Sheik Kamel Zarouq, a member of Ansar al Sharia Tunisia, gave an address which was posted online on April 30. MEMRI has posted parts of the video as well as a transcript of excerpts from the video. You can also view the video on YouTube.
Zarouq’s talk is consistent with much of Ansar al Sharia Tunisia’s propaganda in that he explicitly endorses global jihad.
“I would like to declare loud and clear that the Al Nusra Front, Ansar Al Sharia, Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq, and the mujahideen in Somalia, in Mali, and in Algeria – we all stand united against the enemies,” Zarouq says.
The Al Nusra Front is al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq is al Qaeda in Iraq’s political front. The mujahideen in Somalia are led by Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate. In Mali, the mujahideen are led by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which also operates inside Algeria. And al Qaeda is, well, al Qaeda.
Another excerpt from MEMRI’s transcript of Zarouq’s talk reads: “Our goal is to support the Islamic nation, to support our religion, to elevate the shari’a, and to spread the law of Muhammad. Our goal is to pull the nations out of darkness and into light. Our goal is to instate the shari’a, and regain Andalusia and Jerusalem.”
Zarouq quotes the Prophet Muhammad as saying, “Rome shall be conquered.” To which he adds: “Rome will be conquered in our days.”
Finally, MEMRI produced this quote from Zarouq: “This is the age of the Muslims. Gone are the days of secularists and of democracy. We are looking down upon them. We are looking down upon them from above. They are beneath us.”
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13 Comments
“we all stand united against the enemies,” Zarouq says.” Now for the real test, is he willing to stand at a location where he can be hit by a Hellfire?
And Rome says:
Delenda est Carthago.
this would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious
What is it these guys really want ?
Do they seriously think the Western world is going to let “Rome will be conquered in our days.” or anytime in the future..
A funny thing happened as mohamud was wandering through Northern Italy with a sword and a camel..or a Toyota with machine guns on the back..
Their shear determination worries me, maby the Western marketing machine could pander and convince them you can only get to paradise if you go there alone..
Not to mention; no-one remembers the martyers from yesterday let alone the ones that Mohamud said would be famous forever.
I hope this madman will wake up Europe, I have no Italian contacts to mail this too. Italians visit my site. This guy going for Rome! The US Europe Russia needs to take these crazy guys seriously, look what happened in WWII, nobody saw Hitler coming!
Big guy with a mike. Is he going to land his jihadis at Anzio? Martyr paratroop brigade cutting off Gibraltar?
He’s destined to kill a lot of Muslims.
@Mike Merlo: Though I bristle at many of your hyper-political pronouncements, you are right on this score. @Stephen: KSM told interrogators they had gotten one to Europe. Hamid Mir said he had tracked one out of Pakistan to Rome. Far-fetched? Yes. Impossible? Let’s hope so.
@Arjuna
bristle? hyper-political pronouncements? Huh?
Flutter on Peter Panner
It is farfetched to think that they could conquer Rome, or any Western city. But it probably wouldn’t take much for them to sneak in and blow up the Sistine Chapel, and they would score that a great victory. I hope the Italians are paying attention…
Just curious why Rome of all places. Kind of reminds me of North Korea’s remarks that they’ll attack Austin, Texas.
I think Zarouq and Ansar al-Sharia’s global pronouncements should be taken seriously, but these ‘jihadists’ and their Islamist brethren are not sneaking up on anyone is Europe since political Islamists are continuing their acts of political subversion in European countries, most noteably in the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands.
While Zarouq’s threats and global goals outlined in his impassioned speech while atop his ‘global jihadist’ soapbox should be noted and followed up upon by intelligence officials, we should also note that the idea of ‘Rome’ has a certain context within his speech. I think he is viewing ‘Rome’ in a historical context since he is intertwining it with the goals of the Prophet Muhammad, or in the days of the Prophet Muhammad he is referring to the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman empire). Zarouq adds Jerusalem and Andalusia before mentioning Rome, which also adds to my point in regards to paying attention to the historical context of this speech in order to inspire his ‘global jihadist’ constituency to join his ranks and to match on to these cities to reclaim what once belonged to the ‘Muslim ummah’.
@Alex
the Vatican?