January 1, 2016

Top Saudi Cleric Says ISIS is Part of the Israel Army

Top Saudi Cleric Calls ISIS ‘Part of the Israel Army’


The revealing interview this week with Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh provides important insight into the Wahhabi establishment, which is the core partner of the House of Saud.
The Mufti praised the creation of an Islamic military alliance to fight terrorism, promising the alliance will defeat ISIS, which he labeled a heretical and un-Islamic movement. The new alliance is the brainchild of Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Prince Muhammed bin Salman, the king’s favorite son.

The 72-year-old cleric was asked about comments made by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self proclaimed caliph of ISIS, that the new alliance is not serious because it is not "killing Jews and liberating Palestine."

Al-Baghdadi called the new Saudi-led alliance a pawn of the United States and Israel, promising that the "tanks of the mujahedeen are moving closer to Israel day after day."

Al Sheikh dismissed al-Baghdadi's threat to Israel, calling it "simply a lie.” He added:
“Actually Daesh [another term for ISIS] is part of the Israeli soldiers," therefore asserting a supposed relationship between the Israeli army and ISIS.
The sheikh is a direct descendant of the 18th-century founder of Wahhabi Islam Muhammad Ibn Abd al Wahhab. The Al Sheikh family is the theological equivalent of the Saud family.


Abdulaziz was appointed grand mufti in 1999 by King Fahd. He wields enormous authority. Earlier this year, for example, he absolved Crown Prince and Interior Minister Prince Muhammed bin Nayef of any responsibility for the hajj stampede that killed hundreds by saying it was an act of God.

Both the mufti's and al-Baghdadi's remarks illustrate that Israel remains the hot-button issue in the kingdom. If you want to smear your enemy, label him a stooge of Israel.

This article first appeared on the Markaz blog on the Brookings Institution site.

[Two Years Ago] Israeli general says al Qaeda's Syria fighters set up in Turkey

January 24, 2014

Reuters - Some of the al Qaeda militants going to fight in Syria have bases in neighboring Turkey and can easily access Europe from the NATO member state, Israel's military intelligence chief said on Wednesday.

Major-General Aviv Kochavi, presenting a map of the Middle East marked with areas of al Qaeda presence, told a security conference al Qaeda fighters from around the world entered Syria weekly, "but they do not stay" there.

The map showed three al Qaeda bases inside Turkey.

A spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly denied Turkey is providing shelter or backing to al Qaeda-linked groups in Syria.

Kochavi declined a request by Reuters to give specific numbers, but his spokeswoman said the map showed the relative strength and location of al Qaeda bases, which appeared to be in the Karaman, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa provinces.
"Syria is projecting its conflict to the whole region. Those blotches (on the map) in Turkey are no mistake by the graphic artist and it is a short way from there into Europe," Kochavi said at the conference held by the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
The spots on the map signifying al Qaeda in Turkey were together about half the size of the blotch in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula, which Kochavi said was home to about 200 Jihadi militants.

Turkish anti-terrorist police raided the offices of an aid agency on the border with Syria this month, as part of what Turkish media said was an operation in six cities against individuals suspected of links to al Qaeda.
 

Turkey has maintained an open-door policy throughout the Syrian conflict, providing a lifeline to rebel-held areas by allowing humanitarian aid in, giving refugees a route out and letting the rebel Free Syrian Army organize on its soil.

But the rise of al Qaeda-linked groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in parts of northern Syria near the border has left Ankara open to accusations it is lending support to radical Islamists.

 
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