Zarqawi Interview Part Two
Jan 11, 2007
By Umm Saeed | Translation Copyright Jihad Unspun 2006

An interview titled “Dialogue With Sheikh Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, a never before published document, has been released by Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production, the official publisher of media for the Islamic State of Iraq.

This in-depth interview with Sheikh Zarqawi, some 33 pages in Arabic, was conducted over a year ago by Abu Al-Baghdadi on behalf of the media committee for Al-Qaeda in Iraq and covers Zarqawi’s journey to Tawheed, his experience in Afghanistan at the time of the Soviet withdrawal and the situation at the time in Iraq.

Ahamdulilah, we are pleased to present Part Two due to the diligence of the JUS translation team. We ask for your patience as JUS translators work this hefty document as we endeavor to provide you with the complete text in its entirety.

We remind our viewers that the opinions and points of view expressed in this statement are those of the author and shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of JUS, the publisher, editor, writers, contributors or staff

An Al-Furqan Media Productions Presentation
Media Section Of Al-Qaeda In The Land Of The Rafideen

DIALOGUE WITH SHEIKH ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI - PART TWO
English Translation Copyright Jihad Unspun © 2006

Baghdadi:As a counter to the debaters, how do you answer the questions they are asking about what your belief (manhaj) is? And what is your political agenda? And what do you aim to achieve?

Zarqawi:As for our political agenda as some people call it, so we find it summarized richly in the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him), “I have been sent with the sword, between the hands of the hour, until Allah is worshipped alone”. It is necessary to point out that we do not believe in politics in the way familiar with some groups that are directed by their sect, who raise Islam as a slogan. You find them in the parliaments, participating with the disobeyers in engaging the seats that rule against the law of Allah. Some of these groups have political agenda’s containing a lot of confusion and many wrong things. They also carry out some practices that are very deviant from the manhaj of the religion; we ask Allah refuge from them.

Our political agenda, like I said before is that of the saying of the Prophet peace be upon him, “I have been sent with the sword, between the hands of the hour, until Allah is worshipped alone”, and like the Prophet (peace be upon him) words that he had been sent with the sword until Allah is worshipped alone, this is what determines our political goal.

We fight in the way of Allah, until the law of Allah is implemented, and the first step is to expel the enemy, then establish the Islamic state, then we set forth to conquer the lands of Muslims to return them back to us, then after that, we fight the kuffar (disbelievers) until they accept one of the three.

“I have been sent with the sword, between the hands of the hour”; this is our political agenda.

And by Allah if it wasn’t that the Americans were fighting us, and they did not attack our homes, they and the Jews, it is better for Muslims not to sit back from jihad in the way of Allah until the law of Allah is implemented on this basis and Islam would spread everywhere. This is what the Prophet (peace be upon him) did when he traveled from Makkah to Madinah.

For after the establishment of an Islamic nation, he started moving to spread Islam in the east and the west and the north and the south. Our political agenda now is to expel the imposing enemy, this is the beginning, and our agenda after it is to establish the Shariah of Allah on earth.

This is our political agenda, “I have been sent with the sword, between the hands of the hour, until Allah is worshipped alone”

And in the sentence, this Hadith from its beginning to its end determines the basis to our path. For those who mean by political agenda in the modern way (mustalah al haadith), that is against the Shariah of Allah.

Like politics where there is conceding (mudahanah) and stepping away from the things that determine Aqeedah (thawabit al aaqeedah) and ignore the questions concerning the acquittal from unbelievers, this is a deviated politics. It is not correct to call it Shariah because it is against what has been ordained and it is not correct to be affiliated with it.

Baghdadi: Did Abu Zayed exaggerate when he said “Al-Qaeda aims in 100 years to take control over the world”?

Zarqawi: This is not hidden. We are working to spread the equality of Islam throughout the globe, to wipe away the darkness of disbelief and the misconceptions of the other religions. We pray to Allah to increase the fighting skills of the Ummah for that reason. We pray to Allah to bless us so that we may expel this occupying enemy to retrieve the rights of Muslims and purify their houses from the uncleanness of the unbelievers and shirk. And then, we spread the religion of Allah on earth. We do not find any reason to hide this clear matter for it is a matter that our Lord has written in His book and made it obligatory on His slaves.

