IRAQ: Who is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? What does he want? This recent extract from a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, Al-Hayat, may help answer that. It is an interview with an unidentified Arab, referred to as a source, who claims to have met al-Zarqawi and to reflect his views.
The following are excerpts:
The goals of Al-Zarqawi's struggle: According to the source, Al-Zarqawi said: "We are fighting in Iraq but our eyes are raised also to other places, such as Jerusalem... [I have\] a strategy and an aspiration to expand the fighting to the entire region."
The source said Al-Zarqawi "came to this arena only to expel the Americans from the Muslims' country and to establish an Islamic government. This is part of the goal, because if this is not done, how will we be able to bring about coups in neighbouring countries? How can we rescue Jerusalem when we have no base from which to set out? Rescuing Jerusalem and the neighbouring countries will come only after the rise of an Islamic state from which the youth will set out to liberate the neighbouring areas."
The murder of hostages in Iraq: Responding to "condemnation for the abhorrent murder of hostages by Al-Zarqawi's Al-Tawhid Wa'Al Jihad organization," the source said that Al-Zarqawi is convinced his operations are permitted by Shari'a (Islamic law), and that the hostages "are not truly hostages. There is a difference between a hostage and a spy or a captive. The sentence for spies is death. But there is some dispute about how it is to be carried out - by the sword or by shooting".
According to the source, Al-Zarqawi "accepts comments" from ulema (Muslim religious leaders) about his killing operations - provided that the ulema are not connected to a regime and are offering opinions out of personal conviction, and not to please their rulers.
Evidence exists in the Shari'a, he said, that Al-Zarqawi's killings are permitted, even if they include the mutilation of corpses: "Allah has permitted us to repay them in kind, with the same means that they use. If they kill our women, we will kill their women."
Al-Zarqawi's attitude to Shias: In response to a question about Al-Zarqawi's stance regarding Shias - especially in light of an open letter attributed to him stating that he wants a civil war in Iraq in which Shias will be attacked - the source said: "Isn't it true that it was the Americans who distributed the letter? What do you expect of your enemy? Their lie is obvious."
He added: "Al-Zarqawi's position (on shias) is clear... The entire Salafi stream believes that the Shia is an infidel ideology. I believe this and Abu Mus'ab (al-Zarqawi) believes that the Shia is heresy. But this does not mean that we declare the Shia masses infidels. We must call upon them to atone to Allah."
According to the source, al-Zarqawi said: "If the Shias were not killing us, we would not be killing them. Our main enemy is the Americans and the Iraqi state. But the truth is that the Shias killed the Sunnis... The Shias are the base of the pyramid of the ruling Iraqi government. They also make up a considerable percentage of the armed forces established by the occupation forces to defend this government. Shia forces came to Falluja and fought the residents, and the same thing happened in Najaf: It was the Shias who attacked al-Sadr, not the Americans."
The source went on to say that the groups fighting today in Iraq maintain that "anyone who enters this country together with the Americans in the context of their occupation is an infidel. We are not talking about an apostate regime, regarding which there is disagreement whether it should be declared infidel. (But) there is no dispute regarding anyone who collaborates with the occupation - he is a traitor and he must be killed, regardless of whether he is a Sunni, a Shia'ite, or a Turk."
Al-Zarqawi's connection to al-Qaeda: Regarding claims that al-Zarqawi is affiliated with al-Qaeda, the source said: "I wish that he was an al-Qaeda representative in Iraq. But the truth is that al-Zarqawi has his own organisation. He is not an al-Qaeda member and has no connection to Sheikh Osama (bin Laden). They only employ the same method.
"There is no organisational connection between them - on the contrary, many Arab youth have said that they will swear allegiance to al-Zarqawi provided that he swear allegiance to Sheikh Osama.
"They say that so far he has not sworn allegiance, and that he used to say: 'to this day I have not sworn allegiance to Sheikh Osama and I am not acting in the framework of his organisation'..."