The Islamic State Spokesman Celebrates Ten Years of the Caliphate
The Islamic State Spokesman Celebrates Ten Years of the Caliphate
The Islamic State (IS) spokesman, Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari, made his third speech since taking the position eight months ago on 28 March 2024.1
The forty-five minute audio release from Al-Furqan Media was framed around a celebration of what IS has done since it declared the restoration of the “Caliphate” in 2014, above all surviving at the Centre, in Iraq and Syria, and spreading further afield, into Africa, Afghanistan, and East Asia. IS is contemptuous of making Gaza into an idol, insisting it be regarded merely as one front in a global jihadist war against the West and Jews, which sets up Abu Hudhayfa to reiterate his recent call for a renewal of global terrorism, with a particular and slightly unusual mention of “lone wolves”. The speech was made during Ramadan and the IS spokesman says massacres of Christians and Jews in that month are especially holy. The recent attacks in Iran and Russia are mentioned, and there is a notably impassioned section on IS’s female prisoners in the camps in Syria. A recurring theme is IS’s appreciation of its media (or propaganda) apparatus, and its online activists, whose contribution to the war IS is waging—including by attracting recruits—is considered vital. Not-unrelatedly, a pitch is made for young Muslims to join IS in any of its theatres. The speech concludes by saying America has failed and will continue to fail in its efforts to suppress the group.
Abu Hudhayfa begins with a celebration of ten years of the Caliphate:
A decade ago, in this blessed month [Ramadan], the leaders of the Islamic State stood in a position that God and His Messenger loved, a position that enraged the unbelievers and hypocrites [munafiqun], a position in which God’s assistance, guidance, and success was manifest for the mujahideen, a position that changed the course of history. This was the day they announced the establishment of the Islamic Caliphate after long centuries that saw its collapse and disappearance.
The subjects of the Caliphate were governed by the deen [faith, creed] of their Lord, under the rule of the shari’a. It established the pillars of [State, such as a] judiciary, hisbah [effectively, religious police], education, and others. It established prayer, gave zakat, enjoined what was good and forbade what was evil, spread virtue and suppressed vice. It demolished the idols of jahiliyya [pre-Islamic ignorance], patriotism, and nationalism, and instilled the bonds of al-wala wal-bara [loyalty (to Muslims] and disavowal (of unbelievers)], thus reviving monotheism [tawhid] and renewing the milestones of the deen. It became a guiding station for sincere believers, the abode of their hearts, and the [focus for the] rage of the unbelievers, the source of their anxiety, unhappiness, and misery.
The Caliphate entered the jahili global system facing the biggest war of attrition [harb istinzaf] known in contemporary history. In this war, the necks of disbelief were struck from Iraq to Mozambique, from Syria to the Sahel, in the clearest and most practical rejection of the taghut [rulers who use man-made law; effectively, idolators]. This event was a turning point in the modern history of Islam. It gave the victorious sect [al-tayfa al-mansura] a base of strength and a foundation on which to rest as it travelled on the path of slavery to God Almighty and into the battle of monotheism aimed at establishing the supremacy of God’s law on earth so there is no fitna [strife] and the deen is entirely for God.
This blessed event shuffled the cards of the jahili “world order”, and the entire world stood in awe as it witnessed the believing band, which America claimed to have eliminated during the Bush era, breaking the borders and demolishing the veneer [created in] the era of the loser Obama, after it had crushed America’s allies, the Sahwa [Awakening] and Rafida [Shi’is] in Iraq and Syria. And in reaction to this blessed step, which divided the hearts of the Jews and Crusaders from the believers, the infidels mobilised the largest international jahili alliance of this era.
