In a video posted recently on Islamist websites, the Somali jihad group Shabab Al-Mujahideen called on Muslims living in the U.S. and Europe to come to Somalia and join the jihad there. The video is in Arabic, Somali and English.Following are excerpts from the English part (quoted verbatim):
"To those people still sitting at home, relaxing, having good food, good sleep… what you see of Chichan [i.e., Chechnya], Iraq and Afghanistan and such likes… too much watching… with no action – it leads to nifaq [i.e., hypocrisy]… Jihad becomes something of talk. But jihad is real. There is no way you can tell the sweetness of jihad until you come to jihad... If you don't come to jihad, Allah… will ask you why you didn't come to jihad...
"How can you sit at home when our brothers and sisters are being murdered in our land [Somalia]? How dare you sit at home, looking at the TV, seeing people being killed, Muslims getting killed?... Those who are in Europe and America: You should get out of those countries, you should make hijra [i.e., emigrate]!
"I'm telling the kuffar [i.e., infidels], the English People, the American peopleÂ… We're coming for you! We're going to exterminate you all!
"We are muhajirun [i.e., foreigners fighting in Somalia]. We have come to the land of jihad, and we're doing OK. You guys can also do the same way. You can make hijra [i.e., immigrate] to this land, and fight the kuffar...
"To the people who say that there are no muhajirun in Somalia, I'd like to say that there are muhajirun. We are muhajirunÂ… All I can say is, I invite you to come to this land of jihad."
It should be noted that, on November 25, 2008, ABC News aired a report about an American of Somali origin – Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis – who was allegedly involved in jihad in Somalia. According to the report, the FBI believes that Ahmed created a recruiting network in the Minneapolis area, and enlisted several young men who have since disappeared. U.S. officials suspect that most of them have departed for Somalia in order to fight there. They also suspect that Ahmed himself carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia a month ago.
Reported here as well.