New Islamic State Editorial: "Jihad is Jihad Oh People of Ethiopia"

As noted previously, the weekly editorials in al-Naba’ are generally either generic editorials that reaffirm the Islamic State’s basic worldview, or comment on some recent development in the news. This week’s editorial is of the latter type, focusing on the recent reports of the Ethiopian government’s demolition of mosques in certain areas (ostensibly for urban planning), resultant protests and the use of live ammunition by Ethiopian security forces in response.

For the Islamic State, however, these demolitions are simply another iteration of a ‘Crusader’/Christian war on Islam, a war that is portrayed as inevitable in both the past and future until the end of time. Just as the war has an eternal, cosmic dimension, so also the solution for the Muslims to pursue in all times and places is jihad, which must be combined with correct creed, and should never be undertaken in the name of ethnic, nationalist and other un-Islamic causes.

This outlook is reinforced by the simple narrative that the group presents regarding the course of history: when Muslims adhered to jihad and correct creed as the first three generations of Muslims did, they realised conquest and success, but subsequently they deviated from this eternal solution, and so they have suffered degradation and humiliation with the supremacy of the disbelievers imposed upon them.

Below is the editorial fully translated by me. Any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.