NEW YORK: (The News) Amid growing concerns in the ranks of al-Qaeda about the fate of their fugitive ameer Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, who has strangely failed to give any reaction to Mullah Mohammad Omar\u2019s death, three international branches of al-Qaeda have issued a joint eulogy for the deceased Afghan Taliban ameer while commemorating his jehadi career. However, weirdly enough, Dr Zawahiri remains missing from the scene since he has neither issued any such statement nor the three al-Qaeda branches have mentioned his name in their joint eulogy.<\/p>\n
The three al-Qaeda-affiliates, which have issued the joint eulogy include al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Nusra Front (al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria). The joint statement has applauded Mulla Omar\u2019s decision to harbor Osama bin Laden against all odds, noting that he refused to bow to pressure from the United States and the international community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMullah Omar had reached the pinnacle on the day when he refused to turn over Sheikh Osam bin Laden and a small group of the immigrants\u201d, said the statement while quoting Mulla Omar: \u201cVerily, the issue of Osama is no longer the issue of an individual, but it is an issue of the glory of Islam.\u201d The three al-Qaeda branches neither mentioned Zawahiri in their statement nor Mulla Omar\u2019s successor, Mulla Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, which is quite meaningful because he is not only the new Taliban ameer but has also been made the \u201cAmeer of the Faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to The Long War Journal, the US-based web newspaper, which has released the joint eulogy of the three al-Qaeda branches, their silence is not altogether surprising. It seems that keeping in view the ongoing controversy over the appointment of Omar\u2019s successor [especially after his succession was rejected by Omar\u2019s son Mulla Yaqoob], the al-Qaeda branches have decided to remain silent on the issue of succession for the time being and wait till the dust settles. Another strange thing is that besides Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda in the India Sub-continent (AQIS) has also failed to issue any statement about Mulla Omar\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The launching of the South Asia chapter of al-Qaeda headed by a Pakistani commander, Asim Umar, was announced by Zawahiri on the 13th anniversary of the 9\/11 terror attacks in September 2014. While making the announcement in a 55-minute video, Zawahiri said the formation of the South Asia branch of al-Qaeda would spread Islamic rule and raise the flag of jehad across the Indian Subcontinent. And that was Zawahiri\u2019s last message, after which he has not been seen or heard of for almost a year now.<\/p>\n
Dr Zawahiri\u2019s conspicuous absence from the jehadi horizons is giving rise to rumours in the militant circles about his fate, especially after his failure to give his usual reaction over some key developments, including the demise of Mulla Omar who was his ameer as well. Before disappearing from the scene, Zawahiri repeatedly gave an impression in his audio and video messages if Mulla Omar was still alive and well.<\/p>\n
In fact, he made Omar\u2019s role a central pillar of its response to Abu Bakar Baghdadi-led Daesh or IS\u2019s ideological challenge whose followers will excitedly seize on Omar\u2019s death to advance their own cause. In February 2014, Zawahiri had disowned Baghdadi and his Islamic State, which claims to rule as a caliphate over large portions of Iraq and Syria. Ever since then, Baghdadi\u2019s ISIS has competed with al-Qaeda for supremacy on the jehadi horizons. Baghdadi says he is the Caliph, the \u201cAmeer of the Believers,\u201d and he therefore demands the loyalty of all other jehadis, including al-Qaeda\u2019s men. On the other hand, Zawahiri responded to Baghdadi\u2019s power play by arguing that Mullah Omar was the rightful \u201cAmeer of the Believers.\u201d Therefore, it seems strange that Ayman Zawahiri has not failed to react to Mullah Omar\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
On their part, in the jointly issued eulogy, the three al-Qaeda branches have praised Omar\u2019s leadership, saying: \u201cHe unified the mujahid Afghan Muslim people under the banner of the Taliban. Omar honored the immigrants and did not forget their favour, turning Afghanistan into a house of immigration and jehad, and a school from which lions and thirsty heroes graduated.\u201d It was actually Mulla Omar\u2019s decision to continue to provide bin Laden safe haven after the 9\/11 attacks earned him al-Qaeda\u2019s enduring loyalty. But another harsh fact is that the mysterious death of Mullah Omar has created a significant issue for al-Qaeda that used to paint him as the legitimate alternative to Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi as the \u201cAmeer of the Believers.\u201d But now that the Taliban have confirmed Omar\u2019s death, al-Qaeda does not have an obvious substitute to contrast with Baghdadi. The claim that Omar died as early as April 2013 also hurts al-Qaeda\u2019s cause, because it means that Zawahiri reaffirmed his organisation\u2019s allegiance to the Taliban leader long after he had passed away.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.thenews.com.pk\/Todays-News-2-333140-Al-Qaeda-lauds-Mulla-Omar-but-Zawahiri-keeps-mum<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK: (The News) Amid growing concerns in the ranks of al-Qaeda about the fate of their fugitive ameer Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, who has strangely failed to give any reaction to Mullah Mohammad Omar\u2019s death, three international branches of al-Qaeda have issued a joint eulogy for the deceased Afghan Taliban ameer while commemorating his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-stories-articles-by-amir-mir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amirmir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}