The Romans, Persians, and Russians united for the first time in their history, and behind them were the cunning Jews. All of their plots were combined, and they came together to wage war against the Caliphal State [Dawlat al-Khilafa]. What was the result? What did this satanic alliance achieve? The Islamic State stood by the position of its Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam [peace and blessings of God be upon him], and his Companions [Sahaba] on the Day of Confederates [Yawm al-Ahzab]. So, it resisted this global attack, which targeted the abode [or house: dar] of the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and its soldiers, leaders, and subjects fought like heroes. The caravans of the martyrs raced to God Almighty. They fulfilled their pledge and completed their pledge of allegiance in scenes more wonderful than imagination, supporting Islam and preserving the shari’a.
“When the infidels failed to invade, they resorted to using their planes,” Abu Hudhayfa went on, attacking “everyone who took shelter in the shade of the Caliphate”, killing many and destroying buildings, but “they failed to penetrate the building [or structure] of the creed (bunyan al-aqeeda), despite the assistance they received from many evil preachers and the media of Dajjal”, literally meaning “the Deceiver”, effectively the Antichrist, the messianic figure in Islamic Tradition who will arise to do battle with Jesus at the End of Days.
Abu Hudhayfa boasts that the Caliphate continued to stand under this “brutal campaign”, and the jihadists then “surprised” the U.S.-led Coalition by spreading into Africa, disrupting the “dreams of the Crusaders”. As the war against the Islamic State dragged on, the costs rose and intra-Coalition conflicts escalated: “America’s dilemma before its war on the Caliphate was limited to Iraq and Syria; after the war, its dilemma has spread everywhere: to Khorasan [Afghanistan], Pakistan, west and central Africa, Mozambique, the Sahel, Somalia, East Asia, and other citadels of Islam that have joined the ranks of the Caliphate, pledged allegiance [bay’at] to its Imam and raised its banner.”
All this was “contrary to what America desired”, says Abu Hudhayfa, “and here the Caliphal State still is, at the end its first decade, continuing on its path, strengthening and expanding (tawqa wa tatamadad), while the illusions of its enemies are failing and dissipating, thanks to God Almighty.”
Abu Hudhayfa then begins a section, with a reiteration of the phrase, “A decade has elapsed for the Caliphal State”, listing the accomplishments of the Islamic State. These include:
Writing the most epic battle stories “of the era in Mosul, Raqqa, Baghuz, Sirte, Marawi, Jalbana, and elsewhere”, and keeping all of these “provinces” (wilayats) active.
Rescuing a generation of young Muslims from dying while adhering to false ideologies, since the Islamic State has “destroyed the idols of the era, such as pacifism and patriotism, democracy and nationalism, and protected the fruits of jihad from becoming common plunder to be used by democrats and nationalists.”
Working hard and bearing heavy costs, holding back nothing for the sake of the umma (worldwide Muslim community). Four Caliphs have been killed during this decade—“offered … as sacrifices for the sake of the battle for monotheism and the rule of the shari’a. Their blood flowed and they all died in the fields [fighting] for al-muraghamah (cultivating hatred of unbelievers). Not one of them died in his bed … and alongside them are thousands of [Islamic State] leaders and soldiers who gave their lives for the creed (aqeeda)”.
Trapping “all the sects of disbelief” in an unwinnable war of attrition: “If they leave …, they will lose and we will win the battle, and if they stay, we will impose upon them torment [or torture, suffering: adhab] and attrition [or exhaustion: istinzaf], and they will leave and lose, and we will win the battle, because there is no losing in the battle of monotheism.”
Continuing to expand, not only on the ground but in “the hearts of true monotheists”, who are until the present hour making “difficult and dangerous” journeys to join the Islamic State, laying down their lives “so that their umma may live a life of glory and pride, not a life of humiliation and lowliness [or degradation, debasement, disgrace: al-ghutha].”2
Initiating a war with all tawaghit, the rulers using man-made laws. Abu Hudhayfa credits the Islamic State because “it did not differentiate between one taghut and another, nor has it played the game of [aligning with one or other of] the jahili axes and alliances, as did most of the deviant groups, who became pawns in the hands of governments and playthings for intelligence services, their structures infiltrated and [these groups] manipulated, willingly or unwillingly, into the war against us.” (It is not quite true that the Islamic State never collaborated with, and has never been manipulated by, regional intelligence agencies, specifically those of Bashar al-Asad’s Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic State has had occasion to concede this before now, lamenting the mistakes made while playing the game.)
