Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to work to set up a caliphate that “does not recognise nation state, national links or the borders imposed by the occupiers, but establishes a rightly guided caliphate following in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)”. In a statement entitled “Supporting Islam” published on jihadist websites, the al Qaeda leader rejected the idea of nation states and any United Nations role in settling solutions to conflict – long the pillars of international order – in a document outlining how Muslims should run their affairs. He urged Muslims to use sharia to resolve disputes and “refuse judgment by any other principles, beliefs and laws”, including the United Nations. He said the world body was controlled by the five permanent members of its Security Council, big powers the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France. “These are the objectives of the Document of Supporting Islam, and we call on all those who believe in them to call for them, support them and try to spread them in every way possible among the people of the nation,” he said. Zawahri also urged Muslims to work together to liberate what he called Muslim lands from occupiers, rejecting any deal that gives what he called infidels the right to control Muslim lands, an apparent reference to Egypt’s 1979 peace deal with Israel.
