NEFA Foundation: Army of Islam Issues Message to the Austrian Government
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new communiqué from the Army of Islam in Gaza, in which the group urges the Austrian government to release Muhammad Shawqi Mahmoud from jail. In March 2008, Mahmoud was sentenced to four years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organization. Mahmoud, a central figure in the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), was involved in producing a March 2007 GIMF video that threatened Austria and Germany if the countries did not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan. That same month, BBC reporter Alan Johnston was kidnapped in Gaza; the Army of Islam subsequently issued a videotaped claim of responsibility for the operation. During the February 2009 Canadian trial of Mahmoud’s GIMF co-conspirator, Said Namouh, prosecutors revealed that Mahmoud and Namouh “played a major role for the GIMF in the editing” of that Army of Islam video. However, in this statement, the Army of Islam claims that "Muhammad Shawqi Mahmoud has no ties to the Army or any part in capturing the British reporter Alan Johnston by any way, shape or form. He has no relation to or knowledge of this operation, and these accusations directed to him are nothing of the truth, and basically pure falsehood.”
An English translation of the communique can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.