Holding fast to its ideology and method: the Islamic State “has not softened its outlook nor changed its approach, it has not flattered or compromised or made peace [with its enemies]. Rather, it has adhered to the Book [i.e., the Qur’an] robustly, carried the legacy of prophethood, and defended it with all the strength at its disposal”.
Turning to the Islamic State’s mujahideen, Abu Hudhayfa sends a message of “loyalty, love, and commitment”. The IS jihadists are congratulated for their bravery and sacrifices to “uphold the word of their Lord”, and their “patience in adversity”. They are also reminded that Ramadan is a time for being especially attentive to God and “there is no better worship in this month than jihad, for it is His month and season, and that is the duty of your Prophet and his Companions, who filled the record of this month with pages and pages of battles … and the records are still open for you to fill with glory and epic battles (al-malahim).” The path is difficult and the burden is heavy, says Abu Hudhayfa, so jihad should be carried out to provide provisions for the journey.
IS's soldiers are reminded that the greatest commandment is taqwa, roughly “piety”, more exactly fearing God, which IS jihadists are enjoined by Abu Hudhayfa to do in private and in public, and to continue steadfastly with their mission, sustained by “patience and prayer”. IS jihadists must not be intimidated by the numbers of their opponents, for it is faith not numbers that leads to victory, according to Abu Hudhayfa, and in any case trials and tribulations are indispensable parts of the road for jihad and monotheism, vital to “separate the truthful from the liars, the patient from renegades”, and a necessary price to attain paradise. This is a consistent part of IS’s messaging, stretching back before the caliphate, reflected in its tactical and strategic behaviour: the need for cycles of hardship to test the ranks, to eliminate those whose dedication is insufficient, to purify the herd so that only the true believers remain to experience the final triumph.
IS jihadists are instructed to obey their emirs, as this is a foundational component of how order is maintained, and to beware the machinations of Iblis (Satan, the Devil), and also djinns—which are, apparently, everywhere—whispering into the hearts of men and seducing them into wrongdoing. It is here Abu Hudhayfa quotes one of the Islamic State’s favourite Qur’anic verses: “Hold fast to the rope of God, all of you, and do not be divided” [3:103]. The Prophet Muhammad is also quoted on the need for obedience and honouring pledges made in Islam.
Abu Hudhayfa says that obedience includes supporting the brothers who carried the banner for the Islamic State in the media war and brought in so many recruits. IS’s media department has always been crucial to its conception of the war it is waging, and Abu Hudhayfa underlines that here, though he prefaces it with a warning: “Listening and obedience are obligatory for every one of them, so listen and obey, cooperate and volunteer, beware of division and disagreement, and avoid futile debate, for it hurts the heart and takes away the reward.”
As with the warning to obey emirs, at one level this is quite standard fare from the Islamic State spokesman: order and authority are paramount for any insurgent-revolutionary movement and IS has already had some trouble when the dissent of an internal ultra-extremist faction, the Hazimis, broke into public view. The Hazimiyya issue was probably not as serious as the scale of leaks and Telegram polemics made it seem, but that only underlines the need for message control. Still, it is a data point to keep track of that the IS spokesman devoted time to the need for discipline in the rank-and-file.