Baghdadi: Why do you and those like-minded always emphasize on the obligation of jihad in Iraq?

Zarqawi: It is obligatory for a Muslim to adhere to the commands of Allah as He wants and just as He has ordered. That is that he struggles to implement the law of Allah like his struggles to offer his prayer and to fast and to perform Hajj. These are obligatory and a part of Islam, made obligatory on every Muslim slave. In a similar manner, fighting in the way of Allah is an obligation. Jihad as such is a jihad kifayah (not obligatory on all the Muslims, can be done in portions) but it becomes compulsory in three situations and others say four but the stronger opinion is three.

The first condition the most severe is when an enemy invades the lands of Islam or oppresses the Muslims. In this condition, jihad becomes obligatory. Sheikh Ibn at Taymiyyah said, “No excuse can be used as an excuse for it”. It mustn’t be supposed that the Sheikh of Islam means by no excuses that any excuse in jihad for self defense (jihad ad daff’) is that we fight under any flag or without any bounds, it means the nullification of any excuse that is held as an excuse with the scholars in general.

As in jihad for self defense (jihad ad daff’) the creditor can go without the permission of his lender and the woman without the permission of her husband, and the son without the permission of his parents and this is what Sheikh of Islam meant when he said that no excuse is not an excuse.

And for jihad at this time, it is a jihad of self defense and the one who looks at the condition of the Ummah today sees clearly that the attack it is facing today is a fierce Crusade which will not end with the colonization of Iraq and will not stop until it swallows the homes of Islam as a whole and by the victory of their people as they wish it.

It is known that this Christian campaign targeted Iraq with the aim of enabling the Jews and fulfilling their dream to set up of a great Israeli nation from the Nile to the Euphrates. The belief of the American government on this is clear for they believe that there is no coming of their (false) Messiah (Dajjal) before the establishment of a great Israeli nation and Armageddon.

As part of their goals, a branch of this major aim is the control of the oil wells to control its price and to prevent any other country competing with the Americans. It is also their plan to exercise direct control on the Arab masses, together with Syria and that is why the Ummah, the whole Ummah, is entitled to repel this Christian Jewish attack from the houses of the Muslims and to stand against this plan. If they succeed may Allah not destine it, then the Muslims will be in an enormously dangerous situation that would threaten their religion and force their extinction.

For this reason we stress that the jihad in Iraq is an obligatory jihad on the Muslims and its obligatory on Muslims to support their brothers in the land of the Rafideen (Iraq) and sponsoring them with money and men and with every thing that they can and the jihad in Iraq, like I said, is the jihad of self defense to repel the occupying enemy. No excuse can be excused for not participating in it; it is an obligation on every able Muslim. This is the first point.

Secondly, rushing to help the brothers in the land of Rafideen is an obligation on the whole of the Muslim world. And Allah says “if they seeked help from you”.

Baghdadi: There are those who object to the brothers coming who are immigrating from the Arab lands and beyond them, to help their brothers and fight the Christians, so what would you say to the likes of these people?

Zarqawi: These are of two kinds, for they are those who do not have knowledge about the nature of this religion or they are those who are deceivers (mugridoon), who want to stop the migrating brothers from backing their brothers to fight in the way of Allah, so that it is not taken by their fighting that the jihad (in general) has become a global jihad. The person who stops the Muslims from helping each other due to a lack of knowledge should be taught or if he is a is a deceiver (mugrid) then we ask Allah protection from his evil and the darkness in his heart.

It is necessary to accept the fact that it is an obligation for every Muslim to rush to help each other and it is also very necessary to agree that the houses of Muslims are just one house. The enemies (the disbelieving nations) have imposed boundaries and divided the lands of Muslims to tiny nations however we do not believe in them and the boundaries of Sax Bacon do not restrict us. We, the Muslims are one nation and the lands of Islam are one land, we fight for the sake of “there is no god but Allah”. We do not fight for merely a land but because we are ordered to protect the people of Islam and we must can not escape the protection of the egg (referring to land) of the Muslims and helping all our brothers and sisters in Islam. This is the very basis; that the Muslim helps his brother Muslim.

