Al-Qaeda magazine urges boycott of McDonald’s

The digital magazine Resurgence, produced by al-Qaeda's propaganda wing, urges strikes and boycotts against Western economic targets.

The first issue of a new al-Qaeda magazine for would-be jihadists urges Muslims to boycott McDonald’s and other major corporations as part of an economic war against the West.

The English-language digital magazine Resurgence was uploaded to online forums this week by As-Sahab, the propaganda wing of al-Qaeda, featuring a cover story about “practical steps” people can take to bring about the “liberation of Palestine.”

After giving a lengthy history of the Holy Land, including the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and Western support for the State of Israel, the article proposes “hitting them where it hurts and striking the heart and lifeblood of their economy, represented by international trade and finance.”

The writer of the piece, American-born Adam Yahiye Gadahn, says embargoes and sabotage against Western economies are the most potent weapons in jihadists’ arsenals.

“Major Western companies and multinational corporations like Wal-Mart, MacDonald’s, Proctor and Gamble, Microsoft, Nestle and Unilever are symbols of the rampant Crusader globalization which is characterized by the exploitation of the weak and impoverished, and the destruction of local economies,” Gadahn writes. “It is our duty as Muslims and as Mujahideen to stop this at all costs.”

The piece instructs Muslims to target international shipping, oil tankers and pipelines, and the globalized financial system as part of the war against the “Jews and Crusaders.”

Gadahn says “Muslims must start to make efforts to reinstate gold, silver and other basic commodities as the standards and mediums of exchange, and begin experimenting with barter systems,” finding rare common ground with U.S. libertarians who also wish to return to a gold-based currency.

In another article on hitting “The Achilles Heel Of Western Economies,” the magazine lays out a detailed plan for launching sea raids against oil tankers, such as in the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal.

“Simultaneous attack on western shipping or western oil tankers… would bring international shipping to a halt and create a crisis in the energy market,” the article says gleefully.

The 117-page first issue of the magazine comes a week after ISIS militants released the latest issue of their own online magazine, which contained similar advice and threats.

“We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women,” the ISIS-made Dabiq promised.

Since the rise of ISIS, al-Qaeda has found itself at somewhat of a disadvantage in the global war for hearts and minds among Muslims sympathetic to the message of militant Islam. ISIS, also known as ISIL and Islamic State, controls wide swaths of Iraq and Syria and has advanced weaponry at its disposal while al-Qaeda no longer has its founder Osama bin Laden or any territory under its control. The duelling magazines are another aspect of that struggle to be the supreme international jihadist group.

Both Resurgence and Dabiq follow in the footsteps of Inspire, a similar effort by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen known as AQAP, or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That publication notoriously inspired the Tsarnaev brothers to plant bombs at the Boston Marathon. Inspire contained the infamous how-to article “How To Make A Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”