Abu Hudhayfa adds: “You have a large archive of the Islamic State’s visual, audio and print heritage”, confirming something long known, and most interestingly encourages the IS media activists to “strive to upload it, translate it, and distribute it over the Internet, which is not busy fighting you”:
Crowd out the people of falsehood by spreading guidance and righteousness, and repel their suspicions with the truth and nothing else. Support the shari’a with the shari’a and the Sunnah with the Sunnah, and call them to the path of your Lord with good preaching, and address the people according to the level of their intelligence, for you are the Messengers of the message, and it is your primary duty in the media field. So do not replace it with anything other than marching to the battlefields. Be honest [or trustworthy], sincere, obedient, determined, and devoted, and comply with the directives of your brothers that you receive through their official channels.
What Abu Hudhayfa says here is strategic instruction, not propaganda: credibility is crucial for a revolutionary movement, which is why the Islamic State does not, contrary to a persistent myth, simply claim every terrorist incident in the West or around the world. The group might exaggerate the casualties it inflicts, and minimise the losses it suffers, but it rarely lies about its responsibility. On the few occasions where a lone-attacker acted on IS’s behalf and the Centre did not know about it, the group has stayed silent. (Most IS “lone wolf” attacks are nothing of the kind: they are guided by jihadist officials in Iraq and Syria.) It is this record that makes the handful of cases where the balance of probability is that IS did lie in claiming an attack that did not belong to it so difficult to assess: in nearly all these instances, the details remain incredibly murky even now, and, given IS’s modus operandi, their claim cannot be entirely dismissed as a possibility.
Abu Hudhayfa next addresses the “proud knights” in the wilayats. First up is Mozambique. The IS jihadists there are praised for having massacred and displaced Christians, and “burned the earth from beneath their feet, inflicting humiliation after humiliation upon them”.
The Islamic State’s war on Christianity in Africa has been a source of pride for some time. Abu Hudhayfa notes that this effort is not solely military; it is also missionary. The “tireless” da’wa (proselytism) efforts of IS’s operatives in Africa are “congratulated”:
You promote the rule of the shari’a in a land forgotten by the Muslims, but not forgotten by the Crusaders, with their conspiracies [to spread] atheism and Christianization, and here you are today, thwarting their plots, frustrating their efforts to seduce people and Christianize them, repelling their animosity with the guiding Book and the victorious sword.
Similar praise is directed to IS’s Central Africa Province (ISCAP), “the giants of the jungle and the lions of combat”, whose slaughter, abduction, and expulsion of Christian civilians from villages across the Democratic Republic of the Congo have ensured “they no longer have any safety at home or while travelling”, spreading poverty by disrupting the trade routes, and caused Christians to become angry at their own government—and external supporters like Uganda—for their failure to protect them. Abu Hudhayfa incites ISCAP to “continue your effort and struggle” and begin targeting “Christian gatherings and government centres”, as this will kill more people and create greater political turmoil.
“Greetings” are sent to IS’s Sahel and West Africa Provinces (ISSP and ISWAP, respectively), with much praise for the carnage they have caused in Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and there is an unsubtle dig at Al-Qaeda: while IS is establishing zones “governed by the divine shari’a”—with all the glories of the hudud punishments and the assaults on shirk (idolatry, polytheism)—there are those who “sit back” and criticise.
A “salute” is sent to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in Afghanistan, the subject of so much global attention after they were IS node used for the terrorist outrage at the concert in Russia last month:
The masters of unity, of al-wala wal-bara [loyalty (to believers) and disavowal (of unbelievers)], whose attacks have struck all the mushrikeen [idolaters, polytheists]: the American Crusaders, the Russians, and the Chinese Communists, and they attacked the Rafida Magians [i.e., Iranians], the Sikhs, and the Hindus, so their temples were destroyed and their blood mixed with the blood of their guards.
Salutations from Abu Hudhayfa go, too, to IS’s troops in Pakistan, with a particular congratulations for “their recent campaign against the lords of infidelity and the worshipers of modern idols, the lords of democracy and infidel elections”. Muslims are reminded by the IS spokesman that: “Democracy is a deen that clashes with Islam and wars against it: the contradiction is root and branch.”
