How 'Caliph' Baghdadi Aimed His Sermon at the Muslim Devout

The Western media focused on Ibrahim al-Baghdadi's wristwatch. But to relig[i]ous Muslims, the symbolism of his speech was carefully chosen, and clear

Read and comment on the Telegraph article here | Ed Hussain | Friday, July 18, 2014

Is This the Wife of Iraq's New Islamist Overlord?

Image from a video of a woman believed to be Saja al-Dulaimi,
the wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: First pictures emerge of Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi, said to be the spouse of Islamic State ruler Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

He is the world's most feared Islamic terrorist, carving out a new Middle East 'caliphate' through a combination of medieval butchery and stunning military success.

But until now, the wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State, has remained largely out of the public eye.

A photo has now emerged online purporting to show Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi – the woman whose husband now controls vast swathes of Syria and western Iraq after his forces routed government troops in a lightening eastern advance over recent weeks.

Although the provenance of the picture is unclear, it shows a youthful-looking woman draped in a black headscarf and gazing purposefully into the distance. » | Alastair Beach | Thursday, July 17, 2014

ISIS Puts Bull’s Eye on Mecca, Medina

WND: 'Allah wills it' declaration puts fear in other Sunni jihadists

WASHINGTON – Now that the Islamic State has issued a declaration that Muslims around the world must adhere to its recently announced caliphate, jihadist fighters say Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia will be the next targets after Jordan.

Sources say the Islamic State, former the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (or Greater Syria), is a rival to Saudi Arabia, even though both are Sunni. However, like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State abhors monarchies. The Islamic State is hoping that the Saudi army will revolt against the King and join its caliphate.

The area between Iraq and Jordan, into Saudi Arabia, is mostly desert, allowing the Islamic State to make major inroads into the kingdom before meeting resistance.

Saudi Arabia is aware that it could be the target of the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the recently announced caliph or leader with the title of Khalifah Ibrahim. Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz recently met with newly elected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to obtain counter-terrorism assistance if there is an attack on the kingdom.

According to WND sources, Abdullah was accompanied by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who once was the kingdom’s chief of intelligence and head of the Saudi National Security Council.

Abdullah made the move after finally realizing that Bandar’s strategy of financing and providing weapons to jihadist fighters in Syria could backfire on the kingdom, with various jihadist groups fighting among each other on the side of the Syrian opposition. Moreover, the approach was not bringing down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. » | E Michael Maloof | Wednesday, July 02, 2014

This Is the Promise of Allah »

Battle to Establish Islamic State across Iraq and Syria

THE INDEPENDENT: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant now controls vast stretch of land

Islamic fundamentalists have opened new fronts in their battle to establish an Islamic state across Iraq and Syria as they launch attacks in cities which were previously under the control of the Baghdad government.

A multi-pronged assault across central and northern Iraq in the past four days shows that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has taken over from the al-Qa’ida organisation founded by Osama bin Laden as the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world.

Isis now controls or can operate with impunity in a great stretch of territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria, making it militarily the most successful jihadi movement ever.

Led since 2010 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, also known as Abu Dua, it has proved itself even more violent and sectarian than what US officials call the “core” al-Qa’ida, led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is based in Pakistan. Isis is highly fanatical, killing Shia Muslims and Christians whenever possible, as well as militarily efficient and under tight direction by top leaders.

In Iraq in the past four days, it has fought its way into the northern capital of Mosul, sent a column of its fighters into the central city of Samarra and taken over Iraq’s largest university at Ramadi, in the west of the country. In addition, it launched devastating bombings targeting Shia civilians in Baghdad that killed at least 52 people.

The creation of a sort of proto-Caliphate by extreme jihadis in northern Syria and Iraq is provoking fears in surrounding countries such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey that they will become targets of battle-hardened Sunni fighters. » | Patrick Cockburn | Amman | Monday, July 09, 2014

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Emerges from Shadows to Rally Islamist Followers

THE GUARDIAN: Most wanted man in Middle East lays down challenge not only to Baghdad and the west but also jilted mothership al-Qaida


For a man so mysterious that there are only two known photographs of him, it was a brazen public debut. The most wanted man in the Middle East, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is also one of the most elusive, an evanescent figure behind the Islamist insurrection sweeping the Syrian and Iraqi interior.

And yet according to jihadist websites at the weekend, here he was on video openly rallying the adepts of the new Islamic state he had just pronounced in the largest city that his fighters had taken. Clad in black robes that invoked a distant, almost mythical phase of Islamic history, Baghdadi gave a half-hour sermon during Friday prayers in Mosul and led worship inside one of the most important Islamic sites in Iraq in open defiance of the US intelligence officials who have put a $10m bounty on his head.

In doing so, he laid down a challenge not only to the authorities in Baghdad and the foreign powers that want stability in the country, but to the radical Islamist mothership from which the Isis movement broke – al-Qaida, and its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Those present at the grand mosque in Mosul had no idea who would be preaching on Friday. But as the bearded figure made his entrance, he was introduced to them simply as "your new caliph Ibrahim".

"I am not better than you or more virtuous than you," Baghdadi says in the video. "If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me. And obey me as far as I obey God." » | Martin Chulov in Baghdad | Sunday, July 06, 2014