Al-Qaeda’s Art of the Deal

"Money is the root of all evil." - المال أصل كل الشر

Unknown location in tribal Pakistan, September 29th of 2025.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Abdelmalek Droukdel and Iyad Ag Ghaly, all of them members of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and dedicated followers of the organization for years, are now meeting with the leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri due to concerns about their legitimacy in the fight against the infidels and how the name Al-Qaeda is currently hurting the existence of the movement and how it may indeed crush the movement given enough time.

Droukdel and Belmokhtar have, for that exact reason, proposed a total rebranding of AQIM. Starting with the name, which they propose to be Majmouat Altahrir Al-Islami or the Islamic Liberation Group. It would publicly cut all ties with Al-Qaeda and claim that it is completely reorganized, denouncing worldwide terrorism and claiming that it is a legitimate militant organization that fights for the freedom of muslims and islamic democracy as a whole, but of course, islamic democracy can be whatever we deem it to be.

For the flag, they have proposed to abolish the current flag, which connects themselves directly to ISIS and other terrorist groups, and rewrite their image with the traditional Black Standard, historically known as being the banner flown by Muhammad, which greatly legitimizes our movement by showing our roots to history and the dedication to Islam itself, which will possibly attract even more members to our group.

Naturally, we still pledge ourselves secretly to Al-Qaeda and will maintain not only our connection, but our undying loyalty and dedication to the cause of an Islamic caliphate that will eliminate and expel all infidels from our lands, inshallah. We will also be building our own network in order to lower the monetary strain that we currently have with Al-Qaeda.

As a final request, we would like to request from the central command of Al-Qaeda an increased influx of money and also of weaponry, our current gun-running operations are small but are increasing in demand due to the fall of Mauritania and the rise of insurgencies in the region, we would highly appreciate it. It would mostly be old weaponry that Al-Qaeda possesses, from AK-47s to Type 56s and etcetera, usually low-maintenance weaponry that can be resilient to the harsh terrain of Mali where we are mainly operating. The money that would be delivered to us would be utilized to increase our logistical capabilities by acquiring new automobiles and improving our current base of operations in Mali, located in the small village of Boghassa.