Yesterday, many Arabic-language Internet news websites posted the following pictures, purporting to be of the leader (or “emir”) of the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra ["Victory"] Front, which is in Syria waging jihad. According to these reports, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani had managed to pass several military checkpoints dressed as a woman, until he was arrested by the Syrian army in al-Jaswiya, al-Qusayr, in his attempt to flee to neighboring Lebanon: “He shaved his beard, worked his eyebrows, and put on mascara and lipstick till he looked exactly like a woman.”
More on this — including how al-Jawlani would certainly not be the first jihadi leader to try to escape his enemies dressed as a woman — later.






Raymond Ibrahim is a Middle East and Islam specialist and author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings have appeared in a variety of media, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, World Almanac of Islamism, and Chronicle of Higher Education; he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Blaze TV, and CBN. Ibrahim regularly speaks publicly, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and testifies before Congress. He is a Shillman Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center; a CBN News contributor; a Media Fellow, Hoover Institution (2013); and a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow, Middle East Forum . Ibrahim’s dual-background -- born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East -- has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former.