Nassar al Awlaki, the father of Anwar, the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ideologue who was involved in operations before he was killed by the US, spoke out against the deaths of his son and grandson and urged Muslims to continue to spread his son’s message that advocated jihad against the West.
Nassar, an influential figure in Yemen, made the statement in a 6-minute, 37-second audio that was released on YouTube by Anjem Choudary, a radical Islamist preacher in Britain who leads the banned group Muslims Against Crusades. [The video can be seen in full above.] A transcript of Nassar’s audiotape was provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.
In the statement, the senior Awlaki did not express remorse for his son’s radical sermons, which advocated that Muslims kill Americans and Westerners, but instead referred to his son reverently. Nassar described Anwar as his “beloved son” and “Imam” who “carried an effective message, a message that was simple and straight-forward.”
“Its [Anwar’s message] target were Muslims in the West,” Nassar said. “They [the US] considered a fluent, convincing Muslim preacher as a threat, so they tried everything to silence him.”
“My son Anwar was intelligent, sharp, eloquent, educated, charismatic, and brave. He had qualities and traits that could have taken him places in this world, but he chose this path and gave it his best, the path of Allah,” Nassar said later in the tape. “It is the job of all of us to spread his knowledge and keep it alive.”
Nassar said the US “assassinated” Anwar while “he was far from any battlefield.” Anwar was killed in a US Predator drone airstrike on Sept. 30 in Yemen’s Al Jawf province, where al Qaeda is known to operate training camps. Anwar is known to have played a role in recruiting and directing terror attacks against the US. [See LWJ report, Awlaki’s emails to terror plotter show operational role, for more information.]
Nassar also denounced the US for killing Anwar’s son, Abdul Rahman, in a Predator strike in Shabwa province in mid-October. The Awlaki family has claimed the 16-year-old Abdul Rahman was not involved in terrorism and was merely in Shabwa to search for his father, who had been killed two weeks earlier. Nassar said that was not an “operational figure” in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Nassar said that his son and grandson “did not die in vain” and that Anwar will live on in his radical sermons.
“Alhamdulillah [Praise be to Allah], Anwar and his son are insha’Allah [Allah willing] alive in jana [Paradise], and Anwar will [Allah willing] continue to be alive by spreading his teachings, sermons, and lectures. It is the precise thing that he lived and died for, it is the [call] to Allah,” he said.
The release of Nassar’s tape coincided with a protest on Thursday outside the US Embassy which was held by Choudary’s supporters in London. Police arrested 20 protesters believed to be members of the banned group, Muslims against Crusades. Two others were arrested for obstruction of justice and “violent disorder,” according to AFP. Choudary’s followers were protesting the use of US airstrikes to target al Qaeda and other terrorist leaders.
Background on Nassar al Awlaki
Nassar al Awlaki, the father of slain al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al Awlaki, is a senior member of a distinguished Yemeni family whose relatives include a prime minister of the country. Nassar currently lives in Yemen, where he has served as the president of the country’s biggest university and also as Yemen’s Agriculture Minister. For several years before and after Anwar’s birth in New Mexico in 1971, Nassar lived in the US, but the family later returned to Yemen. In 2010, The Telegraph described him as “a respected moderate politician and university professor in Yemen.” In early 2010, Nassar told CNN that his son was not “hiding with al Qaeda” but was being protected by his tribe.
Nassar Awlaki made headlines earlier this year when he met with ACLU lawyers in Yemen to help prepare his lawsuit against the US government for targeting his son. The lawsuit was later dismissed. After the deaths of his son and grandson in drone strikes in Yemen, Nassar and his family released a statement saying the US had acted “unjustly and belligerently.” The grandson, Abdul Rahman al Awlaki, was killed along with several others in a drone strike in Yemen on Oct. 14 that targeted a key al Qaeda operative, Ibrahim al Bana. The statement also declared “that “Anwar was never a ‘militant’ ” nor was he “the head of Al Qaeda external operations.” ”
17 Comments
He advocated the murder of innocent people is what the story should read. The story should also read that the USA killed the murderer Awlaki, these people aren’t just terrorist they are,murdering terrorist.
The dad should be arrested too for gloating about his murdering son and calling for his murdeous acts to continue.
Sounds like the old man is trying collect on unpaid subscriptions to his son’s news letter.
