Islamist terror outfit Al Qaeda has threatened to launch attacks across India in retaliation to two officials from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “insulting and slandering” Prophet Muhammad.
Referring to the Prophet as the “purest of beings,” Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) said the “hearts of Muslims all over the world are bleeding and are filled with feelings of revenge and retribution” over the “vile and evil” remarks.
The group warned the “Hindutva terrorists occupying India” that they “will fight for the dignity of our Prophet” and urged others to “fight and die” for the cause. The AQIS also said “we shall kill those who affront” the Prophet and “we shall bind explosives with our bodies and the bodies of our children” to blow apart those who criticise the Prophet.
AlQaeda in the Indian Subcontinent in a statement says that they are ready to blow up themselves in Gujrat, UP, Bombay and Delhi while warning the BJP that it’s end is near. pic.twitter.com/nkHLxEzanU
— The Khorasan Diary (@khorasandiary) June 7, 2022
Stating that the “Saffron terrorists” will not find refuge anywhere, Al Qaeda threatened to launch multiple attacks in Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, as well as in major Indian cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. In this regard, the AQIS said it brings “glad tidings” for Muslims “suffering persecution and cruelty at the hands of India” and that it will ensure victory against those who have dishonoured the Prophet.
Al Qaeda also referred to Ghazwa-e-Hind, a contentious prophecy that India will lose an apocalyptic war before the final day of judgment, and said that “they bring tidings of death and destruction to the rulers of India, of executions and hangings, of imprisonment and being bound with chains.”
The group made the threats in response to controversial remarks made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and the party’s Delhi media chief Naveen Kumar Jindal about Prophet Muhammad. Last week, Sharma and Jindal made comments mocking the Prophet and said that the Prophet had sex with a nine-year-old child.
Past analogous incitement campaigns by Al-Qaida have resulted in--among other things--the 2008 suicide car bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad and the 2015 Charli Hebdo terror attack in Paris, in which 12 people were killed over the republication of offensive cartoons.
— Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet) June 7, 2022
The remarks resulted in widespread fury across the Islamic world, which has deemed the comments made by the BJP spokespersons as blasphemous. So far, 17 Islamic countries—the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Bahrain, Indonesia, Turkey, Maldives, Libya, Malaysia, and Iraq—have condemned the BJP for the comments. Organisations like the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Arab League have also issued strong condemnations.
After domestic and international calls for action, the BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal from the party.
Al Qaeda’s threats came two months after it condemned India for banning the hijab in several states. The group’s leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, called on Indian Muslims to fight against the “intellectual” assault on Islam in India through “media” and “weapons on the battlefield.” He urged the Muslim community to unite and “shake off the delusions” surrounding the “Hindu democracy of India,” which he claimed is a “tool to oppress Muslims.”