Islam and Terrorism (18 page)

The Iran/Iraq war killed almost one million Muslims from both sides, and two million were wounded. This war was intended to slow down Iran’s project of exporting their movement to the Arab countries. However, the mission became stronger, and the project of spreading Islam to the world never stopped.

The Iranian revolution sent a new hope to all Islamic movements in the world. That new hope was that Islam would take over the earth and lead the world.

Chapter 18

TREACHERY BETWEEN TERRORISTS

Egypt’s Militant Fundamentalists Nearly Self-Destruct

I
N
1980
A
situation was developing in Egypt that would cause a great setback to those pursuing jihad. The Egyptian leaders of the Islamic Group Movement (IGM) felt that they should get out of the spiritual and mental preparation time and make the move to overturn the Egyptian government. They also believed it was time to join with Sudan and Iran (who had already established Islamic states) and get the invasion of the Arab world completed so that they could move on to the worldwide vision.

The IGM divided Egypt into regions and assigned strong leaders to each region. Those regions and their leaders were:

•   Al-Minya region: Karim Zohdi, Fouad Al-Dolabi, Assim Abdul-Majed, Ayman al-Zawahiri (later he became the right-hand man of Osama bin Laden), and Essam Dirbala

•   Asyut region: Najeh Ibrahim and Osama Hafez

•   Sohaj region: Hamdi Abdul Rahman

•   Nagh Hamadi region: Ali Sharif and Talat Qusam

All these regional leaders were led by General Prince Halmmi Al-Gazar and his assistant, Essam Al-Aryan.
¹

A M
OVE TO
J
OIN THE
T
WO
G
ROUPS

This newly organized Islamic Group Movement was a threat to the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. Omar Al-Talmasani, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, also disagreed with the timing of their plans. He told all Muslims, “It is not the right time for jihad yet.” He advised the leaders of IGM to learn some patience, not hastiness.

He also declared it was not good for the unity of Muslims to have two different movements. He suggested that they should unite under his leadership so they could be more effective.

The leader of IGM, his assistant, and the Al-Minya region leaders immediately welcomed the call for unity, claiming the Quranic verse, “Verily, Allah loves those who fight in His Cause in rows (ranks) as if they were a solid structure” (Surah 61:4,
The Noble Quran
). He said this verse spoke of the unity that Muslims should have.

The IGM leadership invited the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood to go to the southern region of Egypt to have the ceremony of unity. However, many other members of the IGM disagreed with the call for unity. As soon as the delegation from the Muslim Brotherhood arrived, a storm of rage swept through the IGM members. Those who rejected the idea of unity attempted to attack the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. The members who were for unity defended him by killing the fellow members who disagreed.

T
ERRORIZING
F
ELLOW
M
USLIMS

What followed was a war between civilians fought with knives and swords. The Egyptian citizens who lived in the regions of Asyut and Al Minya lived in terror of this conflict. Members of the group who opposed unity went to their fellow members’ homes and knocked on the doors. When the doors were opened, they stabbed the people of the house to death. Before the victim breathed his last breath, he was told he was a betrayer of Allah and Islam; therefore, he was receiving the punishment of whoever delayed jihad as stated by the Quran.

Many times the IGM members of the house were not home, but this did not stop the attackers. They slaughtered the wives and children, telling them the same message. Hundreds of members took trains from all over the country and came to this troubled region to stop the rage and save their movement.

Through bloodshed and terror, IGM members who opposed unity took over. They submitted the remainder of both movements to their authority. This bloody storm almost wiped out the IGM.

A
L
-J
IHAD
I
S
B
ORN

Out of IGM, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other smaller groups, a new splinter group called
al-Jihad,
emerged. It was led by Mohammed Abdul-Salam Farag. In the mid-1980s they accomplished a number of murders, including the murders of philosophers, journalists, and the head of the Egyptian Parliament.

Egyptian al-Jihad leaders appearing in court: (from left) Tarek al-Zomor (twenty-five-year sentence) and Abod al-Zomor (forty-year sentence).

Al-Jihad in Egypt was greatly advanced by a chance meeting that occurred when Farag visited the home of one of the movement’s members, Tarek Al-Zomor. At the time Zomor was also hosting his brother-in-law, who was a high-ranking Egyptian military intelligence officer (Abod Al-Zomor).

Egyptian al-Jihad leaders appear in court: (from left) Assim Abdul-Majed (forty-year sentence), Abod al-Zomor (forty-year sentence), Karim Zohdi (forty-year sentence) and Hamdi Abdul Rahman (fifteen-year sentence).

