
JAFFA, Israel – Two of the most popular hashtags currently trending on Arab social media are #Zionist_entity_burns and #Israel_on_fire, as a significant volume of users rejoiced in the wake of a string of forest fires striking Israel this week, some of which were reportedly sparked by arsonists.
Some social media users claimed the blazes were divine punishment for a bill that was recently deliberated in the Knesset seeking to impose noise restrictions on houses or worship, legislation that could impact the notoriously loud Muslim calls for prayer.
Other users announced that despite the drought in the region, whoever prays for rain in Israel is a traitor.
Bahar Ibrahim recalled that Thursday was the anniversary of the death of Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian militant from the northern West Bank who was an influence on Osama bin Laden during his sojourn in Afghanistan.
“#Zionist_entity_burns on the anniversary of the martyrdom, on 24 November 1989, of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam. Is there a greater avenger than Allah?”
“They wanted to restrict the muezzin call. Allah came and burned them in the heart!” Azza tweeted. “Huge fires in the north of occupied Palestine and the enemy seeks international aid to save himself.”
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The “Forest Jihad”
The “Forest Jihad” was an existing methodology for many years in the Israeli-Palestinian and Hezbollah conflicts. Forests arson was prevalent in many conflict regions in different parts of the world long before Al Qaeda’s appearance. But Al Qaeda apparently embraced arson as an additional tactic in promoting economic damage to the West, as a political tool to influence public opinion in the West and Western governments. Targeting the economy as a comprehensive radical Islamic ideology is a focal point of its ideology and its inspired operations. Osama bin Laden, called for attacks against the U.S. economy. “It is important to concentrate on the destruction of the American economy”[25] The notion of “Economic Jihad” is not new, following the September 11 attacks in the U.S., Al-Qaeda came out with a series of official statements introducing the idea of economic Jihad. According to al-Qaeda, targeting the U.S economy is one of the main pillars in Bin Laden’s strategy of confronting the West.[26]
One of the pillars of Al-Qaeda’s operational objectives in its war against the West, is striking at targets of high economic value, the so-called “bleed-until-bankruptcy plan” first made public by Osama bin Laden himself in December 2004.[27]
The execution of such attacks is primarily a function of the terrorists’ performance capabilities, and timing is usually determined by their degree of operational preparedness and their overall operational strategy of maximizing the economic and psychological damage to their adversaries.
The “Forest Jihad” (forest arson) is one manifestation of the “Economic Jihad” tactics, a tool in a variety of options to cause economic direct and indirect secondary damages. As stated in the message below, the radical Islamic logic in setting fires is regarded beneficial for several aspects that have strategic implications.” Typically, these fires take months rather than days to fully extinguish, this will temporarily hamper the export of timber, used primarily in the manufacture of furniture “…and this will also cause pharmaceutical companies to sustain losses, since trees contain key ingredients for medicinal drugs ”,“ …financial losses for the tourism industry”. “Keeping emergency and military personnel (a resource) tied up trying to fight the fires. Some units in Iraq or in Afghanistan could even be recalled, as happened with hurricane Katrina when it hit the United States”.
Finally, it should be stressed that arson is a relatively easy, no cost and simple action (box of matches, immersed cloth with gasoline and appropriate weather conditions), which does not need any, complicated prior preparations or a special operational infrastructure. Arson can be initiated by a small local isolated group of individuals or by a “lone wolf”, who in both cases may have no direct connection to Al Qaeda, but are only inspired by its ideology and their keenness to act. These facts make it hard, if not impossible, for law enforcement to detect, or prevent. In addition, one should bare in mind that random and spontaneous natural causes of forest fires, or large-scale abnormal natural disasters occurring in the U.S. or the West, were exploited in the past by Jihad entities for propaganda purposes, claiming that these were the punishments justly brought down by Allah as retaliation.
Arabic Website Urges Jihadists to Start Forest Fires
http://www.aljazeeratalk.net/forum/showthread.php?t=52356
English translation of the statement follows:
“summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.”
“In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.”
“We pray for Allah to aid us and heed our calls.”
“Summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.”
“I call on all Muslims in the United States, in Europe, in Russia, and
in Australia to start forest fires.”
“Praise Allah and praise Allah once more.”
“Peace and blessings upon his prophet.”
“The active intellectual scholar, the jihadist Abu Mus’ab Al-Suri, may
Allah set him free, says: Jihad is an art just like poetry, music, and
the fine arts. There are people that draw and there are others that
are jihadists. They both act upon inspiration.”
“May Allah ease his calamity and set him free along with all of our
imprisoned brothers. It is by the glory of Allah that his imprisonment
has not prevented him from publishing his writings in the form of
books and media. The idea of forest fires is attributed to him, may
Allah set him free, as is in this short clip:”
“This call goes out to Muslims in Europe, in the United States, in
Australia, and in Russia to start forest fires.”
“Forest Fires.”
“The Jurisprudence of forest fires, as in ‘an eye for an eye’; the
amazing results; and the operational instructions.”
“The Jurisprudence:
“Is it permissible to burn trees?”
“Yes, under certain circumstance, such as when the prophet, PBUH
[peace be upon him], burned the Jews’ palm trees in Al-Nadir.”
“Ibn Al-Qayyim narrated in [a book entitled] ‘I’lam Al-Muwaqqa’in,’
that: You should retaliate in the same manner as that in, which you
were attacked. He goes on to say that: The punishment for a sin should
be a similar sin. He also mentions that: If you should punish, punish
as you were punished. This, in essence, justifies that. This suggests
that the punishment should fit the crime, for instance in life, in
matters of honor, and where assets are involved. Scholars have
justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do
the same to our lands.”
“Allah Almighty agreed to allow the companions to cut down the Jews’
palm trees in order to dishonor them [Jews]. This was the Almighty’s
intention when He said: ‘Whether ye cut down (O ye Muslim!) the tender
palm-trees, or ye left them standing on their roots, it was by leave
of Allah, and in order that He might cover with shame the rebellious
transgressors. [Koranic Verse; Al-Hashr, 59:5].’ This proves that Allah
Almighty wishes to punish the unjust aggressor. The justification for
burning their belongings is their aggression against Muslims and their
deception. It is they who burn the Muslims’ wealth.”
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