Al-Qaida: ISIS divides Muslims instead of targeting Jews and Christians
In response to a recent ISIS statement stating the illegitimacy of all other jihadi groups, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb released a joint video statement on Monday denouncing the group that controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq, The Middle East Media Research Institute has reported.
In his statement rejecting other groups, ISIS Spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani threatened to kill anyone who actively refused to accept its authority and threatened dissenters with a “head-splitting bullet or a sharp knife on [their] necks,” MEMRI reported.
In a video released on the two al-Qaida groups’ Twitter accounts, AQAP official Khaled Batarfi read a statement reiterating their rejection of Islamic State as the legitimate caliphate.
“We repeat what has already been mentioned by Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri [al-Qaida’s leader] and others among the scholars and leaders of the Ummah [the Muslim nation]… We do not acknowledge this caliphate as legitimate, nor do we deem it legitimate to give it an oath of loyalty [bay’a], nor do we see it to be [based] on the noble Prophetic manhaj [methodology]. Rather, some of its authority (power) was gained by coercion, force, shedding blood and pronouncing takfir upon Muslims. Their authority was not gained through shoura [consultation] nor mutual consent,” the al-Qaida spokesman Batafari said.
The statement also criticizes ISIS for ignoring the Palestinian issue and argues that ISIS has not promoted unity among jihadi factions in light of the Russian and American campaigns in Syria and instead has chosen to declare war on fellow Muslims.
“Instead of directing their fight towards the enemies of the Ummah, and instead of directing their arrows towards the Jews and Christians, they choose to direct their arrows towards the chests of Muslims,” the joint al-Qaida statement charged.
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