[Daily Caller] An audio recording surfaced online Thursday purporting to be the voice of Islamic State's self-styled caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, urging Muslims worldwide to join the jihadi group.Baghdadi's face has not appeared in any IS media since July 2014, when the group conquered the major Iraqi city of Mosul. His last audio message was released in November.
The message, whose title is translated as "March Forth Whether Light or Heavy," relies heavily on Quranic passages and arcane myths about the end of the world. The leader uses them to argue that "there is no excuse for any Muslim who is capable of performing hijrah [immigration] to the Islamic State, or capable of carrying a weapon where he is." The English translation used here was released simultaneously by official Islamic State channels.