In the group's charter it claimed to be at war with the government of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, Russia, Shias and atheists. The charter also outlined the group's opposition to both democratic and communist governments and opposition to the various current Arab governments, most of whom are secular. The group had called upon various jihadist factions to unite and focus on fighting common enemies and had recruited many veteran jihadist fighters from such groups in Syria. The group also reportedly had a large number of veteran al-Qaeda fighters from the Arabian Peninsula and South Asia.