Jihad ‘mafia’: ISIS draining Al-Qaeda recruits, top clerics complain

Reuters / Stringer

Reuters / Stringer

Al-Qaeda’s organizational structure has “collapsed” due to the rise of Islamic State militants in the Middle East, Al-Qaeda spiritual leaders told the Guardian, adding that this would not have happened under Bin Laden’s rule.

The
Guardian
spoke exclusively to two members of the
Al-Qaeda international terrorist group – Abu Qatada, a Muslim
cleric who was often described as Osama Bin Laden’s spiritual
ambassador in Europe, and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, one of the
world’s leading jihadist scholars.

Al-Qaeda’s structure has “collapsed,” Maqdisi told the
paper, adding that the group “operates solely based on
allegiance. There is no organizational structure. There is [sic]
only communication channels, and loyalty.”

READ MORE: ‘Barbaric propaganda’: Top Al-Qaeda
commander denounces ISIS beheadings

Maqdisi said that both he and Qatada “have been
critical”
of IS militants and the group “hates
that.”
Maqdisi served a five-year term in a Jordanian prison
after being accused of recruiting extremists to Afghanistan. He
was set free in 2014.

(L-R) Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada al-Filistini, Ayman al-Zawahiri (Images from wikipedia.org)

“They are like a mafia group,” said Abu Qatada, born
Omar Mahmoud Othman. “ISIS don’t [sic] respect anyone. They
are ruining the wider jihadi movement and are against the whole
ummah [Arabic word for ‘Muslim nation’].”

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Partners in jihad: ISIS welcomes Boko Haram’s
allegiance

Both clerics say they are particularity outraged by how IS
extremists recruit people and use them against Al-Qaeda.

“ISIS took all our religious works,” said Maqdisi, who
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current head of Al-Qaeda, counts as a
close friend. “They took it from us – it’s all our writings,
they are all our books, our thoughts.”

The scholars say the IS militants’ insolence would never have
been tolerated in Osama Bin Laden’s time.

“No one used to speak against him,” Maqdisi said.
“Bin Laden was a star. He had special charisma.”

READ
MORE: Down the rabbit hole: Bin Laden raid was staged after
extensive Pakistan-US negotiations – report

Zawahiri, who emerged as Al-Qaeda’s operational and strategic
commander in 2009 after Bin Laden’s death, lacked “direct
military or operational control” from the “very beginning,”

Qatada said.

“He [Zawahiri] has become accustomed to operating in this
decentralized way – he is isolated,”
he added.

READ MORE: Top
UK Al-Qaeda cleric Abu Qatada cleared of terror charges and freed
in Jordan

In 2000, Abu Qatada was sentenced to 15 years in prison in
absentia for plotting to carry out terror attacks against
American and Israeli tourists and Western diplomats during
millennium celebrations in Jordan – the so-called “Millennium
plot.”

However, 14 years later, he was released from prison just hours
after a Jordanian court cleared him of all terrorism charges.
Despite that, Abu Qatada won’t be able to return to the UK, the
Home Office said. The radical cleric is under a UN worldwide
travel ban.

The so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was formerly an
affiliate of Al-Qaeda. However, in February 2014, Al-Qaeda
publicly announced they had severed ties with the extremists due
to a disagreement about tactics.

IS militants, who control large parts of Iraq and Syria, launched
a massive PR campaign posting videos of executions on the
internet, as well as other propaganda.

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