As for these supposed boundaries that they have put then it, they have no authority from Allah for Iraq is not for the Iraqis alone, but it is the land of the companions. This ground has been formerly conquered by our forefathers and it has been watered with the blood of the people of Islam. The Companions came form Makkah and Madina and from other elsewhere including Yemen and they conquered this land and from it they spread Islam. It is on this that we base ourselves in such matters. The land of Islam, may it be Iraq or others it is an Islamic land, ruled by the people of Islam and it is Muslims protecting it in spite of the difference in their colors and blood. As for promoting jihad for a “national” Iraq, they base this on Sax and Bacon and this we will not abide by and we will not abide by it as long as we live.

The Mujahideen will remain struggling to destroy these idols and these tawagheet (objects worshipped beside Allah) and these boundaries because in reality, this is of the Christians making, for it is they who have sketched these invented boundaries. We say to them, we are one nation and we fight for “there is no god but Allah”, we do not abide by your boundaries and the land of Iraq is for all the Muslims and so is the land of Egypt, it is also for all the Muslims and so are the rest of the lands of the Muslims.

Baghdadi:Why do you see that if the jihad in Iraq ends, the Ummah will face a disaster (intikasah) as you have stated more than once?

Zarqawi: When the enemy attacked Iraq, it was in its plan to continue the Christian campaign to control Sham (Syria) and the Arab peninsula as a whole and, as I mentioned before, the establishment of a greater Israeli nation. It is easy to deduce that this campaign after the fall of the Iraqi regime and the Iraqi army that vaporized in seconds, will be easy and simple, and will go in accordance with their plans.

But when the Mujahideen stood and struggled against this enemy, by the grace of Allah, they were able to stand in the face of this imposing enemy and strangle its dreams. It is here that he enemy started to work to find some other way to reach its goal.

There was a great blessing and much goodness derived from the stand of the Mujahideen. Was it not for the Mujahideen, the enemy would have gone forth with their campaign and Allah knows best about the conditions in Syria and the condition of other places in the Arabian peninsula. We know these people have a plan to control Iraq and other places and this is the purpose for the attack on Iraq. It is for this reason that the Ummah must support the Mujahideen and to stand by their side in the fighting of this enemy.

Look at what the enemy is doing to the Muslims? How they are killing their sons and leaving their women alive and robbing them off their honor and taking their money? They are committing all these crimes when the Mujahideen are present. What do you think they would do if there were no Mujahideen?

By the grace of Allah the Almighty this plan (of theirs) has or seems to have failed. The presence of the Mujahideen is a security belt and a defensive line for the Islamic Ummah. They might not have really dissolved the plan, but for the least they have been able to delay the enemy until the Ummah can stand on its own legs and gather its weapons and brush itself off from the dust of infamy and humiliation and fight in the way of Allah azza wa jal. For this reason the fall of the Mujahideen in Iraq or the end of jihad in Iraq will have grave consequences on the Ummah.

We suppose that the Mujahideen in the land of the Rafideen are the first defense line for the Ummah and that Allah (swt) has favored the Mujahideen in this jihad that they have terrified the enemy and have hit them with more than death and wounds. That is why the Mujahideen are a security force for this Ummah and her strong shield in front of this campaign of Christian-Jewish-Rafidee (Shiite) raid.

So we fight in Iraq for its sake and for others. We fight in Iraq and our eyes or on Bait al Maqqdis (Jerusalem). We fight in Iraq and our eyes are on Makkah and Madinah. For we, by the grace of Almighty, fight in Iraq and pray to Allah to send His favor on us so that we repel this imposing enemy from the whole of the Ummah.

