CTC Sentinel Objective

may 2010 . Vol 3 . Issue 5

Combating Terrorism Center at West Point CTC Sentinel Objective . Relevant . Rigorous

Contents Riyaz Bhatkal and the Origins

FEATURE ARTICLE 1 Riyaz Bhatkal and the Origins of the of the Indian Mujahidin Indian Mujahidin By Praveen Swami By Praveen Swami

Reports 5 Salafi-Jihadi Activism in Gaza: Mapping the Threat By Benedetta Berti 10 The Virtual Jihad: An Increasingly Legitimate Form of Warfare By Akil N. Awan 13 Internet Jihadists React to the Deaths of Al-Qa`ida’s Leaders in Iraq By Abdul Hameed Bakier 15 The Kidnapping and Execution of Khalid Khwaja in Pakistan By Rahimullah Yusufzai 17 The Sources of the Abu Sayyaf’s Resilience in the Southern Philippines By Rommel C. Banlaoi

20 Recent Highlights in Terrorist Activity 24 CTC Sentinel Staff & Contacts The aftermath of the German Bakery bombing in the Indian city of Pune in February 2010. - Photo by Barcroft Media via Getty Images

n the summer of 2004, a group Today, the Indian Mujahidin has been of young Indian Muslim men implicated in a number of attacks in India, gathered for a retreat at one of and there are signs that the group could the sprawling villas that line the become increasingly dangerous due to Icheerfully-named Jolly Beach, the pride its growing collaboration with Lashkar- of the small, south Indian fishing town i-Tayyiba (LT, or LeT) in Pakistan. The of Bhatkal. They swam, went for hikes in expansion of this network could pose a the woods, honed their archery skills, and serious challenge to regional stability in occasionally engaged in target practice South Asia. About the CTC Sentinel with an airgun. Local residents recall The Combating Terrorism Center is an occasionally hearing small explosions, independent educational and research but presumed the men were setting off institution based in the Department of Social fireworks. Nothing the men did gave Sciences at the United States Military Academy, Bhatkal’s police cause for concern. The November 23, 2007, the group e-mailed a manifesto to the West Point. The CTC Sentinel harnesses police, however, were unaware that the media that for the first time identified itself as the Indian the Center’s global network of scholars and men on Jolly Beach composed the core Mujahidin. The letter, reprinted in its exact form below, practitioners to understand and confront team of the jihadist network that would stated that the attacks were carried out to protest “the pa- contemporary threats posed by terrorism and soon be known as the Indian Mujahidin. thetic condition of muslims in India that idol worshipers other forms of political violence. Long before the network adopted that can kill our brothers,sisters,children and outrage dignity name, the men from Jolly Beach executed of our sisters at any place and at any time and we can’t re- a succession of bomb attacks beginning sist them. AL-HUM-DU-LILLAH now we are prepared 1 The views expressed in this report are those of in 2005, killing hundreds across India. enough to retaliates...Only Islam has the power to establish the authors and not of the U.S. Military Academy, a civilized society and this could be only possible in Islamic the Department of the Army, or any other agency of the U.S. Government. 1 Minutes before bombs exploded outside court buildings rule,which could be achieved by only one path JIHAD- in the Indian cities of Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad on FEE-SABILILLAH.”