The shout-out to the East Asia Province (ISEAP) commends them for their patience in turning the southern Philippines into a warzone. Abu Hudhayfa adds: “We advise you to close ranks and move the work to the heart of the cities, using the forests as your bases to make the enemy centres your targets”, essentially a recommendation that IS’s legions in the Philippines adopt the rural-centric insurgent strategy used in the Middle East, only with forests substituted for deserts.
Next up is the Islamic State in Somalia (ISS), saluted for its steadfastness in enduring the intensified American air attacks and its “recent victories” over the “apostate militias”, i.e. the Somali government, such as it is, to hold on to territory in the “land of two migrations” (ard al-hijratayn), as IS refers to the Horn of Africa. Abu Hudhayfa’s advice for ISS is to move the war onto enemy terrain, with assassinations and attacks in the city centres.
“Greetings” are then sent as a job lot to “all the soldiers of the Caliphate and its detachments in Yemen, the Sinai, Libya, Tunisia, the Caucasus, and elsewhere.” All are encouraged to be patient and remember that “jihad matures through adversity”, a tacit admission that these wilayats are not doing so well at the present time. “This is a necessary stage, and all the other arenas have gone through it before you”, Abu Hudhayfa adds. These wilayats are advised to keep and sharpen their faith, which will prepare the foundations for gains later; to act only when they are certain the reward is worth the cost; and “do not rush to pick fruit that has not yet ripened”.
Given the assumption that IS used ISKP for the Kerman attack in Iran in January, it is interesting that Abu Hudhayfa “congratulate[s] the Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon for [this] specific attack”. Abu Hudhayfa is pleased that IS’s operatives managed to infiltrate Iran’s “fortresses” and strike “the worst of its temples”, scattering the body-parts and blood of Shi’is all over the place, repaying a small part of the debt IS believes is owed to “the Rafida everywhere”.
The massacre at the Crocus City Hall is lauded by Abu Hudhayfa for striking “Crusader Russia” in “its very heart, in its capital”, hailed as a great step towards “avenging the Muslims and disciplining the unbelievers”, as well as exposing “the hypocrites” (al-munafiqun)—namely, those Muslims who condemned the atrocity—who are invited to “die in their rage”. Abu Hudhayfa says the Islamic State has “no need to muster a justification to legitimate targeting a State that has fought Muslims in the past and in the present: we are still killing and capturing its soldiers in Syria and the Sahel, and before that we brought down its plane in the Sinai”.
The “warmest greetings” are given to IS’s forces in Syria, who are congratulated for keeping the jihad going, both swarming the deserts and challenging the regime in its strongholds, inflicting painful costs on “the Nusayris and their Russian allies”. Curiously, there is no mention in this context of the Iranian regime that controls “the State” in Syria. Abu Hudhayfa takes delight in the political trouble this campaign has caused for the Asad regime: first the confusion about the perpetrator of the killings against its forces, and then the difficulties over whether to announce who was responsible.
As ever, Abu Hudhayfa is equally pleased to use this as a point against the other Islamists, in this case the insurgents in Syria, dominated at this point by an Al-Qaeda derivative, noting that IS was the only group that did not make any agreement with the regime and therefore could not be betrayed—a reference, it seems, to the “de-escalation zones” debacle that theoretically reduced violence in Syria and in practice allowed Asad to have peace on all the other fronts as the regime (and Iran and Russia) concentrated forces to eliminate the rebel pockets seriatim.
In contrast, says Abu Hudhayfa, the Islamic State maintained its arms, rejected all “reconciliation” deals and other bargaining, “and did not stop its war against the Nusayris, because this is a war between Islam and disbelief, not a tribal war nor a jahili revolution against the ruler … This is one of the secrets to [the Islamic State] remaining [or enduring: baqiya] and its persistence”.