The jihad in Iraq, from the strategic point of view, is a jihad of great importance and it represents a great danger for the enemies of Allah and specially these disbelieving organizations and from behind these Israel. This jihad is important because it lies in the most dangerous location, as between us and Palestine is a stones throw. If this enemy succeeds in placing its control over Iraq, then it will do heinous acts to the Ummah that is why the enemy was arranging its methods to take control so that it completes the program that it came for.

Allah the Almighty has blessed the Muslims, so the Mujahideen countered them, and they were able to place the stick in the wheel, slowing it down. However long the jihad is extended in Iraq will be directly related to the degree that the Ummah will awaken from its stupor. So, it’s not in the favor of the Ummah that the jihad in Iraq should end for the longer the period of jihad in Iraq is, the more the will the youth of the Ummah will awaken and the more jihad will awaken in them.

And the Ummah, by the grace of Allah, is seeing how its sons are landing hard on the enemy and are stabbing them from here and there and are causing them losses and painful wounds by the grace of Almighty Allah.

With every progress the Mujahideen make on the ground, disgrace is lifted from the Ummah, and whenever the Mujahideen take one step forward, disgrace is lifted from the Ummah by many steps. In the same manner, whenever the Mujahideen take a step back, disgrace is imprinted on the Ummah and it is delayed for years. For this reason, the Ummah should favor that the jihad in Iraq continues, and it is obligatory upon it to support these Mujahideen with fuel that keeps the war going on. The Ummah must give its sons and dear ones so that the jihad continues and Allah, the Almighty permits it (the Ummah) to stand on its legs and take its swords. After that, no one will be able to cause destruction to this Ummah by the will of Allah.

This jihad is important because America and disbelief from behind it, by the grace of Almighty Allah, have started to falter now. Disbelief, by the grace of Allah is declining and falling and Islam by the grace of Allah is heightened and rising. This rising might sometimes be accompanied with trials, and there may be slowing down at some phase. This is eminent in battles and fights, especially with the huge military force and the giant media machine that the enemy has that sows confusion and misinterpretation, concealing of the real truth but in the end of the matter the treachery of the enemy will become clear by the will of Allah.

Baghdadi:Is there any difference whether the Ummah is ruled by a Christian or a disobeying Arab as there are those who say, you are fighting the Christians today and after them the Globalists will come in their place?

Zarqawi:There is no doubt that these Murtaddeen (those who disbelief after belief) who are ruling the lands of Muslims are subordinates to the Christians and of their making. And there is no doubt that the Christians are ready to take over the lands of Muslims and there is no doubt that these rulers are more severely disbelieving than the Jews and the Christians.

Baghdadi: What’s the difference then?

A Previously they were ruling us directly, then they left us after their failure to face the revolts at that time and global changes occurred because of it, I say with the power of what is termed as renaissance. They left behind them governments that were globalists, who were tasked with the duty to dissolve the Shariah, and abandon Islam, instead of the foreigners who couldn’t be withstood. When they saw the failure of these rulers in destroying Islam, they came down on the field themselves.

And let’s remember that we do not differentiate between a disbelieving (taaghoot) Arab and a disbelieving (taaghoot) foreigner. But I will tell you, during the days of Saddam, for example, do you know how the people lived under his rule. We are our father’s children and for more than 30 years, Saddam was ruling us and he had control. The people succumbed to his power and conditions were stable for him. The people were oppressed because those taking care of the country were the sons of their own kin and these people were in reality more severe against Islam than the disbelievers. Disbelief is despised and in ourselves we hate it and in this all humans are similar. The example of that is what happened between the Vietnamese and the Americans.

We got use to the Murtad (disbeliever) who was ruling us and he ruled us with the arms. He was able, with the fire and the steel, to curb the people so we were oppressed under him and the condition was stable and the regime had its control. Yes the basic principle is that we should struggle, but the struggle might be weak except for the few chances. The reasoning went that because the regime had settled its grip on the matters of the state we can not fight him. Otherwise, the basic principle is that we should fight him and take up the weapons to face him, because he brought forth the open kufr (al kufr al bavaah). Just like with the scholars. The imam, if he brings forth the kufr, is removed and this is, of course, according to ones ability.

