Al-Qaeda threatens to demolish Ram Mandir in Ayodhya; promises to rebuild Babri Masjid

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• Jan 7, 2023 | Dhupali Das

According to one senior intelligence officer, the magazine's content appeared to have been written by someone familiar with the Indian context...

Digital Desk: Al-Qaeda has threatened to demolish the Ram temple in Ayodhya and replace it with a mosque in the latest edition of their journal Ghazwa-e-Hind. 

The magazine, which was published online this week by jihadist channels, also mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, warning them not to disregard its exhortations as "propaganda of the Pakistani establishment," and asked Indian Muslims to support jihad (holy war).

"Just as the Ram temple is being built on the ruins of the Babri Masjid, it will be demolished, and the Babri Masjid will be rebuilt over the place of the idols in the name of Allah," Al Qaeda said in an editorial in the 110-page magazine. "All it demands is sacrifice," the article added.

According to one senior intelligence officer, the magazine's content appeared to have been written by someone familiar with the Indian context.

Addressing Indian Muslims, it claimed that they should "not dread material losses in this cause," as they had already suffered decades of loss of life and property. "If this life and property had been used for jihad, then there would not have been so much loss," the official said. 

Further, it referred to secularism as "hell" for Indian Muslims and said that slogans of Hindu-Muslim unity are "a farce."

"All Hindus are being taught to use sticks. Talk of chopping off the faces and heads of Muslims with vegetable-cutting knives is being heard from the mouths of Hindu women."

It added that al-Qaeda aims to wage jihad in order to convert the entire Indian subcontinent to Islam and destroy idol worship.

Osama bin Laden founded Al-Qaeda in 1988, and its focus on India was launched by Ayman al-Zawahari, who became the terror organization's commander after bin Laden's death in 2011.

In a video posted online in September 2014, al-Zawahiri declared the establishment of the group's new branch in the Indian subcontinent.

Sana-ul-Haq, also known as Asim Umar, the founding commander of al-South Qaeda's Asian wing, was killed in an airstrike by the United States in Afghanistan's Musa Qala region in 2019. He was from the Uttar Pradesh district of Sambhal.