( CNN ) -- Last month , the Yemen-based branch of Ayman al-Zawahiri 's international terrorist network , al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP ) , released a worrying statement calling on Muslims around the world to forget their differences and renew their efforts to carry out operations against American targets , be they civilian , governmental , military or diplomatic . But this was by no means the most troubling aspect of the communique . More important than the threat -- which , let 's face it , is nothing new -- was the fact that this was the second statement from AQAP in recent months to go against al-Zawahiri 's official policy towards ISIS and express its wholehearted support for the group 's actions in Syria . The mere fact that AQAP has released another call for unity among Syria 's jihadist factions is worth ruminating on for a number of reasons . It is indicative of the fact that the al Qaeda network is even more decentralized -- fragmented , even -- than first meets the eye . After all , AQAP was expressing its support for a group that had not only long rejected the authority of al-Zawahiri , its nominal leader , but is also engaged in the most bitter of hostilities with another al-Qaeda affiliate , Jabhat al-Nusra ( JN ) . Making overtures to a group responsible for the death of thousands fighting for your closest ally in Syria is as significant as it is surprising . In releasing this statement , being outspokenly supportive of ISIS for the second time in just over a month , AQAP was sticking its neck on the line . However , its hubris paid off and the fact that we have , once again , heard nothing from al-Zawahiri compounds suspicions of his feeling blindsided and disempowered by the rise of ISIS . This latest message indicates just how much the global jihadist dynamic has shifted since the anti-ISIS coalition airstrikes began in August . Clearly , ISIS and al Qaeda are no longer as irreconcilable as many might have imagined back when the self-declared `` caliphate '' was inaugurated in June . This phenomenon , something dealt with at length in Quilliam 's latest report on ISIS , does not bode well . Indeed , were ISIS and al Qaeda to cooperate in the pursuit of their often identical goal , the threat would be profoundly more difficult to resolve . Certainly , there is a long way to go before this could happen , but that does not mean its slowly increasing likelihood should be ignored . And it is not only al Qaeda affiliates that have made overtures to Syria 's warring jihadists . In September , for example , jihadist powerhouse Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi spearheaded a `` global initiative '' to stop infighting in Syria and focus on the `` real '' enemy , in light of the `` Crusader campaign '' . This was a significant about turn for a man who had , in the past , referred to `` IS '' in the most pejorative of terms . Statements of support are very different to pledges of allegiance but , whatever the case , a trend towards reconciliation does seem to be emerging . Among jihadists , ISIS is no longer the pariah it once was and , whether we like it or not , this is a direct result of coalition planes dropping coalition bombs on jihadists in Syria . This is unsurprising . As many predicted back in June , intervention against ISIS has been effortlessly worked into the `` War on Islam '' paradigm , that great legitimizer of Islamist-motivated violence . In a reimagining of `` the enemy of my enemy is my friend , '' we are seeing jihadists rallying around the flag of anti-Westernism . This trend may be slow , but the fact that it is happening at all is deeply alarming . Moving forward , it is imperative that the West -- the United States in particular -- rolls back its military involvement in Iraq and Syria and ups the ante in terms of its humanitarian and diplomatic efforts ; the coalition must stop playing into the `` Crusader '' paradigm . This means that -- and I 've said this before -- regional , Sunni-majority countries must take the crisis into their own hands , force an end to the Assad regime 's crimes and bring profound change to Iraq 's political status quo . Without that , jihadists across the world will continue on the path toward rapprochement , something that must be stopped immediately .
AQAP last month called on Muslims to forget differences focus on American targets . Charlie Winter writes that it was the second such communique from the al Qaeda offshoot . It indicates how much the global jihadist dynamic has changed since airstrikes began , he says . The trend of jihadists rallying around the anti-Western flag is worrying , he writes .