1 may 2010 . Vol 3 . Issue 5

Prosecutors in New Delhi charge that Riyaz Shahbandri’s Early Life i-Islami Hind into confrontation with the principal organizers of the Jolly Riyaz Shahbandri’s father, Ismail the Indian government.7 SIMI sought Beach gathering were Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri, left Bhatkal approximately to re-establish the caliphate, without Shahbandri (also known as Riyaz three decades ago, hoping to make his which it felt the practice of Islam Bhatkal) and his brother Iqbal. Most of fortune in Mumbai. He established a would remain incomplete. Muslims the men at Jolly Beach knew each other successful leather-tanning business in comfortable living in secular societies, only by aliases, but Indian intelligence Mumbai’s Kurla area, and eventually its pamphlets warned, were destined for officials believe that the gathering purchased an apartment in Kardar hell. Ideologies other than Islam were included the Bhatkal brothers, Abdul Building off the busy Pipe Road— condemned as false and sinful.8 After Subhan Qureshi, and the key figures an impossible dream for most city Hindu fundamentalists demolished a responsible for the physical execution migrants.6 Ismail Shahbandri’s mosque in the north Indian town of of bombings in northern India, prosperity ensured that his son, Riyaz, Ayodhya in 1992, SIMI began to call for Mohammad Sadiq Israr Sheikh and Atif who was born in 1976, was able to study direct action. SIMI President Shahid Amin. Documents filed in Indian courts at local English-medium schools, and Badr Falahi demanded that “Muslims allege that the men played a key role in later civil engineering at Mumbai’s organize themselves and stand up to recruiting operatives, sourcing bomb defend the community.”9 components and organizing attacks. Furthermore, according to recent “The Jolly Beach meeting Later in the decade, SIMI’s polemic statements attributed to Pakistani- would serve as a key became increasing venomous. In a 1996 American jihadist David Coleman statement, SIMI declared that since Headley (also known as Daood Gilani),2 planning gathering before democracy and secularism had failed to the Shahbandri brothers now lead the group executed a series protect Muslims, the sole option was to the “Karachi Project,”3 an alleged LT struggle for the caliphate.10 Soon after, operation to train and equip Indian of increasingly lethal it put up posters calling on Muslims jihadists for attacks in India.4 The bombings.” to follow the path of the 11th century bombing of the German Bakery in Pune conqueror Mahmood Ghaznavi, and on February 13, 2010, for example, appealed to God to send down a latter- may have been part of this project; one day avatar to avenge the destruction of of the suspected bombers was Riyaz Saboo Siddiqui Engineering College. mosques in India.11 The organization was Shahbandri’s lieutenant, Mohammad In 2002, Riyaz married a Bhatkal-area finally proscribed after the 9/11 attacks Zarar Siddi Bawa, known as Yasin woman, Nashua Ismail, the daughter of in the United States when SIMI activists Bhatkal, who was also present at Jolly an electronics store owner. By this time, organized demonstrations in support Beach.5 however, Riyaz’s story had begun to of al-Qa`ida chief Usama bin Ladin, diverge significantly from the trajectory hailing him as a “true mujahid.”12 This