Update January 30th, 2010: The NYT has a lengthy story on Al-Amriki reported here at Jihad Watch.
The Toronto Star has a lengthy detailed article yesterday about Omar Hammami – known to followers as Abu Mansour “Al-Amriki” (the American) — whose fluent English and flamboyant style may be responsible for some recruitment of Somali refugees living in the West to join the Jihadists in Somalia.
Born and raised in Alabama he spent a year in Canada learning Somali ways and marrying a Somali girl before joining Al-Shabaab in the Horn of Africa. We have reported on him previously when he mocked Obama’s Cairo speech on Islam, here.*
Read the whole article, it is very interesting. The one part I wanted to point out today is this section of the news feature—for those of you thinking this is just an issue for far away Africa, Al-Amriki makes it clear that their Jihad is about creating a worldwide caliphate!
Al-Shabab’s stated goals are to take power from the fragile government backed by African Union troops and turn Somalia into an Islamic state friendly to Al Qaeda. Ultimately, its leaders say, the aim is to establish a global Islamic state.
“We are striving to establish the Islaamic Khilaafah from East to West,” Hammami writes in an Internet posting of Jan. 8, 2008, “after removing the occupier and killing the apostates.”
That last part means you—unless you are a devout Muslim, you are the occupiers and the apostates. And, by the way, the stealth Jihad can be accomplished through the political process more easily than with guns. In Africa it might be guns, in America and Canada it is the political process (while you sleep!).
* For more information use our search function for ‘Al-Amriki.’