is where in the state would we find such capable people?
Selection of Rulers during the Umayyad and Abbasid Khilafah
After the period of the Rightly Guided Khaleefahs the rulers in the Khilafah were on the whole selected based on family ties where the Khaleefah would choose the next Khaleefah from his family. This led to the creation of ruling dynasties in the form of the Umayyads, Abbasids and later the Ottomans. The executive branch of the Khilafah started to resemble a monarchy, a period to which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم referred to in the hadith narrated by Ahmed as a ‘biting kingship’.
Despite the misapplication of appointing rulers in the executive branch, the Islamic State was still a Khilafah, with the legislative and judicial branches held by the ulema (scholarly) class who ensured the shari’a was always implemented by the executive. Conflict between the ulema and executive always existed and ensured the independence of the judicial and legislative branches of government. This conflict came to a head during the inquisition (mihna) of Abbasid Khaleefah al-Ma’mun where Ahmed bin Hanbal refused to concede the Islamic position that the Qur’an was not created in favour of al-Ma’mun’s deviant view that the Qur’an was created. Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi’i, Imam Malik, Imam Nawawi and Ibn Taymiyyah all faced persecution during their times for accounting the rulers and ensuring shari’a was always implemented by the executive.
One of the benefits cited for a monarchy is the clear line of succession for future rulers of the Kingdom. Historically, this was seen as providing a stable system that prevents a power vacuum after the King dies. When Mu’awiyah was Khaleefah he was the first to introduce the concept of hereditary bay’ah (pledge of allegiance) where the Khaleefah would nominate his son or other close relative to succeed him. In Mu’awiyah’s case he nominated his son Yazeed and took bay’ah for him before he died. The first to convince Mu’awiyah of such an idea was Al-Mughirah ibn Shu’bah who was Mu’awiyah’s governor in Basrah. He visited Mu’awiyah in Ash-Sham and said, “O Leader of the Believers! You are aware of what this Ummah faced of disorder (fitnah) and difference, and death is due on you; and I am afraid when it comes to you what had happened after the murder of Uthman will happen to the people. So assign to the people an outstanding person so that they take refuge in him,