In a video released on Dec. 6, a judge for a sharia court run by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) in Aleppo offered advice and support to fighters in the Sinai Peninsula. “We and you are one … we cooperate to establish the religion of Allah,” the unidentified judge said.
The ISIS judge, who did not reference any specific groups in Egypt, called on the “mujahideen brothers in Sinai” to be patient and recognize that “Allah will not differentiate the borders between us and you, and will not differentiate any nationalities,” according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.
The judge further stated that “jihad is the way to establish the religion of Allah.” “[Y]our brothers are with you … with whatever we can support you with, we will cooperate with you to establish the religion of Allah,” he declared.
The ISIS member went on to accuse some Egyptian Muslims of “abandon[ing] the jihad everywhere, even in your land.” “When you stand in front of Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, what will you say?!,” he asked. With regard to the Egyptian army, the ISIS judge asked how long it would continue to be “a tool in the hands of the tyrants,” and said members of the army should read the Koran “to learn that there is no excuse for you killing the Muslims, no excuse for you in obeying those tyrants.”
Along with the message from the ISIS judge, the new video showed ISIS fighters conducting attacks in Iraq’s Anbar province. “As long as our souls are in our bodies, we will not stop nor get bored of fighting you [apostates and Shiites],” one fighter said.
While the new ISIS video did not mention any groups in the Sinai by name, Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis), the dominant Salafi jihadist group in the Sinai, has used clips from ISIS and former al Qaeda in Iraq figures in its videos. For example, a video released by the group on Dec. 1 featured clips from former al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi and from ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al ‘Adnani al Shami. In late August, the ISIS spokesman called on Egyptians to take up arms and fight the Egyptian army.
Following the release of Ansar Jerusalem’s video in late October about its attempted assassination of Egypt’s Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, a photo circulated on jihadist forums purporting to show Al Nusrah Front fighters in Syria watching the video.
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