Here are quotes from Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Ṭālibān, in a new article from Newsweek titled “The Taliban vs. the Mosque”:
By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor. It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.
We are getting even more messages of support and solidarity on the mosque issue and questions about how to fight back against this outrage [in comparison with the French burqa ban controversy].
We talk about how America tortures with waterboarding, about the cruel confinement of Muslims in wire cages in Guantánamo, about the killing of innocent women and children in air attacks—and now America gives us another gift with its street protests to prevent a mosque from being built in New York. Showing reality always makes the best propaganda.
I expect we will soon be receiving more American Muslims like Faisal Shahzad who are looking for help in how to express their rage.
The more mosques you stop, the more jihadis we will get.