article provides an overview of his businessman father had likely Riyaz Shahbandri’s journey into India’s mapped for him. Due to Shafiq’s SIMI activism, Riyaz nascent jihadist movement, while began to spend time at SIMI’s offices also providing insight into the origins Shafiq Ahmad, Riyaz’s brother-in-law in Mumbai around 2001 at the peak of the Indian Mujahidin and how its to be, lived in the family’s apartment of the organization’s radical phase, collaboration with the LT is a growing as he pursued his studies in Mumbai. associating with men who would play threat to the region. Shafiq, however, was also an activist in key roles in the development of the the Students Islamic Movement of India jihadist movement in India. Among 2 David Coleman Headley was arrested in October 2009 (SIMI), an Islamic youth organization, them were: Abdul Subhan Qureshi and in the United States. He faced a number of charges in and eventually rose to become the head Mohammad Sadiq Israr Sheikh, who the United States, from involvement in the November of the group’s Mumbai chapter. Set up 2008 Mumbai attacks to plotting against employees at in 1977 by the Jamaat-i-Islami Hind 7 For a superb account of SIMI’s history, see Yoginder a newspaper in Denmark that published caricatures of organization, the Indian branch of the Sikand, “Islamist Assertion in Contemporary India: The the Prophet Muhammad. He pleaded guilty to multiple largest Islamist grouping in South Case of the Students Islamic Movement of India,” Jour- charges in March 2010 and is reportedly cooperating Asia, SIMI was the group’s student nal of Muslim Minority Affairs 23:2 (2003). Also see Irfan with U.S. authorities on providing intelligence informa- wing. SIMI, however, was disowned Ahmad, Islamism and Democracy in India (New Delhi: tion. by its founders five years later due to Permanent Black, 2010). 3 For more specific details on the Karachi Project, see its increasingly inflammatory rhetoric, 8 “Interview with [SIMI President] Shahid Badr Falahi,” Animesh Roul, “After Pune, Details Emerge on the Ka- which was viewed as pushing Jamaat- Afkar-i Milli [New Delhi], November 2000. rachi Project and its Threat to India,” CTC Sentinel 3:4 9 Sikand, “Islamist Assertion in Contemporary India: (2010). 6 Biographical details on the Shahbandri family derive The Case of the Students Islamic Movement of India.” 4 Shishir Gupta, “ISI, LeT Getting Indian Jihadis To- in part from Riyaz Shahbandri’s police dossier: “Riyaz 10 Sayyed Abdul Bari, Azad Hindustan Main Muslim Tan- gether in Karachi for Attack,” Indian Express, February Ismail Shahbandri @ Riyaz Bhatkal,” Maharashtra Po- zimein (New Delhi: Institute of Objective Studies, 2001), 1, 2010. lice Anti-Terrorism Squad, September 30, 2008. Mate- p. 305. 5 This information is based on police review of closed- rial was also gathered by the author during interviews 11 Anita Verma, “India Urgently Needs a Ghaznavi: SIMI circuit surveillance footage. For details, see “IM Leader of relatives and friends of the family during multiple vis- Chief,” The Asian Age [New Delhi], March 29, 2001. Yasin Bhatkal Mastermind of Pune Blasts, Claims ATS,” its to Mumbai and Bhatkal between October 2008 and 12 Sikand, “Islamist Assertion in Contemporary India: Daily News and Analysis, April 8, 2010. April 2010. The Case of the Students Islamic Movement of India.”

