"Al Qaeda’s Latest Bid To Woo India’s Muslims": ISN SECURITY WATCH

Al Qaeda has struggled in the past to gain the support of India’s vast Muslim population. But that’s gradually changing, warns Animesh Roul. Today, he outlines how the fragmented organization is trying to attract money and manpower from the third largest Muslim community on the planet. 

Al Qaeda has recently renewed its efforts to gain a foothold within India’s 176 million-strong Muslim community. In June 2013, Maulana Asim Umar, a senior Al Qaeda ideologue, released why there is no storm in your ocean, a video that calls on the country’s Muslims to join the global jihad. Two months later, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri issued specific guidelines for Jihad and Dawa that endorsed the right of militants to fight Indians in Kashmir. The messages were released against a backdrop of growing Islamist extremism in India spearheaded by the Indian Mujahideen (IM). Worse still, the captured leader of Indian Mujahideen (IM), recently revealed to interrogators his organization’s plans to join ranks with Al Qaeda for operations inside India.

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