But now the regime has fallen, and the order of the fire and the steel that he had has been shattered. An occupying enemy has come to me, and the soul is prepared to fight against him. The weapons are available and the opportunities are many, and the struggle is that I stand and fight against this enemy. At this point it became obligatory on the Ummah to fight. I, when fighting this enemy, am not fighting to pave the way for the Jews or others like them or so that the Murtadoon may come and rule or Allawi or others like him. We will never give matters into his hands, by the will of Allah, (any of them) except on one condition; that we be under the earth.

It is obligatory on me, Fareedah Aaeenah, that I repel the imposing enemy but the result is not my concern. The results are not for me to determine; that decree is in the hands of Allah alone. The speaker may say, you are fighting today, and tomorrow the globalists will come in their place. This is speaking in the future without knowledge, I have been ordered to fight this enemy, and as long as you are a Muslim then you have to raise this pillar (Shariah).

Pardom me for not stopping on this cheap point of view, for in reality it is very cheap. When was it that the Mujahideen had the power and the numbers and weapons sufficient to become victorious over the enemy?

“Don’t fight the enemy because if you fight them you will lose your provisions and you will have enabled the enemy ”.

This saying is not lawful, in reality, because the basic (thing) is that we should fight the enemy by having faith in Allah’s support (nasta’eenu billah) so if Allah makes us victorious and establishes us, and we are established over the enemy, we will rule by the Shariah (law of Allah). From it will be a blessing from Allah, and He heals the hearts of a believing people, and on that day delighted will the believers be.

And if I am not established, then this is not a matter for me but is known only by Allah. I am only a slave to obey the commands of my Lord in what He has ordered. The obligation on us is that we should rush in the way of bringing victory to our religion and repelling the oppressors; this is what we have been enslaved to, to our Lord, and He did not make our escape (from the hell fire) stand on whether we win or lose in repelling the enemies. What has been asked of us, in particular, is to remain steadfast and refuse to give up on any of our Aqeedah, and then Allah chooses for us and for His religion, what ever He wishes. And since the oppressing enemy has entered the lands of Muslims then it has become obligatory on me to pressurize it (enemy) with what ever I can. As for those who persist on making concessions at the cost of their religion, thinking that doing this will bring victory to the religion; these people are unaware of what has been asked from them. And they by doing this no hope from Allah and of His promise, because in doing this they shows their low expectation from Allah, as if Allah is in need of their twisted ways to make the religion victorious. The question, do they love the victory of this religion and the appearance of tawheed (oneness of Allah) than the Lord, praise be to him?

Baghdadi: What is the extent of the American plan? And what are the reasons for the danger that is contained in this plan that you have set forward to repel it so fiercely?

Zarqawi: Like I told you before, their campaign is a Crusade, and it is a deep extension of a bygone time. It wasn’t born today. On the contrary, it is a war that has been continuous and connected and it is made of many phases and it won’t stop until it makes the Muslims followers of their creed.

We know that they have plans and many goals and the thing that is accepted by every body is that the Jews are the head of the snake. They are the reason for all the evil and the root of every bad. Israel is the controller of the American government and has the longer hand in the political decisions of America and some other large countries. The Jews are using them to fulfill their dream of creating a great nation from the Nile to the Euphrates. At the same time, they are using them to control the Arabian Peninsula and the riches of the Muslims the way they want.

This American government is the other face of the Jews. Rather it is the Zionist government more extreme than the Jews themselves and is working tirelessly to quicken the creation of the appropriate earthly preparations for the coming of their claimed Messiah.

They are today known as Anglican, the politicians of the extreme right or the “new protectors” and at their head Bush and his subordinate Dick Cheney and Rice. They believe establishment of the Israeli nation in the Middle East and the setting up of the Hebrew nation is important to hasten the war of Armageddon in calling their awaited Messiah. So it is a war of belief war at its basis, in its present, and in reality.


End Part Two

Translation Copyright © Jihad Unspun 2006. To read Part 1, go to http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=106919&list=/home.php&