2 may 2010 . Vol 3 . Issue 5 would co-found the Indian Mujahidin Later in his life, Iqbal appears to have been terrorism, because according to the along with Riyaz Shahbandri; Ehtesham drawn to the work of the controversial neo- glorious Koran, if you kill one innocent Siddiqi, who is now being tried for fundamentalist Mumbai-based doctor- person, then you have killed the whole his alleged role in the bombings of turned-televangelist, Zakir Naik.16 Naik of humanity.”23 Nevertheless, ideas such Mumbai’s suburban train system in July has never been found to be involved in as these were profoundly attractive to 2006; and Rahil Sheikh, who recruited violence, but his words have lit up the angry young Muslim men in the years dozens of Maharashtra jihadists, most imagination of diverse jihadists—among after the anti-Muslim violence that tore notably for an abortive 2006 terrorist them New York taxi driver Najibullah apart the state of Gujarat in 2002. For strike in Gujarat to avenge the anti- Zazi, who pleaded guilty in the United Muslim violence that had taken place States in February 2010 for plotting to there four years earlier.13 attack New York City’s Grand Central “For Riyaz and the men Station, among other targets.17 Zazi who would form the Indian In addition to his role in SIMI, Riyaz’s reportedly “became enchanted” with worldview also appears to have been Naik’s preaching.18 Mujahidin, their anti-India shaped by his brother, Iqbal. Iqbal’s jihadist project represented adult life took a rather different course Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation from that of his brother. He studied (IRF), which was listed as an approved a response to the political Unani medicine, a form of traditional theological resource on the LT- challenges confronting healing based on Greek, Arab and affiliated Jamaàt-ud-Da`wa website, Indian practices that has some currency has proved a magnet for LT operatives their communities, not an across South Asia.14 Yet Iqbal’s primary and many rank-and-file SIMI members. abstract global cause.” interests were religious. Although it Rahil Sheikh, a key LT organizer who does not appear he received a formal allegedly assembled a jihadist network education in theology, Iqbal was that sought to execute terrorist strikes an enthusiastic participant in the in the state of Gujarat, recruited cadre Riyaz and the men who would form activities of Tablighi Jamaàt, a neo- at the 2003 Srinagar convention of the the Indian Mujahidin, their anti-India fundamentalist Islamic proselytizing Salafi Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadis, where Naik jihadist project represented a response order whose annual gatherings at was a speaker.19 Sheikh’s associate, to the political challenges confronting Raiwind in Pakistan are reputed to Feroze Deshmukh, who is being tried their communities, not an abstract draw more followers than any Muslim on multiple terrorism-related charges global cause. congregation other than the Hajj in Mumbai, worked as a librarian at the pilgrimage.15 IRF.20 In 2001, Riyaz’s SIMI links to ganglord Aftab Ansari brought him into contact Naik has made various speeches that with well-known organized crime 13 For details of the role of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also could result in radicalization. In one figure Asif Raza Khan, a year before known as Tauqir, and Sadiq Israr Sheikh, see “Final speech, he said, “If he [Bin Ladin] is Khan was killed