The Evolution of the Discourse of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb: Themes, Countries and Individuals

Abstract

This paper analyses the propaganda of the Algerian terrorist group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat/Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) from 1998 to 2009 and evaluates the repercussions of the group's merger with Al-Qaeda on its discourse. The paper argues that integration into the Al-Qaeda hierarchy has had little influence on such discourse or on the group's strategies. The analysis lends support to the view that the group is lukewarm in its commitment to Al-Qaeda. Although the content of AQIM propaganda now embraces more countries, individuals and issues, the fact is that membership of Al-Qaeda has not brought about any significant turning point.

Acknowledgements

This article is part of a Research Project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation ‘The Organizational Structure of International Terrorism: Implications for European Security (CSO2010-17849)’, directed by Professor Javier Jordán, Department of Political Science, University of Granada, Spain.

Notes

¹ See MEMRI, ‘Video by the Commander of Al-Jama'a Al-Salafiyya Lil-Da'wa Wal-Qital in Algeria’, Islamist Websites Monitor Project No. 44–47 – Special Dispatch Series – No. 1424, 12 January 2007.

² Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3908&amp (accessed 15 May 2009).

³ On the importance of this facet of terrorist activity and propaganda's role as a mobilization resource, see Wright (1991), Paletz and Schmid (1992), Nacos (1994) and Norris et al. (2003).

⁴ Video: Abu Musab Abdul Wadud. ‘Message a notre oumma au maghreb islamique’, 21 September 2008. Available at http://www.jihadarchive.com/details.php?item_id = 4289 (accessed 20 June 2009); Video: Abu Musab Abdul Wadud. ‘Dites non aux tyrans’, 6 April 2009. Available at http://www.archive.org/details/Musab-Abdaludod (accessed 20 June 2009); Audio recording with text attached: AQIM, ‘Interview du Comité Médiatique avec le cheikh: Abou Abd Al Ilah Ahmed [Le Président du Comité Politique d'Al Qaida au Maghreb Islamique]’, 4 May 2009. Available at http://worldanalysis.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid = 588 (accessed 20 June 2009); Text: AQIM, ‘La France, mère de tout les maux’, 28 June 2009. Available at http://www.jihadica.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/06-30-09-ansar-france-mother-of-all-evils.pdf (accessed 15 June 2010).

⁵ The present study considers the message titled ‘Unit’ (in Arabic), released on 16 September 1998, as the first public message by the GSPC. Signed by 14 former GIA members, the document underlines the Koran's command concerning unity among the faithful, while also announcing the name of the new group and the ‘provisional’ leadership of Hassan Hattab. Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3978&amp (accessed 15 May 2009).

⁶ According to the communiqué, the final decision to name themselves Al-Qaida came only after ‘consultations with Shaykh Usama [Bin Laden], may God preserve him… and his consent’ See AQIM, ‘Notice of the name change’, 24 January 2007 (in Arabic). Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3908&amp (accessed 17 May 2009).

⁷ Site Institute, ‘Salafi Group for Call and Combat (al-jam'a al-Salafia lil-Dawa wal Qital) carries out ambush operation against Algerian troops’, 22 February 2005 (by subscription).

⁸ For example, a GSPC communiqué of 3 June 2004 claimed responsibility for seven different attacks over a one-month period. Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3948&amp (accessed 17 May 2009); On 21 October 2005 the group issued a two-page summary outlining its operations during the election campaign in Algeria: 12 different attacks covered by the same message. See Site Institute, ‘Salafist Group for Call and Combat issues a summary of their operations during the election campaign in Algeria’, 21 October 2005 (by subscription). In April 2008 it claimed responsibility for no fewer than 25 separate attacks in a single message. See Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, ‘News report for the period of 13-6 to 18-08-1429’, 9 April 2008 (in Arabic). Available at: http://anti-imperialist.info/vb/archive/index.php?f-30-p-2.html

⁹ MEMRI, ‘Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb calls on Algerians to boycott May 17 elections’, Islamist Websites Monitor, No. 101, 17 May 2007. Available at http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page = archives&Area = sd&ID = SP158807

¹⁰ GSPC, ‘A statement disavowing Hassan Hattab and his disgraceful acts’, 9 February 2005 (in Arabic). Translation available at ‘Communiqué from the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)’, Globalterroralert.com, 9 February 2005. Available at http://www.globalterroralert.com/images/documents/pdf/0305/gspc0305.pdf

¹¹ The words are taken from the article ‘No peace without Islam’ in issue no. 5 of the GSPC propaganda magazine, al-Jamaa, which was devoted almost entirely to attacks on the National Reconciliation Plan. See Site Institute, ‘The fifth issue of al-Jama'a, a periodic magazine devoted to issues of the Algerian Jihad by the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)’, Site Publications, 1 November 2005. Available at http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID = publications114105&Category = publications&Subcategory = 0 (by subscription).

¹² Site Institute, ‘A call upon the Muslim Algerian people’ – Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, Emir of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)', 13 September 2005 (By subscription). Available at https://www.siteintelgroup.com/_layouts/SiteIntel/ApplicationPages/Document.aspx?ID = 17693

¹³ See Pew Global Attitudes Project, ‘Views of a changing world 2003. War with Iraq further divides global publics’, 6 March 2003. Available at http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/185topline.pdf; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, ‘A year after Iraq War mistrust of America in Europe ever higher, Muslim anger persists’, 16 March 2004. Available at http://people press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID = 206; Pew Research Center, ‘Islamic extremism: common concern for Muslim and western publics. 17-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey’, 14 July 2005. Available at http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/248.pdf

¹⁴ Abu Musab Abdul Wadud ‘Statement on the killing of Algerian diplomats in Iraq’, 01/08 2005 (in Arabic). Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3935&amp (accessed 17 May 2009).

