An English-language al Qaeda magazine in its first issue ran an article it said was penned by US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki calling for the execution of anyone who commits blasphemy."The proper solution to this growing campaign of" blasphemy is "the execution of those involved," reads the article in web magazine Inspire, in a text provided by the US monitoring service SITE on Sunday.
The article singles out Seattle-based cartoonist Molly Norris, who satirically proposed to make a blasphemous page on a social networking website, although Islam bans the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous.
"A cartoonist out of Seattle, Washington, named Molly Norris started" the Facebook page, the article attributed to the radical Yemeni cleric says.
"She should be taken as a prime target of assassination, along with others who participated in her campaign," he added.
"The large number of participants makes it easier for us because there are many targets to choose from," reads the article in the magazine of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
The killings should not, however, be limited to participants on the Facebook page, the article says.
"Because (participants) are practising a 'right' that is defended by the law, they have the backing of the entire Western political system. This would make... attacking any Western target legal from an Islamic viewpoint."
"We will fight" against blasphemers, the article says. "We will instigate, we will bomb, and we will assassinate, and may our mothers be bereaved of us if we do not rise in... defence."
SITE said the magazine was released by Al-Fajr Media Centre, an Internet distribution network for extremist groups.
The release "comes amongst several communiques posted by Al-Fajr for AQAP, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the Islamic State of Iraq, indicating that it is an authentic publication," SITE said.
Awlaki, now based in Yemen, rose to prominence last year after it emerged he had communicated by email with Major Nidal Hasan, a US army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13.
The imam has also been linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight with explosives in his underwear on December 25.
A US official said in April that US President Barack Obama's administration had authorised the targeted killing of Awlaki, after American intelligence agencies concluded the cleric was directly involved in anti-US plots.