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Al-Qaeda Leader to Speak on “Islamic Spring” in Series of Lectures on Social Media

· Written by Amira Al Hussaini

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Citizen Media, Politics, War & Conflict
Screen Shot of one of the Twitter accounts which announced Al Zawahiri's lecture series

Screen Shot of one of the Twitter accounts which announced Al Zawahiri's lecture series, said to be broadcast on social media

Al Qaeda's leader Ayman Al Zawahiri [1] is expected to give a series of lectures on the “Islamic Spring” on social media.

The announcement is being circulated on social media. On Twitter, this anonymous user says:

By the will of Allah, the Islamic Spring series soon by Emir Ayman Al Zawahiri, may Allah protect him

A screenshot of the tweet is included above as such accounts which support militant groups usually get taken down by Twitter after user complaints. According to Twitter Rules [7], posts which promote violence are banned:

Violence and Threats [8]: You may not publish or post threats of violence against others or promote violence against others.

And Twitter reserves the right [9] to suspend accounts which break its rules:

When an account violates our abusive behavior policy, the actions we take against that account depend on the severity of the violation. We may ask users to verify or provide information, delete specific Tweets, or we may suspend or lock the account temporarily or permanently.

DC-based journalist Zaid Benjamin, who closely monitors jihadist social media outlets, makes a similar announcement, without mentioning the source:

Also absent from the announcement is where those lectures will be made available.

Stopping militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and its splinter group, the ISIS, from using social media to spew their poison, spread their message, and recruit more adherents, has become an uphill struggle in recent years. Like most platforms, in their terms of service [11], platforms like Google [12] and Facebook [13] prohibit content that promotes violence, terrorism, and hate speech, and reserve the right to remove it from their sites. This doesn't stop supporters from riding the bandwagon.

Screen shot of a Topsy search for mentions of Ayman Al Zawahiri, in Arabic, on Twitter

Screen shot of a Topsy search for mentions of Ayman Al Zawahiri, in Arabic, on Twitter

A Topsy search of mentions of Ayman Al Zawahiri, in Arabic, shows more than 360 tweets in the last 23 days, many sharing his quotes and fatwas and praising the terror mastermind. One even provides a justpaste link to his books on Jihad.

Egyptian Al Zawahiri, 64, took over the leadership of Al-Qaeda in 2011, following the death of Saudi Osama Bin Laden.

The series of uprisings which have taken the Arab world by storm since the fall of Zainalabiden bin Ali's regime in Tunisia in early 2011 are collectively known as the Arab Spring. Some have coined the moniker Islamic Spring too as the unfolding events of the Arab Spring have given rise to the emergence of Islamic movements, some of whom have worked within the system, like Ennahda [14] in Tunisia, while others like the ISIS have wreaked havoc in the region.

It is not clear which Islamic Spring Al Zawahiri will be referring to. Nevertheless, we can't wait to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, as journalist Sherine Tadros sarcastically points out: