Al-Quaida commander blasts Hamas for abandoning jihad

An al-Qaida commander who escaped from a US prison in Afghanistan criticised Hamas and other Islamic groups in a new video today, accusing them of abandoning holy war in favour of nationalism and electoral politics.

Hamas is focused on the creation of an independent Palestinian state rather than al-Qaida’s vision of a worldwide Muslim community ruled by Islamic law.

Like al-Qaida, the Palestinian movement advocates violence to achieve its goal, but has also participated in elections alongside the moderate Fatah group.

“We caution some of the Islamic groups, among them Hamas, which are risking the bloods of their sons … to cleanse and purify their jihad of contemporary jihad pollutants and of the terms which Satan made to appear pretty to them,” said Abu Yahia al-Libi in the hour and a half-long video.

“Patriotism, nationalism, shared unity, the supreme interest and other slogans … none of these have any space in the religion of Allah the Glorious and the Great,” he said, criticising groups like Hamas for “abandoning jihad and jumping into the ballot boxes”.

The authenticity of the video could not be verified, but it was released on a website commonly used by Islamic militants and carried the logo of Al-Sahab, al-Qaida’s media arm.

The release came only days after Osama Bin Laden released his first new video in almost three years, lecturing Americans on the failure of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq.

Al-Libi, wearing a white traditional Arab robe and a black turban, also ridiculed the US for its troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the country’s power and prestige was in decline.

“America, which is one of the major evil spirits of the age, was only a few years ago bragging about its power and boasting of its army and material, at a time when everyone was subordinate to it and submissive to its resolutions,” said al-Libi, whose nom de guerre means “the Libyan” in Arabic.

“But today, where is America? Where is the vanity and arrogance of the American army and its policymakers?

“And moreover, where is the value of the American soldier, whose killing used to make headlines in all the media, but who today is dragged in the streets of Baghdad, hung on the bridges of Fallujah, rolled on the rocks of Afghanistan and burned to coals in the middle of its capital, Kabul?”

Al-Libi praised the resurgence of Taliban militants in Afghanistan, who had made a comeback following a US-led invasion in 2001 that ousted them from power.

“The first year after the fall of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ... was a year of despair and depression for everyone except those whom Allah steadied with the light of conviction, power of faith and confidence in Allah’s promise,” said al-Libi.

“As for today – and the credit is Allah’s alone – the Mujahideen have become the pursuers, not the pursued, and for the most part, the strikers, not the struck.”

Since his escape in 2005, al-Libi is believed by Western and Afghan intelligence to have run training camps for suicide bombers and fighters in eastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan.

Afghan police said at the time of his escape that his real name was Abulbakar Mohammed Hassan and that he was Libyan.