The Long War Journal: THIS is Jihad

Written by Bill Roggio on August 20, 2005 3:08 AM to The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2005/08/this_is_jihad.php

As al Qaeda continues to fight in Iraq, it exposes its true nature to the Iraqi people, and to the rest of the world... if only the world would pay attention. Chester points us to an interrogation of Abed, a member of al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam. Abed’s band of murderers routinely practiced rape and political assassinations. A revolting taste:

Interrogator: "Is this Jihad – raping women? Is this Jihad?"

Abed: "It is because they collaborated with the Americans."

Interrogator: "That's why they were raped?"

Abed: "Yes."

Interrogator: "A student who is simply going to her university is kidnapped, raped, and then slaughtered?! This was an American collaborator?!"

Abed: "Mullah Al-Raikan would give the names to the squad commander."

Interrogator: "My information says that they were kidnapped and brought to Mullah Al-Raikan's headquarters. True or false?"

Abed: "He would interrogate them."

Interrogator: "Were they raped after the interrogation?"

Abed: "Yes. He would give them to the squad, and they would kill them. Some would rape them."

Interrogator: "You bastards. This is Jihad? You call this Jihad? "

Al Qaeda has nothing to offer but what we see in the interviews of Abed and Adan Elias, another member of Ansar al-Islam. Elias participated in torture, the dismemberment of corpses and booby trapping the dead so their families would be murdered when picking up their loved ones.

Freedom and Jihad cannot coexist, and therefore al Qaeda is forced to turn its weapons on the only ethnic group where it retains some measure sympathy, giving them a taste of Jihad. A sure sign of desperation, as the war is now in al Qaeda's back yard. In Mosul, three Sunni election workers of the Islamic Party are assassinated attempting to register voters.

They were driven to another neighborhood, shoved against a wall near the Dhi al-Nourein mosque, and shot dead while more masked gunmen blocked a major street, witnesses said. The gunmen then fled in three cars, leaving the bodies.

In Ramadi, Sunnis’ attempts to convince their neighbors to vote is met by violence.

Masked gunmen in the western city of Ramadi responded violently Thursday to recent calls for political participation among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, opening fire on local leaders who had gathered to discuss plans to register voters for a nationwide constitutional referendum.

The midmorning attack wounded three people, including the branch heads of the Sunni Endowment, the government agency responsible for Sunni religious affairs, and the Association of Muslim Scholars, Iraq's most influential Sunni religious group. The hail of machine-gun fire from slow-moving sedans came at the close of the meeting, as tribal leaders and Anbar province's governor, Mamoun Sami Rashid, were answering reporters' questions on the steps of the city's Great Mosque…

Asked about the threats by insurgents, one attendee, Mahdi Salih, a former major general in Hussein's army, said people would not be scared away from the polls. "We are going to risk our lives for the sake of our children if the Zarqawi group insists on its position," he said.

Mahdi Salih isn’t exaggerating when he states his children’s future is at risk.

Intimidation. Torture. Rape. Assassination. Murder.

This is the future al Qaeda offers to the Iraqi people, and the rest of the world if given the chance.

Make no mistake, this is Jihad.