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GSPC releases al-Qaeda talking points
The Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) distributed in late-January 2006 to jihadist forums the sixth issue of “Al-Jama’a,” a periodic magazine devoted to issues of the Algerian jihad. This issue, 36-pages in length and commemorating the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, contains articles contrasting the faith and resolve of the mujahideen vis-à-vis the Muslim people in general, and “renegade rulers” in particular; congratulating the mujahideen in Iraq; disparaging Algerian President Abd al-Aziz Bouteflika and Algerian press for fabricating and aggrandizing claims of victory against Algerian mujahideen; and a vivid and lengthy description of a battle between fourteen mujahideen and Algerian authorities in the Sahara desert, near a village called Hajira, during the month of Ramadan.

An editorial opening the magazine lauds the mujahideen in Iraq for their “victories… accompanied by the beginning of the countdown for the American cowboy,” and argues that jihad is the only “language” understood by the enemy and should be taken into account by the Muslim nation. This is followed by a piece titled, “Between Two Festival,” by Salah Abu Muhammad, that draws a dichotomy between those Muslims who are concerned more about materialistic and ostensibly Western values during Eid al-Adha, and the mujahideen in the “cold mountains” who would rather care about jihad. The article states: “How will they slaughter, during the days of this blessed festival, a herd of renegades? If only their swords could do their work on crusading or Jewish targets! Or at least: how can they blow up a bomb?” In the same vein, the article, “Patience Increases Victory,” serves to explain that only those Muslims who embrace patience and jihad will attain Paradise.

Another section of the magazine reports current events in the Islamic world community, including the speech by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri in which he “demanded that the idiot Bush confess his defeat at the hands of the Mujahideen,” mujahideen operations in Iraq allegedly rendering 40,000 Americans killed, collaborations between the Algerian government and the “enemies of the Ummah,” and arrest campaigns in Morocco, which the GSPC interprets: “It seems that exposing ‘terrorist’ cells has become a preferred hobby carried out by this collaborating regime in order to prove to its Jewish and Christian masters that is a loyal dog of theirs”. This section also elaborates upon the “impression” of Bouteflika’s fading on the reconciliation initiative. The Algerian newspapers allegedly collaborating with the Algerian president are also thrashed in the article, “Hired Newspapers and Imprisoned Facts,” written by Abu Abdullah Ahmad, in which he argues that the publications condemned the purported maltreatment of Muslims in Iraq by American soldiers, yet do not write of the maltreatment of Algerian mujahideen. They also question why the mujahideen have not been interviewed to present their views.

Other myriad articles express condolences for the death of Abu Omar al-Seif, a religious leader and purported al-Qaeda leader in the Chechen jihad, describe operations executed by the GSPC, and criticize a partnership between Algeria and the European Union, believing that the EU seeks to use Algeria as a cultural foothold to “rebuild the geopolitical map in the Islam world”.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=143571