in a shootout with the 24 Form Report Under Section 173, Code of Criminal Pro- fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for Gujarat police. Authorities believe cedure in the Court of Kaveri Baweja, Chief Metropolitan him. If he is terrorizing America the that Riyaz looked to Khan to use crime 25 Magistrate,” New Delhi Police Special Cell, November terrorist—the biggest terrorist—I am to fund jihadist operations. Following 21 2010. For background on the 2006 Mumbai train bomb- with him.” Naik concluded, “Every Asif Khan’s death in 2002, his brother, ings, including the role of Ehtesham Siddiqi, see Prerana Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing Amir Raza Khan, set up the Asif Raza Thakurdesai, “How the Case was Cracked,” India Today, is, if he is terrorizing a terrorist, he is Commando Force, a jihadist group 22 October 16, 2006. For details on the Aurangabad case, its following Islam.” When interviewed by dedicated to the memory of his brother. links to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and the role of Rahil reporters after Najibullah Zazi’s arrest, Amir Khan, who is linked to a welter Sheikh, see Praveen Swami, “Investigators Put Face to Naik insisted, “I have always condemned of jihadist operations including an Voice on Mumbai Attack Tapes,” Hindu, February 10, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Kolkata, 2010. 16 For example, inside Bhatkal-area Indian Mujahidin allegedly provided passports and funds 14 Biographical details on the Shahbandri family derive safehouses raided by the Karnataka Police in October to facilitate the training of several Indian 26 in part from Riyaz Shahbandri’s police dossier: “Riyaz 2008, investigators found an abundance of pro-Taliban Mujahidin members in Pakistan. In Ismail Shahbandri @ Riyaz Bhatkal,” Maharashtra Po- videos and Naik speeches. lice Anti-Terrorism Squad, September 30, 2008. Mate- 17 On Najibullah Zazi, see David Von Drehle and Bobby 23 Drehle and Ghosh. rial was also gathered by the author during interviews Ghosh, “An Enemy Within: The Making of Najibullah 24 For details, see “Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri @ Riyaz of relatives and friends of the family during multiple vis- Zazi,” Time Magazine, October 1, 2009. Bhatkal,” Maharashtra Police Anti-Terrorism Squad, its to Mumbai and Bhatkal between October 2008 and 18 Ibid. September 30, 2008. April 2010. 19 Praveen Swami, “New Proof on Mumbai Blasts,” Hin- 25 Ibid. Mumbai police records show criminal proceed- 15 For background on Tablighi Jamaàt and its belief du, August 1, 2006. ings were first initiated against Riyaz in 2002 for the system, see Yoginder Sikand, The Origins and Develop- 20 S. Husain Zaidi, “First Clues from Chat Room,” Indian extortion-related attempt to murder Kurla businessman ment of the Tablighi Jamaat, 1920-2000 (New Delhi: Orient Express, September 30, 2006. Deepak Farsanwalla. Longman, 2002). Tablighi Jamaàt is a non-violent orga- 21 Zakir Naik, “Every Muslim Should be a Terror- 26 “Final Form Report Under Section 173, Code of Crimi- nization, yet some of its members have been involved in ist,” speech in English available at www.youtube.com/ nal Procedure in the Court of Kaveri Baweja, Chief Met- terrorist operations, usually because they have had dual watch?v=Bxk5AAA5FbI, undated. ropolitan Magistrate,” New Delhi Police Special Cell, memberships in a more violent cell or group. 22 Ibid. November 2010, p. 48.

