DEOBANDIS DEFINE AND REJECT TERRORISM IN NEW FATWA An important Islamic seminary once blamed for inspiring the militancy of Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan has issued an important new fatwa (Islamic ruling) on the illegitimacy of terrorism. The 152-year-old Darul Uloom Deoband seminary is... MORE

A great deal of mystery surrounds the April 12 explosion at the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada mosque in the city of Shiraz, in Iran’s southwestern Fars province. The bombing came during a sermon by Mohammad Enjavinejad, the head cleric of the Rahpouyan Vesal Cultural Association (Followers... MORE

On the eve of the fatal U.S. strike against Aden Hashi Ayro, leader of the Shabaab al-Mujahideen movement in Somalia, the electronic monthly magazine Echo of Jihad conducted an interview with Mukhtar Ali Robow, the ex-deputy minister of defense of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union (ICU).... MORE

U.S. DRONE ATTACK IN BAJAUR TRIBAL AGENCY RILES PAKISTAN A missile attack by a CIS-controlled Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on May 14 has created a political firestorm inside Pakistan that threatens to derail ongoing peace negotiations between frontier region tribal militants and the Islamabad... MORE

Islamist forums and jihadi media have been promoting and threatening to perpetrate naval terrorism as an important strategic trend in the jihadi path. Jihad Press, an e-journal affiliated with al-Qaeda, issued a statement entitled “Naval Terrorism, a Strategic Necessity,” which was carried by several different... MORE

IRAQI MUJAHIDEEN CLAIM TO HAVE DECODED U.S. MILITARY ROBOTS The Iraqi mujahideen are claiming that resistance engineering units have successfully “decoded” U.S. military robots designed for urban combat and turned them against U.S. soldiers. After redirecting the robots against U.S. forces, the American military was... MORE

In their attempts to gather more recruits to the cause, jihadi websites are constantly posting enticing messages about the merits of the holy war against Crusaders and Zionists. A posting that appeared in a pro-jihadi forum entitled “How to become a member of al-Qaeda” lays... MORE

Anti-terrorism officials in the Horn of Africa are on high alert following the killing of Shaykh Aden Hashi Ayro, the military leader of al-Shabaab, the youth wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia, in a May 1 strike by U.S. ship-launched Tomahawk missiles... MORE

MOSUL SUICIDE BOMBER FORMER PRISONER IN GUANTANAMO PRISON Three suicide bombers struck on April 26 in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where U.S. and Iraqi government forces are struggling against well-established al-Qaeda militants. The first attack involved a suicide car bomber who targeted a... MORE

A previous issue of Terrorism Monitor discussed a document issued by Sayed Imam Abdulaziz al-Sharif, an imprisoned founder of the Egyptian Jihad organization and a prominent jihad theoretician better known as "Doctor Fadl." The work, called Tarshid al-amal al-jihadi fi misr wa al-alam (Rationalizing the... MORE