Abdullah al-Muhaisny, a key authority among radical circles in Syria, says Trump presidency will sow division and expose west’s hatred of Muslims

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Jihadis have welcomed Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the American presidential race, saying his election would sow greater division and expose what they described as the hatred and racism of the west towards Muslims.

The endorsement of the election result by extreme Islamist figures highlighted fears that Trump’s divisive rhetoric and call to ban Muslims from entering the US could empower radicals who have argued that the west seeks Islam’s destruction and is at war with its adherents.

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The idea has been central to Islamic State propaganda – at its height the terror group called on Muslims to abandon life abroad and flock to the territories it controls or risk indignity and oppression in western societies.

“Trump’s victory is an important step towards the victory of the Sunnis,” said Abdullah al-Muhaisny, a key authority among radical circles in Syria, who is believed by the US to be in league with al-Qaida.

“We have long tried to explain that the fight is not against terrorism, but against the Sunnis, and the mujahideen are just the frontline,” he added in a series of tweets on Thursday. “The American strategy will not change much, what has changed is that the war is open and not secret, and that is a good thing.”

Muhaisny said Trump’s victory will lay the groundwork for “bloody battles and great chaos,” saying he hoped the president-elect’s strategy of “exclusion and crushing opponents” will sow greater division in America.

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a key intellectual figure in al-Qaida who once shared a cell with Isis founder Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, said he hoped Trump’s election would herald America’s ruin.

“Trump reveals the real mentality of the Americans and their racism towards Muslims and Arabs and everything,” he said in a tweet. “He only reveals what his predecessors have kept hidden.”

Rita Katz, the director of Site Intelligence, an organisation that tracks jihadi chatter on social media and online forums, said militants were predicting that Trump’s election would unite the ranks of jihadis and expose latent hatred towards Muslims.

Katz tweeted: “Pro-#ISIS & #Jihadis say they “prefer” #Trump to #Clinton because he is “telling Muslims what half of America thinks of them.”

Hamza Caribi, who runs a Twitter account affiliated with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the former al-Qaida wing in Syria, said Trump proved the failure of democracy. “From this day forward we will no longer need videos explaining the west’s plots,” he said. “We will only need to retweet what Trump says.”