“We conclude”, says Abu Hudhayfa, “with our fragrant greetings to the lovers of death, the knights of Wilayat al-Iraq, the soldiers of the abode of the Caliphate, the bearers of its banner, the initiators of its spark, and the igniters of its embers—those who turned the lives of the Rafida into hell, and robbed them of their imagined security until they began to curse the alleged victory. The life cycle of the Rafidhi goes from one failed campaign to the next. They wander in the deserts, being picked off by IEDs [abwat] and snipers, living in constant anxiety, fearing that the planes will be brought down. Whether they fall down or stay in place, we will gather them, annihilate their army and their Hashd [al-Shabi], and cleanse the Iraq of the Caliphate from their filth”.
Addressing the Muslim as a whole about Gaza, Abu Hudhayfa has two broad messages: the conflict is nothing special, merely one in a series of theatres that should concern jihadists, and the only solution is (conveniently) that of the Islamic State, a worldwide religious war with an emphasis on killing Jews.
As Abu Hudhayfa puts it:
What is happening today to Muslims in Gaza is what has happened many times over the last few years in Iraq, Syria, Libya, the Sinai, and Yemen, and what is still happening to Muslims every day in Burma, India, China, and other [areas with] Muslim tragedies. It is one wound, with one solution, gathering behind one Imam and one methodology [manhaj] that mobilises armies to fight the infidels under the banner of the shari’a, as we have done, and we have gone a long way in towards achieving that. Despite all the obstacles, difficulties, and disappointments, we will continue and we will not give up until God commands it and fulfils His promise.
We have already explained in our recent speech the position of the Islamic State as it concerns the wound of the Muslims in Gaza and how to support them according to the method of Islam, by fighting and uniting, not with slogans and words, and that the war against the Jews is incomplete without fighting their allies among the apostates and Crusaders everywhere. It is on this basis that the integrated [series of] attacks were launched by the Caliphal State in support of our people in Gaza, manifesting the meanings of unity, brotherhood of faith, support [nasr], and loyalty to the believers. We thank you, O soldiers of the Caliphate, for your deeds, and we bless your campaign, for you have confirmed your words with action. We ask God Almighty to enable you to reach the land of Palestine to fight the Jews face to face, in a holy war that will not rest nor be abandoned.
In this regard, we renew and repeat our incitement to the lone wolves,3 by striving to target the Crusaders and Jews everywhere, especially in America and Crusader Europe, as well as in the heart of the Jewish statelet in Jerusalem and the rest of the land of Palestine. …
Know that by transferring the battle into the homes of the Jews and the Crusaders, it becomes more difficult for them, more heartbreaking, and more painful. So renew your intentions and plan your wills, and lie in wait for the Jews and Christians to attack them. Remember the greatness of your deeds and the greatness of your reward for selling your lives cheaply for the sake of your Lord. God Almighty said: “Let those fight in the cause of God who sell the life of this world for the hereafter. Whoever fights in God’s cause, whether he is slain or victorious, We shall give him a great reward” [Qur’an 4:74].
The Islamic State has always argued that the obligation of jihad against all non-believers is as integral to the practice of Islam as, say, prayer, and Abu Hudhayfa hits that theme: “O Muslims, as we are in the of the Holy Month [of Ramadan], we remind you that God has imposed on us jihad, just as He has imposed fasting … … So why are most of those fasting today lagging behind in jihad?!” Abu Hudhayfa expands on the individual obligation of jihad—for old and young, those in hardship and in comfort—and spells out that jihad can include donating money to the cause and especially spreading propaganda, “which has a major role in the wars of the era”, as the Islamists of HAMAS have demonstrated over the last seven months.
“Confused Muslim youth” are enticed to leave “the lands of unbelief”, where all kinds of unholy desires might tempt them, and to contribute to the restored glory of the umma—and to gain a share of the spoils once Islam triumphs—by joining the Islamic State: “Come and live among your brothers so that you may be secure in your deen and thus attain the good in this world and the hereafter.”
