Global General

Al-Qaida in Iraq urges people to wage Jihad in Egypt

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-09 13:26

WASHINGTON - The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the al-Qaida front in Iraq, urged the Egyptian protesters to wage Jihad and establish a Islamic law-based government, terrorist monitoring group SITE said Tuesday.

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The ISI addressed the "uprising people of Egypt" in a statement issued on Jihadist forums, the US-based group said.

In the statement, the ISI said protesters must realize that the "market of Jihad has opened in Egypt" and every able-bodied man must participate.

The al-Qaida affiliate also offered to protesters seven pieces of advice, each inciting to physical violence and conduct of individual action to drive President Hosni Mubarak from power and prevent his ilk and opportunists to capitalize, according to the SITE.

The terrorist group has been mostly silent on the ongoing protests in Egypt, a country which is believed to be the "intellectual home of the modern Jihadist movement," said Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution.

"Although al-Qaida has long sought the fall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, the regime's potential collapse through peaceful protest rather than violent Jihad is a body blow to the narrative of Osama bin Laden and his followers," said Byman.

The anti-government demonstrations in Egypt have entered their third week. Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman has said a committee had been formed to amend the Egypt's constitution to allow free and fair elections in September.