¹⁵ The group included on its official website the following text on its presentation and aims: ‘The people governing Islamic countries today are a band of infidels who have renounced Islam; criminals, the scum of the earth. […] they have spilled innocent blood and sinned perversely […] They are interested only in fattening their bellies and their only God is the West […] we should not forget that the fight against apostates takes precedence over the fight against those who are infidels from birth.’ AQIM. ‘Who are we?’, undated. http://www.qmagreb.org (accessed 20 December 2007).

¹⁶ ‘GSPC believes that Algeria is a Muslim nation and, consequently, the lives and property of its members must be scrupulously respected. The Algerian people are part of GSPC and GSPC is part of the Algerian people. Anyone who attacks the Algerian people, taking Algerian lives or property, violates the law of God.’ AQIM. ‘Who are we?’, undated. http://www.qmagreb.org (accessed 20 December 2007).

¹⁷ ‘We wish to draw attention to two important aspects the apostates are trying to repeat to lie to and deceive public opinion: […] the myth concerning attacks on innocent people […] the circumstances were studied and the time and place chosen carefully to avoid injury to any Muslims.’ AQIM, ‘Implementation of two martyrdom operations against the Army and Police', 4 August 2008 (in Arabic). Available at http://m3-f.com/forum/showthread.php?t = 8142 (accessed 30 April 2010).

¹⁸ For example, on 19 August 2008 an attack was carried out with a lorry bomb on a police training school in Boumerdès Province, killing 43 and injuring 45 police and civilians. The group stated as follows: ‘And we would like to mention that all of those killed were from the police and contracted with the ministry, or were new recruits in this Taghouti path, and are considered enemies under the Law of Islam. So what that clown of the interior ministry kept babbling on about, claiming that they were civilians is just nonsense and a clear lie that has no basis of truth to it.’ AQIM, ‘The incursion of revenge for the Group of Martyrs in Tizzi Wizzo’, 21 August 2008 (in Arabic). Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3895&sessionid = qhtpf76rdc6b5ttqaatc69slp5

¹⁹ Salah Abu Muhammad, ‘Who are the killers of innocent people?’, 03/09 2008 (in Arabic). Available at http://m3-f.com/forum/showthread.php?t = 8976 (accessed 30 April 2010).

²⁰ Globalterroralert.com, ‘Interview with Abu Omar Abdul Bir from the media wing of the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)’, 31 January 2005. Available at: http://globalterroralert.com/images/documents/pdf/0105/gspc0105-5.pdf

²¹ The following was issued by AQIM in response to reports in various media publications that dozens of its members had been killed in a biological weapons experiment at a terrorist training camp: ‘Several journalists wrote reports, based upon information they had received from their bosses in the Algerian intelligence bureaus […] We don't know anything about this so-called plague, because it never happened – other than perhaps in the minds and hearts of those collaborators who falsely carry the title of “journalists.” […] O’ Allah, protect our Muslim nation from the deception of the apostates and their lies and from the fabrications of the corrupt media and from their falsifications'. AQIM. ‘A Response to the Recent Lies in the Media’, 20 January 2009. Translation available at http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefaaqim0109.pdf

²² According to the group, ‘most of the fires this year and in previous years were started by the Algerian army’. In the same communiqué it announced it would release a video showing how the blazes were caused by the army in an attempt to isolate and tackle the mujahidin. However, AQIM never released the video. AQIM, ‘The Algerian Army and the scorched-earth policy’, 13 September 2008 (in Arabic). Available at http://clearinghouse.infovlad.net/showthread.php?t = 16822 (Accessed 23 September 2008).

²³ ‘As is always the case with such calamities, we find that ordinary and vulnerable Muslims are the ones who pay the price for the mistakes of officials with no sense of responsibility and have to bear the consequences of looting and corruption.’ AQIM, ‘Condolences and sympathy for our people affected by floods’, 10 October 2008 (in Arabic). Available at http://clearinghouse.infovlad.net/showthread.php?t = 17610 (accessed 14 October 2008).

²⁴ Translation available at NEFA Foundation. AQIM, ‘At your service, O’ Gaza! Statement on the attack on the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott’, 2 February 2008. Available at http://www1.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/nefaaqim0208-2.pdf

²⁵ Site Institute, ‘“A call upon the Muslim Algerian people” – Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, Emir of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)’, 13 September 2005 (by subscription).

²⁶ GSPC, ‘Appeal to the people of Islam in France’, 31 July 2005 (in Arabic). Available at http://www.jarchive.info/details.php?item_id = 3933&amp (accessed 17 May 2009).

²⁷ MEMRI, ‘Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri: jihad should strive to liberate any land that was once Islamic – from Andalusia to Iraq’, MEMRITV.ORG, Clip #126, 18/98/2006. http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1269.htm (by subscription).

²⁸ See MEMRI, ‘Emir of Al-Qaeda organization in the Islamic Maghreb promises future martyrdom operations’, Islamist Websites Monitor, no. 99, 11 May 2007. Available at http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog personal.htm?id = 224&param = APT

²⁹ Abu Musab Abd Al-Wadud, ‘We are coming’, 03/01/07. For a translation, see http://www.globalterroralert.com/images/documents/pdf/0107/gspcwadoud0107.pdf

³⁰ Abu Ubayda Yusuf, ‘Congratulations on the occasion of Id to the nation of monotheism’, audio statement, 4 October 2008 (in Arabic). Cited by Kennedy Boudali (2009: 16).