The Revolution Muslim Method: Explicit and Online Promotion of Terrorism

Revolution Muslim emerged out of a history of Islamist organizing, yet the group represented a significant departure from earlier groups.

Revolution Muslim’s method differed from the original ALM method in two ways. First, while ALM-NY and the Islamic Thinkers Society had enabled jihadist terrorism in particular cases but denied actively supporting such activity, Revolution Muslim explicitly embraced promotion of terrorist groups. Second, while ALM-NY and ITS had relied on physical in-person meetings and engaged in more private efforts, Revolution Muslim integrated in-person activities with extensive online outreach.

Revolution Muslim embraced the promotion of terrorist groups and terrorist activity in a far more brazen and explicit manner than ALM-NY or ITS had. Abdullah Faisal played the role that Omar Bakri Muhammad had when he split off from HT, but with a more provocative style. Residing in Jamaica, Faisal had an additional layer of protection from prosecution.

Revolution Muslim also took advantage of the more permissive free speech environment in the United States, where it was easier to promote Faisal’s particularly radical message. Revolution Muslim’s split from ITS and its embrace of Faisal, whom ITS and ALM had kept their distance from, made its support and encouragement for terrorism unambiguous.

In Britain, Anjem Choudary, by then ALM’s leader and a Revolution Muslim collaborator, stated regarding Revolution Muslim’s more provocative approach:

“Now they’ve [RM] suddenly started to call for the sharia and are coming out publicly.… In general there’s more freedom there.… In the videos, they are openly calling for jihad on the streets of New York whereas we can’t do that anymore here because you have [a law against] glorification of terrorism.”¹

The statement of facts for Abdullah Muhammad’s guilty plea, in a case that will be detailed later, similarly highlighted the explicitness of the group’s militancy:

“On January 23, 2009, [Abdullah Muhammad] engaged in street dawa, a video of which he later posted to a Revolution Muslim YouTube account. In the course of the dawa, [Abdullah Muhammad] stated that the 9/11 attacks were against legitimate military targets.… On August 7, 2009, [Abdullah Muhammad] engaged in street dawa, a video of which he later posted to a Revolution Muslim YouTube account. In the course of the dawa, [Abdullah Muhammad] proclaimed that ‘God tells you to terrorize them in the Quran’ and that ‘Islam is guerilla warfare.’”²

In his September 2017 interview, Abdullah Muhammad further explained the difference between Revolution Muslim and its predecessors:

“Al-Muhajiroun and Islamic Thinkers Society typically refrained from engagement with the mainstream moderate community. They criticized moderate and mainstream community leaders from afar, online and in private study circles, but never went to the mosques or imams directly. Revolution Muslim sought to drive a wedge in the American Muslim community itself, to highlight what it perceived as hypocrisy in the mainstream American Muslim community and to challenge, contest and provoke, not just citizens in the West but to use their lacking identification with sharia and the caliphate as proof of their apathy and weakness. For Revolution Muslim, ‘speaking truth to power’ included addressing ‘the enemy within,’ directly.”³

Revolution Muslim sought to enmesh its activity with that of existing jihadist terrorist groups. Revolution Muslim posted al-Qaeda propaganda on its websites. For example, in early 2008, Abdullah Muhammad embedded a video titled “Knowledge is For Acting upon – The Manhattan Raid.” As the statement of facts in Abdullah Muhammad’s guilty plea states, the video “depicted Usama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers as heroes who acted on the knowledge they had.”⁴

When people contacted Abdullah Muhammad to ask his opinion on the 9/11 attacks, he replied that “‘we look to the mujahedeen’ for guidance and that the questioners should watch the ‘Knowledge is for Acting Upon by Al-Sahab’ video and reach their own conclusions.”⁵

Revolution Muslim held no direct link to al-Qaeda operatives, but its support for al-Qaeda was unambiguous. On December 2, 2010, Abdullah Muhammad responded to a journalist’s allegations that he was associated with terrorists, writing, “If loving Muslims that fight and die to defend themselves from Western imperialism makes the UK and US govts associate me … with terrorists then I am honored to be so associated.”⁶ In defense of the use of violence, Abdullah Muhammad further stated, “I don’t see why people would ever imagine that you can defeat 500 years of the colonialism and genocide that is Western civilization with placards and democratic participation.”⁷

Revolution Muslim combined its adoption of more explicit support of terrorism with a new concentration on internet proselytization. Abdullah Muhammad explained the difference between ITS’ more private, in-person efforts and the new approach adopted by Revolution Muslim:

At ITS study circles, attendees would sit on the floor, cross-legged. A pamphlet would be utilized as a guide. … HT guides such as the ‘Islamic Personality’⁸ were used to appeal to the individual, to cultivate traits that made one willing and worthy of engagement in activism….

Revolution Muslim utilized the same method and even taught some of the same doctrine. However, we launched it online, made it interactive and accessible to all. We did not start with the individual, however, we started with the vision of the totalitarian Islamic State.”⁹

Revolution Muslim also consciously reached out to charismatic preachers across the English-speaking world.¹⁰ These included not only Omar Bakri Muhammad, Anjem Choudary and Abdullah Faisal, but others like Sheikh Feiz Mohammad, an imam from Australia whose popular YouTube sermons may have helped radicalize Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.¹¹ Others that Revolution Muslim reached out to included Abu Adnan, director at Markaz Imam Ahmad in Liverpool, Australia, and Imran Hosein in Trinidad, known for his lectures in eschatology and Islamic economics and once principal of the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, Pakistan, as well as imam at Masjid Dar al-Qur’an in Long Island, New York. Revolution Muslim also reached out to a range of second-tier leaders from al-Muhajiroun and its numerous offshoots. Revolution Muslim also posted recordings of lectures from various Western preachers online and continuously sought alliances.

In August 2008, Abdullah Muhammad emailed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni cleric, in an effort to align him with Revolution Muslim. However, al-Awlaki, by then embedded with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), believed he had an alternative role and obligation—not merely preaching, but engaging in and directing operational activity. He responded:

“May Allah reward all those who are calling towards the truth and promoting it. Each one could serve Allah in his capacity and according to his ability. As long as the message that is presented is a message of truth then even if they are working in different areas and different parts of the world then they are still united in their efforts despite the distance. I believe it is more conducive at this stage to keep it like that.”¹²

Abdullah Muhammad interpreted the email to imply that al-Awlaki would soon be operational. RM could now consciously facilitate an adherent’s ideological progression into support for terrorism, while al-Awlaki could take them to the level of action. The veneer of religious legitimacy, coupled with the sheer output of material, created an “echo chamber” that could rival competing interpretative schools and that pulled recruits from their localized communities into the first manifestations of an online “virtual caliphate.”