Broadening the theme, Abu Hudhayfa notes that “on the day we declared the Caliphate we were inciting hijra [migration] to its heartland in Iraq and Syria”, but “the territory of the Caliphate today extends to West Africa, the Sahel, East Asia, Khorasan, and Pakistan”: the muhajireen (foreign fighters) should feel free to join any of them, says Abu Hudhayfa.
As ever, praise is heaped upon IS’s prisoners, with Abu Hudhayfa emphasising several times he means “male and female”. The jihadist prisoners are said to have served Islam to such an extent other believers are ashamed to be in their presence, and IS is ever-cognisant of its debt to them, which will be repaid “no matter the price”. IS’s jihadists have sworn a covenant with God to free the prisoners, says Abu Hudhayfa, and this has been acted upon: “The prisons of Iraq, Syria, Khorasan, the Congo, Nigeria, and beyond have borne witness to this.” A message of support from Emir al-Mumineen (the Commander of the Faithful or Prince of the Believers) is quoted and IS’s loyalists are told that their jihadist activities are one of the surest ways to provide comfort to the prisoners. Abu Hudhayfa also uses this as an opportunity to remind IS’s fighters how salutary suffering is for the cause—there is no reaching paradise without it.
Perhaps the most impassioned section of the speech concerns Al-Hawl, the prison camp in Syria that holds thousands of those Abu Hudhayfa calls “chaste believing women”, the female relatives—many of them wives—of the IS jihadists, whose commitment to the cause cannot be doubted. The camp is run by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Abu Hudhayfa refers to plainly4—and with tremendous venom. In redeeming the honour of these women, Abu Hudhayfa says “nothing heals the heart like the slitting of throats, the shedding of blood, and the scattering of body parts”.
Abu Hudhayfa tells IS’s operatives in Syria to find and kill the PKK leaders, jailers, and “everyone connected to this horror show” in Al-Hawl: “Show them … your anger and jealousy over the honour of Muslims”. It is specified by Abu Hudhayfa that suicide bombers—something IS has been in short supply of recently—should be found to attack the PKK, as well as inghimasiyeen, those who infiltrate behind enemy lines and kill until they are killed. “Strive to kill your enemy in the most eye-catching way”, Abu Hudhayfa goes on, imploring IS’s jihadists to make the battles against the PKK protracted and brutal. “Do not delay in taking your revenge, and do not set any limits for it other than the limits of the shari’a.”
“As for our message to the PKK’s factions, the soldiers, [party] members, and tribal leaders”, says Abu Hudhayfa, “you are more despicable, humiliating, and weaker than your predecessors in the Iraqi Awakening. Like you, they were donkeys [lit. ‘mounts’: mataya] and shoes for the Americans, and the horrors that befell them [at the hands of the Islamic State] have become stories passed down through generations. We do not promise you their fate, despite its severity. Rather, we promise you a fate more horrific”.
Getting into his peroration, Abu Hudhayfa says:
O Crusaders, O Jews, O all infidels: You thought that your war with the Caliphal State was a roundabout that would be concluded and then it would be finished and you would be free from it, leaving you safe and the arena would be clear for you to complete your plans for the war against Islam. But God defeated your expectations and nullified your plotting … The Caliphal State goes through round after round, coming back each time stronger than the last, by the grace of God Almighty. The periodic meetings of your alliance became a cycle like the meetings of your allies, the Arab tawaghit, describing the problem and coming up with no solutions—because there are no solutions.
You have exhausted your solutions in your war against the Caliphal State in Iraq and Syria with a global coalition. You exerted your utmost effort in assembling the riff-raff of the countries of unbelief and the most degraded nations, then you declared victory over us repeatedly, as you did before in Iraq. Yet here we are, back to jihad, fighting against all of your allies who stand by, helplessly small, not knowing what the solution is—because there are no solutions.
