Syria-Iraq ‘caliph’ incites Muslims to holy war

DUBAI: The leader of the al-Qaida offshoot now calling itself the Islamic State has called on Muslims worldwide to take up arms and flock to the “caliphate” it has declared on captured Syrian and Iraqi soil.

Proclaiming a “new era” in which Muslims will ultimately triumph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issued the call to jihad — holy war — in an audio message lasting nearly 20 minutes that was posted online on Tuesday.

It was his first purported message since the group — previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) -proclaimed the caliphate on Sunday and declared him its leader, in an audacious bid to sweep away state borders and redraw the map of the Middle East.

Baghdadi, who has assumed the medieval title of caliph, used the message to seek to assert authority over Muslims everywhere. He called on them to rise up and avenge the alleged wrongs committed against their religion, from Central African Republic to Myanmar (Burma).

“Terrify the enemies of Allah and seek death in the places where you expect to find it,” he said. “Your brothers, on every piece of this earth, are waiting for you to rescue them.” The audio message, titled “A Message to the Mujahideen and the Muslim Ummah in the Month of Ramzan,” was posted online through the group’s media arm. Another account affiliated to the group posted translations in English, Russian, French, German and Albanian.

“By Allah, we will take revenge, by Allah we will take revenge, even if after a while,” Baghdadi said.

While ISIS’s power grab may appeal to many militants, there have already been signs of dissent. Some Islamist groups fighting in Syria have rejected the announcement of the caliphate, saying its terms had not “been realized at present”, and urged Muslims to avoid siding with the Islamic State. Iraq’s Association of Muslim Scholars, which was formed to represent minority Sunnis, said in a statement: “Any group that announces a state or an Islamic emirate… under these conditions is not in the interest of Iraq and its unity.”