2011: Al Qaeda funding comes full circle

Osama bin Laden made several public fundraising appeals in his lifetime.  He let his followers falsely believe that he used his family’s vast wealth to support jihad, but  the truth was that Al Qaeda relied on wealthy Arab donors from the Gulf to fund operations like the 9/11 terror attacks.

Bin Laden thought about money right up to the end, and he had taken steps after major floods in Pakistan to exploit the crisis by appealing for the creation of a relief committee with “huge” funding.  He declared in 2010 that “the financial capabilities in the Arabian Peninsula are the Muslims’ money, and it is the oil of Muslims for Muslims, but,” he lamented, “the reality is that some of it is being used without rights and is being spent in the wrong places.” In other words, Arab millionaires were no longer donating enough money to Al Qaeda or Islamic militants in Asia.

The pretext of the floods also prompted Bin Laden to call for an approach that would include Muslim management experts, massive amounts of money, and a fleet of volunteer groups along the lines of a Red Crescent or Islamic Crescent on steroids.  Some analysts, myself included, believed this was a signal of Bin Laden’s intent to re-brand Al Qaeda as an organization with dual purposes of jihad and “humanitarian” relief for Muslims.  Bin Laden concluded that “we need a big, great transformation in the method of relief work.”  Moreover, “mobilization shouldn’t only be to give quick sentimental aid, but to form a distinguished relief committee…”

His successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, initially seemed somewhat indifferent to Bin Laden’s new strategic focus in his public messages.

And when Bin Laden died, Zawahiri’s statements during the summer focused mostly on the martyrdom of Bin Laden, the opportunity to introduce sharia law in the countries that ousted leaders during the Arab Spring, and typical rants against Israel.  He made no direct fundraising appeals for Al Qaeda and didn’t encourage any relief work on behalf of Muslims.

That changed in Zawahiri’s statement on the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, which included his most direct financial appeal since bin Laden died.

Zawahiri remarked “I would like to encourage the benevolent Muslims to begin aiding their brothers in Somalia as much as they can” and that “The benevolent people must spend it for the cause of Allah before they depart with it.”  He said “I also incite the rich people who are dedicated to supporting Islam to go forth and take advantage of the current openness in Tunisia and Egypt in order to establish new media podiums that advocate the righteous doctrine and Islam.”

He continued by saying that the uprising in Egypt “requires loyal men who would sacrifice their souls and money for the cause of Allah.”

Zawahiri evoked the same language of the Hadith and Bin Laden by adding, “Each zealous Muslim should sacrifice his soul, money, time and efforts so the Sharia could become the ruler not the ruled.”

To reinforce the message, Zawahiri eulogized Bin Laden for living “a lifetime full of Jihad with soul and money, and resistance, migration and brutalizing the enemies of Muslims,” claiming that Bin Laden had refused a 1990s Saudi offer to unfreeze Osama’s bank accounts he would swear allegiance to King Fahd.

But Zawahiri has not confined his fundraising message to Muslim donations for the Islamists of the Arab Spring.

Somewhat surprisingly, what Bin Laden only talked about in terms of relief work, Zawahiri actually began putting into effect in 2011 by sending an Al Qaeda emissary named Abu Abdulla Almuhajir on a public relations “charitable” stunt to distribute hijabs, Korans, and food in Somalia in 2011.

Almuhajir praised Bin Laden and Zawahiri during his al-Shabaab hosted visit, and urged Muslims around the world to wage jihad with their wealth:  “We would also like to take the opportunity to encourage Muslims all around the world, to come to the assistance of their brothers and sisters in Somalia, and it is obligatory on every Muslim to assist their needy brother and sisters.”

Al Qaeda to some degree has determined they need to wage their own campaign to win the hearts and minds of impoverished or hungry Muslims.  During 2011, Zawahiri focused mostly on his favorite theme—the eviction of “apostate” leaders from their seats of power in Islamic countries—but he also seems to have the organizational skills to have begun launching the supposed charity or relief-oriented wing of Al Qaeda that Bin Laden only dreamed of.