3 may 2010 . Vol 3 . Issue 5

May 2003, Mumbai police investigators eventually meet Asif Raza Khan.32 Riyaz example, Rahil Sheikh formed cadre say that Riyaz and Ehtesham Siddiqi and Sheikh had known each other from who attempted to stage an abortive held the first of a series of meetings, their days as SIMI activists in Mumbai; attack on Gujarat in 2006—an operation some involving Khan, to discuss the however, they came together as partners the Maharashtra police claim involved prospect of using Nepal as a base to in the Indian Mujahidin project through assault rifles and grenades packed into train jihadists.27 Nothing came of this Asif Khan. After reportedly receiving computer cases and shipped across the plan, but Riyaz is alleged to have used training at an LT camp in Pakistan, Indian Ocean by the LT. Nevertheless, Khan’s funds to send several operatives Sheikh, on instruction from Amir the leadership of each separate jihadist for training in Pakistan.28 Raza Khan, began to recruit cadre in network appears to have maintained Azamgarh, starting in late 2002. Key operational secrecy, despite their By 2004, Riyaz had succeeded in among them were Atif Amin, who was common political past. tapping diverse sources to put together killed in an October 2008 shootout an organization committed to jihadist with New Delhi police, Arif Badar, and Little is known about the precise state violence within India. The Jolly Beach Mohammad Shahnawaz. of play between the Indian Mujahidin meeting would serve as a key planning and the Karachi Project, but it is clear gathering before the group executed a By 2005, after the gathering at Jolly that the Indian Mujahidin network series of increasingly lethal bombings. Beach, the multiple Indian Mujahidin itself is just part of a larger jihadist network components had fallen into project across India.34 The 2008 The Origins and Formation of the Indian place. Prosecution documentation bombings in Bangalore, for example, Mujahidin filed in New Delhi suggests Atif were carried out by a jihadist cell that Information on the early years of the Amin’s Azamgarh cell was responsible had supplied explosives to Riyaz, but Indian Mujahidin has been drawn from had no knowledge of his operations.35 Sadiq Israr Sheikh, the only founding “The jihadist networks in In the Bangalore case, LT-linked SIMI member of the group in custody.29 Like operative Sarfaraz Nawaz funded a Riyaz and Iqbal, Sheikh was born in a India remain extremely Kerala-based jihadist cell run by long- family that had migrated to Mumbai.30 fluid and consist of small time Islamist activist Tandiyantavide Beginning in 1996, he began attending Nasir that trained recruits to carry out SIMI meetings near his home in groups of individuals who bombings on a ginger plantation in the Mumbai’s Cheeta Camp area. Perhaps are loosely allied together.” forests around Kodagu, in southern drawn by the sense of purpose, SIMI India. Nawaz, who had worked closely appeared to provide many young with Qureshi in SIMI, does not appear Muslims in Mumbai a calling when to have known of his role in the Indian the relationship between Hindus and for providing manpower for the Mujahidin. Muslims became increasingly strained attacks. Sadiq Sheikh liaised between due to communal violence. According the Azamgarh cell and the Indian The central point is that the jihadist to police, Sheikh grew tired of SIMI’s Mujahidin’s Mumbai-based senior networks in India remain extremely polemics and was in search of a more leadership. Iqbal Shahbandri raised fluid and consist of small groups of effective medium to turn his beliefs into operatives for a specialist computer- individuals who are loosely allied action.31 services cell. Riyaz Shahbandri and together. In this sense, they bear little his cell sourced explosives and bomb resemblance to the large, hierarchically- In April 2001, a relative of Sheikh set components that were assembled into structured Pakistan-based jihadist forth a process where Sheikh would usable devices. Abdul Subhan Qureshi groups such as the LT or Jaysh-i- traveled nationwide, finding SIMI Muhammad—although even in the 33 27 “Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri @ Riyaz Bhatkal,” Maha- sympathizers to assist with cells. Pakistani cases there appear to have rashtra Police Anti-Terrorism Squad, September 30, been some recent splintering. 2008. During this period, parallel jihadist 28 Ibid. groups led by figures who knew the Conclusion 29 For Sadiq’s story, see Praveen Swami, “The Indian Indian Mujahidin leadership from their Riyaz Shahbandri’s story is evidence that Mujahidin and Lashkar-i-Tayyiba’s Transnational Net- time in SIMI proliferated as well. For substantial political problems are driving works,” CTC Sentinel 2:6 (2009). Also see “Final Form jihadist mobilization within India. It Report Under Section 173, Code of Criminal Procedure 32 Material in this paragraph is drawn from “Final Form also makes clear, however, that the LT’s in the Court of Kaveri Baweja, Chief Metropolitan Mag- Report Under Section 173, Code of Criminal Procedure infrastructure in Pakistan is critical to istrate,” New Delhi Police Special Cell, November 2010, in the Court of Kaveri Baweja, Chief Metropolitan Mag- these networks’ reach and lethality. Key pp. 47-49. istrate,” New Delhi Police Special Cell, November 2010, leaders such as Riyaz Shahbandri and 30 Biographical details are drawn from interviews con- pp. 47-49. Sadiq Israr Sheikh trained in Pakistan. ducted with relatives and friends of Sheikh in Mumbai 33 For more details on Qureshi’s background, see Swa- Indian investigations into the Indian in March 2010, as well as from “Final Form Report Un- mi, “The Indian Mujahidin and Lashkar-i-Tayyiba’s Mujahidin’s bombings have not reached der Section 173, Code of Criminal Procedure in the Court Transnational Networks.” For other source material, see of Kaveri Baweja, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,” New “Final Form Report Under Section 173, Code of Criminal 34 Roul. Delhi Police Special Cell, November 2010, pp. 47-49. Procedure in the Court of Kaveri Baweja, Chief Metro- 35 For a discussion of this case, from which the material 31 Personal interview, senior Mumbai police official, politan Magistrate,” New Delhi Police Special Cell, No- in this paragraph is drawn, see Praveen Swami, ‘To Ban- March 2010. vember 2010. galore with Hate,” Hindu, April 21, 2010.