There was a real bonding among these three men. They vowed to each other to do whatever it would take to overturn the Egyptian government and liberate Egypt from apostate and infidel leadership.

This took place in the summer of 1980. Abod Al-Zomor said, “I wished many times to step out from under the government’s authority and start fighting the government. Now, after meeting Farag, we got like-minded to organize the right plan to establish the goal of the Islamic government.”

Soon after that historical meeting took place, the leaders of al-Jihad (Abod Al-Zomor, Karim Zohdi, Fouad Al-Dolabi, and Nabil Al-Magrabi) met to organize the movement and set up an operating system. After long discussions they decided to have a committee of counselors.
²

The committee agreed to focus on appointing, managing, and making the necessary decisions. They also agreed to spin off from the committee three minor committees:

•   Preparation committee—its responsibility was to organize and prepare weapons and transportation.

•   Economic committee—its responsibility was to raise the necessary finances to accomplish the mission.

•   Distribution and awareness committee—it was in charge of preparing and distributing literature to those involved in upcoming jihad.

The committee of counselors divided the country into regions and set up the committee members as princes over these regions.
³

The committee gave the right to all leaders to choose their
own assistants for these regions. Each region was responsible for its own military training and funding. Now the movement of al-Jihad was truly a reality in Egypt. Later it would reproduce itself throughout the rest of the Islamic world.

The most well-known offspring is al-Jihad in Palestine. Its leaders were trained by Egyptian radicals, and you can see similarities in their methods. For example, al-Jihad in Egypt had two men strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up in an attempt to kill the Egyptian minister of national security. In the same way al-Jihad in Palestine sends people on suicide missions

T
HE
P
HILOSOPHY OF AL
-J
IHAD

Al-Jihad was organized. Now it needed a strong philosophy to bind its members together. This philosophy was found in a book called
The Missing Commitments (Al-Fareda Al-Gaaba)
written by an engineer named Mohammed Abed al-Salem.

The author of this book met with the southern Egypt region’s leader (Karim Zohdi), who made the book the bylaws of al-Jihad.

I would like to summarize the book, which is written in three chapters. The book emphasizes jihad as the only way for Islam to rise again. However, the author takes his book one step further than any other book by saying, “The Islamic invasion is coming to Rome.” Previous Muslim writers had focused on the Arab world and some of the African countries; however, in this book al-Salem started talking about invading Europe and the West. Here are samples of al-Salem’s opinions:

Compromised Muslims are condemned.

Fundamentalist Islamic authority must be established in every nation—it doesn’t make any difference whether Muslims like it or not. It is the command of Allah, and it must be done. Al-Salem said the crucial question to answer is this: “Are we living in a true Islamic nation?”

He questioned the leadership of many Muslim countries: “How can they be sincere Muslims? They were raised and influenced in Judaism, Christianity and Communism.” He felt these leaders were Muslims by name only. He declared them all to be apostates, infidels, and heathens who should be killed.

He also emphasized that the punishment should be harder on these Muslims than on the heathens. He agreed with fourteenth-century scholar Ibn Taymiyah and wrote, “Muslims should not mix with anyone else, and if they do, they should be killed as well.”

Jihad supersedes other duties.

He condemned all other religious activities in Islam, such as fasting, prayer, and charitable works because they keep Muslims so busy that they ignore the call of jihad.

Killing is the Muslim’s responsibility.

Killing is the big difference between Islam and all other religions. Abed Al-Salem wrote that before Islam, Allah dealt with infidels and heathens sometimes with fires, sometimes with floods, and sometimes with other ways. However, since the establishment of Islam, Allah commanded Muslims to take the law into their own hands; it became their responsibility to torture and kill the enemies of Allah.

Jihad is offensive, not defensive.

Abed al-Salem attacked the Muslims who believed that jihad was just to defend Islam. He aggressively emphasized that jihad is not negotiable—nor can it be compromised. Jihad is the call to all Muslims. To support his point of view, he gave examples of the prophet Muhammad’s letters to the kings of countries, of how the early Muslims fought, and of how Islam spread by the sword. He said that Islam should be spread this way today.

The enemy is redefined.

He also defined the enemies in a new way. They were:

•   Heathens

•   Muslims not governed according to Allah’s law and the Quran

Abed al-Salem supported fighting those Muslims who did not live according to his interpretation of Islam.

War strategies are set in place.