By LIAM STACK
Al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia
released a recruitment video on Friday that criticized racism and
anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States and contained footage of the
Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump announcing his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the country.
The video, released by the militant group Shabab,
appeared to be the first time that Mr. Trump was featured in jihadist
recruitment material. During a Democratic presidential debate last
month, Hillary Clinton said that Mr. Trump had been used in a
recruitment video for the Islamic State, a claim that was later debunked.
Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are rival jihadist groups that compete for recruits and money among radicalized Muslims.
Representatives for the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The
video was part of a series dedicated to Somali-American jihadists from
Minnesota and one Canadian who died on the battlefield in Somalia. The
video was authenticated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which studies
jihadist propaganda, and it appeared to be aimed at the African-American
community.
Citing
“historical injustices” against African-Americans, including police
brutality and racial profiling, the video urged them to convert to Islam
and engage in jihad at home or abroad.
In
addition to footage of Mr. Trump, the video, which is 51 minutes long,
included excerpts from speeches by Malcolm X and unnamed white
supremacists, as well as footage of white police officers,
African-Americans protesting police brutality and African-American men
in prison. Some appeared to be performing Islamic prayers.
Using footage of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American member of a Qaeda affiliate who was killed in an American drone attack
in 2011, the video also said the United States was gripped by a
“malignant hatred” of Islam. It warned American Muslims that “there are
ominous clouds gathering in your horizon.”
“Yesterday,
America was a land of slavery, segregation, lynching and Ku Klux Klan,
and tomorrow, it will be a land of religious discrimination and
concentration camps,” Mr. Awlaki said in the previously recorded
footage.
The video includes footage of Mr. Trump in front of a poster with his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
“So
remember this, so listen, Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and
complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our
country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” Mr.
Trump said.
Mr. Awlaki then reappeared on the video.
“The
West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens,” he said,
jabbing his finger toward the camera. Only two choices remained for
Muslims in the United States, he said.
“You
either leave or you fight,” he said. “You leave and live among Muslims,
or you stay behind and follow the example of Nidal Hasan and others who
fulfilled their duty of fighting for Allah’s cause.”
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was an Army psychiatrist who staged a one-man attack at Fort Hood
in Killeen, Tex., in November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding more
than 30 others. He once attended a mosque in Virginia where Mr. Awlaki
had preached and exchanged messages with him before committing his
attack.
Al
Qaeda is in many ways the parent organization of the Islamic State,
which split from the group over differences in strategy in the war in
Syria. The two groups now compete for influence among radicalized
Muslims, a competition that the Islamic State has dominated in recent
years.
That contest has played out in acts of spectacular violence around the world. Analysts have said that recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Mali have been partly driven by the desire of one group to outdo the other.
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