4 may 2010 . Vol 3 . Issue 5 closure because figures central to the Hizb-ut-Tahrir) is an example of this network’s functioning have sought safe Salafi-Jihadi Activism in non-violent Salafist trend, advocating haven in Pakistan. Gaza: Mapping the Threat the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Palestine while politically opposing Many in India’s intelligence services By Benedetta Berti the Hamas government.3 fear that the recent bombings in Pune in February 2010, Bangalore in April in june 2007, Hamas took control of Violent Salafist groups, on the other 2010, as well as the abortive attack the Gaza Strip. Since then, numerous hand, only developed in the Palestinian in Deloitte in Hyderabad in May 2010 reports have surfaced about Salafi- Territories in the past few years. These herald the coming of a renewed wave of jihadi and al-Qaìda activity in the groups are focused on armed jihad jihadist violence intended to undermine Palestinian Territories. Despite and are globally referred to as Salafi- the country’s economic progress and these reports, there is relatively little jihadis—this marks their distinction status in the run-up to the high-profile information on the Palestinian Salafist with non-violent Salafist groups. They Commonwealth Games, which will be community and its connection with mushroomed in the months leading held in New Delhi in October 2010. Hamas and the international Salafi- up to and following the 2005 Israeli Whether or not Riyaz Shahbandri’s jihadi movement. This article provides withdrawal from Gaza, and their so-called Karachi Project is a new an overview of the characteristics of the presence additionally increased in endeavor or simply a name for ongoing Salafi-jihadi movement in Gaza, and it the midst of the internecine struggle jihadist activity directed at India, maps the existing groups that pursue between Hamas and Fatah before the country clearly faces a growing this militant ideology in the Palestinian Hamas’ eventual takeover of Gaza in problem from Indian Muslims who Territories. 2007.4 In conjunction with a process have become radicalized and are able of fragmentation within Palestinian to seek assistance from Pakistan-based The article finds that the Salafi-jihadi society, new Salafist-inspired groups militants. network in the Gaza Strip is largely a local were created both to challenge the phenomenon and it has thus far lacked internal distribution of power between Praveen Swami is Associate Editor of the concrete organizational and operational Fatah and Hamas and to advocate Hindu, one of India’s largest English- links with al-Qaìda or other international for stronger links between the language newspapers, and reports on jihadist groups. Nevertheless, the network predominantly nationalist or statist terrorism and low intensity conflicts in admires al-Qaìda’s modus operandi, is Palestinian cause and the international India. His most recent book, India, Pakistan ideologically aligned with al-Qaìda, jihadist network. These groups initially and the Secret Jihad: The Covert War in and in the past has attempted to strike emerged in Gaza and gained strength Jammu and Kashmir, 1947-2002, was foreign targets in Gaza.1 These worrying because of the temporary situation published by Routledge in 2007. The book factors demonstrate the importance of of anarchy and the vacuum of power was written while he was a Jennings Randolph monitoring Salafi-jihadi activity in the created by the struggle between Hamas senior fellow at the United States Institute of Palestinian Territories. and Fatah. They were, however, able Peace in Washington, D.C., in 2004-2005. to gain legitimacy due to the ongoing His scholarly work includes a 1999 book, Defining the Salafi-Jihadi Movement: process of decaying secularism within The Kargil War, chapters in several edited A General Framework Palestinian society and the rise of volumes, and papers in journals including Salafism, an Islamist revivalist Islamist political forces—a trend that is The India Review and Faultlines. Mr. movement within Sunni Islam, is not tightly connected with a wider regional Swami has won several major awards for his an entirely new phenomenon in Gaza. dynamic.5 Despite this phenomenon, work, including the Indian Express-Ramnath Non-violent Salafist organizations, the rise of Salafi-jihadi groups has Goenka Print Journalist of the Year prize, focused on social work and proselytism, occurred predominantly in Gaza, as the 2006. first emerged in the early 1980s under Fatah-controlled West Bank has mostly the guidance of clerics such as Shaykh managed to contain the rise of new Salim Sharab. Many of these clerics Islamist groups while cracking down on studied in Saudi Arabia before returning more established actors such as Hamas. home to the Palestinian Territories. The movement continued to grow during the 3 Reuven Paz, “Salafi-Jihadi Responses to Hamas’ Elec- 1990s, but never became a mainstream toral Victory,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology 4, No- faction within the Palestinian political vember 1, 2006. 2 arena. Hizb al-Tahrir (also known as 4 For some of the first reports, see Khaled Abu Toameh, “Al-Qaida-Linked Terrorists in Gaza,” Jerusalem Post, 1 See, for example, the July 2008 interview between February 6, 2005; “Al-Qa’idah Claims Attack on Pales- Salafi-jihadi activist Abu Mustafa and Der Spiegel. On tinian Official,” al-Arabiya, May 21, 2006; Khaled Abu that occasion, Mustafa stated: “We have to fight—just Toameh, “Al-Qaida in Palestine Issues Death Threat like our brothers on Sept. 11…We feel just like al-Qaida Against Abbas. PA Foils Attempt To Kill Fatah Security and we think as they do.” For the interview, see Ulrike Chief,” Jerusalem Post, May 22, 2006. Putz, “Compared to Us, Hamas is Islamism Lite,” Der 5 Asher Susser, “The Rise of Hamas in Palestine and the Spiegel, July 18, 2008. Crisis of Secularism in the Arab World,” Crown Center 2 Hasan Jabr, “Al-Ayyam Opens File on Salafi Groups in for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, February The Gaza Strip,” al-Ayyam, May 17, 2007. 2010, pp. 1, 45-46.