“…It is time that you disbelieve in democracy which will not bring better than what it has brought upon you in the past lean years. It will bring nothing upon you but shame and disgrace. It is time for you to know that democracy is nothing but a tool and method by which the Ṭawāghīt (tyrants) are empowered and by which they wage war upon the Religion of Allah. It is time that you reject your treacherous politicians, who have only been working for their own personal and private benefits, the ones who through voting for them, you gained nothing but humiliation, degradation and oppression.”Aaron Y. Zelin, “al-Furqān Media presents a new audio message from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shām’s Shaykh Abū Muḥammad al ‘Adnānī al-Shāmī: ‘He Will Surely Establish For Them [Therein] Their Religion Which He Has Preferred For Them,’” Jihadology, last modified April 19, 2014, http://jihadology.net/2014/04/03/al-furqan-media-presents-a-new-audio-message-from-the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-shams-shaykh-abu-mu%E1%B8%A5ammad-al-adnani-al-shami-he-will-surely-establish-for-them-therein.

 “O groups of Sunnah in Iraq, it will not harm you to disbelieve in democracy and gather around the Mujāhidīn.” Aaron Y. Zelin, “al-Furqān Media presents a new audio message from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shām’s Shaykh Abū Muḥammad al ‘Adnānī al-Shāmī: ‘He Will Surely Establish For Them [Therein] Their Religion Which He Has Preferred For Them,’” Jihadology, last modified April 19, 2014, http://jihadology.net/2014/04/03/al-furqan-media-presents-a-new-audio-message-from-the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-shams-shaykh-abu-mu%E1%B8%A5ammad-al-adnani-al-shami-he-will-surely-establish-for-them-therein.

“America came to Iraq leading a frenzied crusade, in its sleeve a new map of what they call the ‘Middle East.’ It came with all its forcefulness and all of its iron (weaponry), with all of its pride and all of its arrogance. It gathered all of its allies and mobilised all of its aircraft and its fleets, and it brought its horses and its soldiers. The Crusaders thought that no one would be able to overcome them; however Allah the Mighty and Majestic disgraced them and showed us the weakness of their plot.” Aaron Y. Zelin, “al-Furqān Media presents a new audio message from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shām’s Shaykh Abū Muḥammad al ‘Adnānī al-Shāmī: ‘He Will Surely Establish For Them [Therein] Their Religion Which He Has Preferred For Them,’” Jihadology, last modified April 19, 2014, http://jihadology.net/2014/04/03/al-furqan-media-presents-a-new-audio-message-from-the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-shams-shaykh-abu-mu%E1%B8%A5ammad-al-adnani-al-shami-he-will-surely-establish-for-them-therein

“I might get hit by a mortar and be killed, and you might live longer than me, but remember my words. They [the West] will use you, and they will unite you with Bashar’s army, and with an interim government, and they will promise you seats in parliament, and such things — the same as they did with the Sunnis in Iraq. The West will sell you cheap. They sold your grandfathers and our grandfathers. And for hundreds of years the West has been controlling us, and they keep these tyrants over our heads. As if it were us who committed the al-Houla massacre, or did the chemical weapons attack, or raped the women in Bashar’s prisons. You forgot about Bashar, and now you came to fight us in earnest, and in the end, you and the [Alawites] will hug each other. You serve this project without knowing. Your army and Bashar’s army will unify to ‘counter terrorism’ — which is us. You will kill us and we will kill you. We have no other options — either you cleanse us or we cleanse you, because the decision is not yours.” (From a phone call between al-Iraqi and his enemy, a Syrian rebel commander) Mike Giglio, “A Late-Night Phone Call Between One of Syria’s Top Extremists And His Sworn Enemy,” BuzzFeed News, April 3, 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/a-late-night-phone-call-between-one-of-syrias-top-extremists#.wgA5eEyo8d.

Asserting that Syrian rebels are American agents: “The West has understood the game. They won’t send anyone whose name is William or Benjamin. They’ll send people named Ahmed and Mohamed and Abdullah. The American soldier is expensive, so they will use people from among us — and this is the truth of the battle, they will use you — in the fight against us.” (From a phone call between al-Iraqi and his enemy, a Syrian rebel commander) Mike Giglio, “A Late-Night Phone Call Between One of Syria’s Top Extremists And His Sworn Enemy,” BuzzFeed News, April 3, 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/a-late-night-phone-call-between-one-of-syrias-top-extremists#.wgA5eEyo8d.

“What is terrorism? Is what the Americans are doing in the world not terrorism? They have made themselves our enemy through their actions. If my enemy classifies me as such, it means nothing to me… We will never be at peace with the West, because Islam will always prevail… America and other countries are trying to impose their own ideologies and views here. They will divide Libya if they continue this.”Mary Fitzgerald, “A Conversation with Abu Khattala,” New Yorker, June 18, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/06/abu-khattala-before-his-capture.html.

“The USA and its slaves like you are the greatest criminals on Earth.” (Tweet)Joseph A. Carter, Shiraz Maher, and Peter R. Neumann, “#Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks,” International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, April 2014, 26, http://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ICSR-Report-Greenbirds-Measuring-Importance-and-Infleunce-in-Syrian-Foreign-Fighter-Networks.pdf.

“And if he does not find any, he will wage Jihad alone wherever he is. Thereupon, America will not only fear the Afghani soldiers, but she will also be haunted by fear wherever her interests are. She will also fear the homegrown Muslims, and even American reverts. Everyone of those will be considered a time bomb which may blow up anytime, during a soccer game, a car race, or in a club.”Ibrahim Ar-Rubaysh, “The Crusade and the Swap of Stances,” Inspire 12 (2014): 26.

“O brothers, the Crusader enemy is still shuffling his papers, so we must remember that we are always fighting the biggest enemy, the leaders of disbelief, and we have to overthrow those leaders, we have to remove the Cross, and the carrier of the Cross is America…”Thomas Joscelyn, “Al-Qaeda’s General Manager Threatens America in Video of Large Gathering,” Long War Journal, April 17, 2014, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/04/a_video_released_by.php#.

“With time Al-Qaeda may disappear. Not that Jihad has ceased, but the whole Ummah will be waging Jihad. Every Muslim will see that it is his obligation to fight with all his power against America. Just like when he hears the adhan [Islamic call to prayer] he makes wudhu (preparation for formal prayers) and goes to the nearest Jama’ah [group of worshippers], if he does not find Jama’ah he prays alone wherever he is. The same way when he hears the call of Jihad against America, he will strive to answer it by joining the nearest Jihadi group.”Ibrahim Ar-Rubaysh, “The Crusade and the Swap of Stances,” Inspire 12 (2014): 26.