One tawaghit has succeeded another in America, inheriting the losses and failures of the war against the Islamic State … After they failed long ago to extinguish the flame of jihad in Iraq during the Bush era, they later failed miserably during the Obama era to prevent the establishment of the Caliphate, then they failed again to eliminate it during the era of the reckless Trump, and then they failed during the era of the senile Biden to prevent the expansion of its authority in the lands that God bequeaths to whomever He wills from among His servants. The series of American failures is still continuing at the hands of His believing slaves.
America and its allies have been stuck in the mire of a war of attrition and confrontation led by the Caliphal State across the entire world. In a single raid, its soldiers attack the allies of America simultaneously in many countries. In the face of these raids, all the armies of infidelity can do is count their losses and collect the bodies of their dead.
And look at America, how you started your war against the mujahideen in Iraq about two decades ago, when they were divided into various groups and factions, and here you are today fighting their grandchildren, who have built the sole State that is outside the limits and restrictions of your jahili world order, and its army in Iraq is only one of its armies operating across various wilayats, for we do not fight you with numbers and equipment, but rather we fight you with a faith [iman] in God Almighty that is stronger than the mountains.
What do you have left in your arsenal, America, to fight against us? Is it a renewal of the alliance you were exhausted mustering the first time, which is now divided against itself, and is threatened by the spectre of internal wars and economic crises? Or is it your helpless African replica alliance, which you are still unable to pull together and which you are still begging for money to support, even as it is sunk in a holocaust [muhraqa] of epic battles across Africa and the Sahel?
What is left in your arsenal, America? Your wars have failed, your losses have increased, your crises have continued, and the day will come when you abandon your Rafida donkeys and disappear from their skies, handing them over to the inevitable fate of a second Speicher, a third Fallujah, and more and worse than that, God Almighty willing.
Although your first withdrawal from Iraq [in 2011] was a mistake that you later regretted, staying now would be an even greater mistake than the previous one. If you fought us yesterday relying on proxy armies,5 Sahwat al-Ridda [the Awakening of apostasy] and the Iranian Hashd, then the coming battles will involve fighting face to face, Muslim to kufr, a slave of Allah and a slave of the Cross. We are still watching Dabiq day after day, and the soldiers of the Caliphate are still yearning for these prophetic promises.
Abu Hudhayfa concludes, rather abruptly, with some quotations from the Hadith and finally one from the Qur’an: “Allah has full power over His affairs, but most of mankind know it not” [12:21]. The usual sign-off—“[all] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds”—is absent in both the recording and the reprint of the speech in Al-Naba 346 on 28 March.
NOTES
Abu Hudhayfa made his first speech on 3 August 2023, introducing himself and announcing the appointment of the new caliph, Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi. Abu Hudhayfa’s second speech on 4 January 2024 was a call for a renewed international terrorism campaign, particularly focused on Jews, as well as a general commentary on the Israel-HAMAS War, which condemned HAMAS and Israel’s allies.
“Lowliness” tends to be the word the Islamic State uses in its English translations.
This is a loose translation of the phrase used by Abu Hudhayfa: “aswad al-munfarida”, literally “single blacks”, presumably a reference to lone carriers of the Islamic State’s black banner. The Islamic State has previously, including recently, used the phrase “al-dhiyab al-munfarida” to mean “lone wolves”, but it has always been clear that the group is importing the concept—either directly quoting Westerners, or commenting on the Western fear of these kind of attackers—since IS regards such terrorists (for good reason) as belonging to it, acting physically alone, but usually given orders, and sometimes quite intimately guided through an attack, via online communications.
The PKK was chosen as the West’s “partner force” in the anti-IS war, but since the group is on most Western terrorism blacklists, the official euphemism is that Operation INHERENT RESOLVE is fought “by, with, and through” the “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF).
The exact phrase used is “jaysh al-wakala”, literally, “[intelligence] agency armies”.