Well now we know where we stand. Now we come to realize why there are virtually no extremists in the Muslim communities in the West that are discovered by the community itself. Because they all cover for one another. It’s always the FBI, MI5 and SAPO that discover the plots, through infiltration, not tips from worried community members. Why should they be worried? Their soldiers are wrecking havoc, and they(the communities) are acting as auxiliary support personnel via couriers, providing food+shelter and money, just like in actual combat! When was the last time any of us heard of a lone wolf being captured through a tip from his or her community? The Times Square bomber got caught through CCTV, The Oregon plot and the D.C. Plots got disrupted through FBI agents posing as jihadists. And just like Awlaki’s father whenever a Muslim bent on killing as many as innocent infidels as possible is caught/killed, their communities bray and stomp their feet DEMANDING their release! And calling them innocent. But when the evidence piles up, these same communities are strangely silent? Why? Well because they know their operational security has been compromised. Shouldn’t it be a bit obvious by now? The Muslim communities in the West if not complicit in plots at the very least turn a blind eye to them. What kind of citizenship is that? A fake Taqiyya-ist one. A prime example of taqiyya tactics would be the Mosque in Hamburg that was still operational until 2010. They were at the epicenter of the 2010 European plot, and yet the clerics were adamant that the young boys were simply misunderstood! Like hell they were. Going to North Waziristan is not a simple misunderstanding. The Clerics were covering for all the operatives not caught yet. The same everywhere else. Whenever one is caught, they community swears by their innocence(if they feel the case against them is not strong) and/or claim they hardly knew them(if the evidence is insurmountable). Taqiyya at work ladies and gentlemen. Al-Qaeda did not invent it, Islam did.
I personally think he should be arrested for wanting his son’s speeches to continue, and before he starts himself. It seems like, for Anwar Al-Awalki, the apple didn’t fall to far from the tree!
Seems that since we found his son, this clown wouldn’t be that hard to find also.
Mr. Roggio,
Please forgive me if I’m making a mistake, but at no point that I heard did he deny that Anwar was operational in AQAP. At RT 3:11 he denies that his 16yr old grandson was an operational member of AQAP.
It is clear even to him I think that Anwar was AQAP linked.
Thanks.
The correct description is “serial massmurderers”, people who support them should be charged with their crimes.
D.B., you are correct, Nassar said Abdul Rahman was not an “operational figure,” not Anwar. Nassar just said that Anwar was “far from any battlefield.” I’ve corrected the text to reflect that, thank you of the catch.
Such comments are SEDITION.
The Department of Justice should step forward.
@Andy —
The example you are looking for is Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber. He was turned in by his father. We unfortunately mishandled the tip.
It is called sedition plain and simple. It should be prosecuted as such.
“Nassar said the US “assassinated” Anwar while “he was far from any battlefield.”
So what qualifies as a “battlefield” in Nassar’s mind?
Nassar knows exactly what his son was teaching and what targets Muslims were supposed to strike according to Anwar.
Anwar’s last article was supposed to come out later this year and focused on the legitimacy of killing the infidel civilians of countries that “are at war with the Muslims”.
Pity that Nassar, like all of us, can’t see how Anwar would have legalized killing civilians.
But then again, it’s not about the plethora of evidence that proves Anwar was a self-justifying supporter of killing civilians, advising youngsters to make bombs in mama’s kitchen.
It’s about Nassar’s impotence of character. He can’t accept the fecal truth. So he smears it with honey. Doesn’t change a thing.
So, if Nassar thinks his son’s teachings are great, and his son says its ok to kill civilians, how can he complain that his son was “far from any battlefield”, i.e a civilian? Aren’t the infidels he wants to kill ALSO far from any battlefield?
@David, yes that is one case where the community or family did something to stop an atrocity, but it’s almost an anomaly. A fluke. I thank that young Nigerian’s father for what he did, even if our intelligence agencies botched the data. But 9 times out of 10 you will get the reaction I described. Either their sons/daughters are innocent, or the police are framing them because of Islamophobia or the parents/community “knew nothing” or are in “total shock” about their sons/daughters intentions to kill innocent people. And if that happens almost every time, then I got to ask, What kind of parenting are they practicing?
Andy, you’re missing out on the fact that the informants who work with FBI, NYPD or with CIA and the US military overseas are almost all Muslims.
The release of Nassar’s tape coincided with a protest on Thursday outside the US Embassy which was held by Choudary’s supporters in London…
London is currently and has been the west’s radical Islamist, sewer for the past 3 decades. The British have never been questioned about this staggering failure. The government has no will but sound smart making complaints about PAK AFGAN issues. They spend taxpayer money on welfare on individuals the vast majority of whom hold the same Islamist ideology (Kalifite BS) that is wrecking Pakistan, Afghanistan, and any where else stupid enough to host them. What about England? When are the brits going to start policing up their own so called citizens within their own borders? The UK is not just some weak underbelly place in Europe, how much longer will that government ignore the damage it does to other parts of the world? Why has everyone been so quiet to point it out?
@ Bing, yes they are informers, but why? Because they get paid. Others are catch and release. They are caught by the authorities and enter a plea agreement to turn informant. Organized Crime has had the same issue. Their foot soldiers get caught and some are not willing to roll over for their mob bosses, so they turn informant. The same goes here. Some do it for money,in other words Muslims in name only, no Islamist would work with the Kafir for worldly gain, especially since they think they will get paradise if they are good and pious. Others do it because they are compelled to do so. But when it comes to voluntary information provided by the community in general, you will see a vast dearth in such cooperation, outside of one time anomalies. Why is that? It’s certainly true that some might genuinely not know of the extremists living in their midst, but I find it highly improbable that every single person does not know. A good deal do know and keep mum because they sympathize with them. A lot more than the dhimmi media would like us to believe.