The Salafi Killing Culture In Iraq Is Getting More Dangerous To Middle East Regimes.

*** In Pakistan, Where A Woman Is Raped Every 2 Hours And 2 Women/Day Die In Honour Killings, There Are Islamic Hudood Laws, Which Have Been Used To Imprison Thousands Of Women Who Report Rapes - If Rape Victims Cannot Provide 4 Male Witnesses To The Crime, They Risk Being Whipped & Jailed For Adultery; A Village Council Punished A Man For Having An Affair By Ordering His 2-Year-Old Niece To Be Given In Marriage To A 40-Year-Old Man; An 11-Year-Girl Was Rescued From Her Husband's Family, Which Broke Her Arm & Strung Her From The Ceiling Because She Did Not Work Hard Enough - Just A Few Examples

NICOSIA - Turning into sin the "virtue" of Salafi fighters killing innocent Muslims and foreigners is a challenge which all regimes in the Middle East have begun to face. The next priority they should work on is the concept of human security which must be upheld under any circumstances. A highly-placed Muslim scholar tells APS this means the violent Salafi movement "must be condemned, not only by these regimes but primarily by the religious establishments of all Muslim sects which they recognise, protect or finance".

The old and obscure Arabic word tattarrus summarises the mechanics of the Salafi "virtue" of killing. The word, among other things, means using ordinary Muslims as human shields for Islamic combatants against infidel fighters. It also means suicide bombing and killing ordinary Muslims in the fight against infidel forces.

Tattarrus symbolises a whole culture of killing on which Salafi militants base their methods of combat. It justifies a wide range of killings, including abductions and beheadings. This Salafi culture has come from centuries of oblivion to dominate the debate about whom Sunni Muslims of the Hanbali strand (hence Salafis) are allowed to kill in the service of political goals.

Prominent among Salafi militants now are radical members of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood who, apart from joining the Salafi war against US-led forces in Iraq, are bent on toppling Syria's Baathist regime (see fap7SyriaConclJul4-05).

Meanwhile, a new classified assessment by the CIA says Iraq may prove to be a more effective training ground for Salafi extremists than Afghanistan was in Al-Qaeda's early days, because it is providing a laboratory for militants to hone their skills in urban combat. The CIA assessment was completed in May and has since been circulated through US government agencies (see following pages).

Within Iraq as well as in Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, a debate about tattarrus has been triggered by the killing of Muslims, including women and children, by Salafi insurgents in these countries. The question is whether or not such acts are permissible.

Judging by fatwas (religious decrees) and articles written by Muslim theologians and commentators, the Islamic ummah (nation) is divided on the issue. Those who believe that killing innocent people, including Muslims, is justified in certain cases base their opinion on the principle of tattarrus.

The word, which originally meant "dressing up", was first used as a religious term in the book Al-Mustasfa (The Place of Purification) by Abu Hamed Al-Ghazali (d.1127), to mean "using ordinary Muslims as human shields for Islamic combatants against infidel fighters".

In the 13th century Taqi Al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah, a leading Hanbali theologian and jurisconsult, wove a whole doctrine around the term to justify the killing of Muslims while combating Mongol invaders. By the end of the 13th century, however, the concept had fallen into disuse and a new consensus developed against the killing of non-combatants.

In 1995 Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian mentor of Osama Bin Laden, used the concept of tattarrus in his book - The Rule for Suicide-Martyr Operations.

Arguing that ends justify the means, Zawahiri insisted the killing of Muslims, including women and children, was not a sinful act provided the combatants were fighting "the enemies of Islam". More recently that view has been endorsed by Shaikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi, an Egyptian theologian working in Qatar. Now, however, Qardawi has expanded his doctrine to allow for the killing of innocent Muslims in Iraq. His argument is stark: what matters is the broader interest of the Islamic ummah which could, under certain circumstances, necessitate operations in which Muslim civilians lose their lives (see more on tattarrus & its implications on the following pages).

Iraq, The Lab For Salafi Terror: The classified May assessment of the insurgency in Iraq and its implications, made by the CIA, says Iraq may have become a pool as well as a training ground for Islamic extremists because it is providing a laboratory for militants to hone their skills in urban combat.

The CIA says the war in Iraq could leave a dangerous legacy by enabling non-Iraqi jihadis who are likely to disperse to other countries to become much more adept, capable and mobilised than they were before the conflict. The CIA has issued such warnings before, most recently in testimony this year from Porter Goss, the agency's director, who told Congress that Salafi jihadis who survive will leave Iraq "experienced in and focused on...urban terrorism", and might form "a potential pool of contacts" to build trans-national terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and other countries.

On June 25, the Financial Times pointed to two Kuwaitis who went to Iraq to fight and then were pressed into becoming suicide bombers. They escaped from Iraq over the Saudi border, where the Saudi National Guard picked them up. The pair, both 18, were called to arms through a jihadi website. According to a senior US official who had seen reports of the their debriefings, they made their way to Damascus, where they were met by "facilitators" for Iraq's Al-Qaeda led by Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq for the US. In Damascus, their passports were taken and they were given forged documents. They crossed into Iraq, were moved to a safe house and then shifted to a holding area for suicide bombers. The FT quoted the US official as saying: "They try to move them into action immediately". The official said the story was typical of those told by other foreign fighters in Iraq interrogated by the Americans, adding: "They don't want them to have second thoughts".

Iraq has become a magnet for hundreds of young Salafi extremists from around the world. According to US estimates, foreign fighters represent a small proportion of the insurgents in Iraq. Perhaps 1,000 foreigners are active, fewer than 5% of the total. But their responsibility for many of the most deadly attacks gives them added psychological and political impact.

Gen John Abizaid, the senior officer of Lebanese origin who heads the Central Command in charge of US forces in the Middle East including Iraq, on June 23 told the US Senate Armed Services Committee more foreign fighters were entering Iraq than six months ago. He added: "We've also seen an influx of suicide bombers from North Africa, specifically Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco".

Now, states around the region and farther afield are focusing on the threat posed by militants returning from Iraq. Senior US military officers say a majority of the jihadis are killed while in Iraq - but, even if that is true, it still leaves hundreds to return home.

Marking the first anniversary of the handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis, President Bush on June 28 renewed his resolve to stay the course, saying: "The proper response is not retreat [from Iraq]... Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country". He said the war in Iraq was part of a bigger battle that began with 9/11, and mentioned that date five times and referred to it indirectly several more times. He said Iraq became a testing ground for foreign terrorists. In the one moment when 750 soldiers and airmen interrupted him with applause, he said: "We fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, so Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we will fight them there, we will fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won". House Speaker Dennis Hastert said: "The president is right. We cannot allow the terrorists to shake our resolve. If there is any doubt why we are in Iraq, one must only remember the events of Sept. 11, [2001] when the terrorists attacked our nation. We took the war to the terrorists, rather than waiting for them to attack again. It was the right thing to do".

In the latest response to a two-year campaign of bombings and killings by Al-Qaeda Salafis, the Saudi state TV on June 28 broadcast pictures of 36 suspects and offered hefty rewards for their capture. The Interior Ministry said: "Security authorities managed to uncover plans by the deviant group who used themselves as a tool to distort Islam and harm the security of the country". The announcement came just days after a report that one of the last remaining militants on an earlier "most wanted" list had been killed in Iraq (see below).

Publication of the new Saudi list pointed to Al-Qaeda's striking ability to renew itself in the kingdom. There is still a large Salafi potential in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring states. Saudi police have killed more than 100 militants and there have been no attacks this year comparable to the multiple suicide bombings of residential compounds in 2003 or the targeted killings of Westerners 12 months ago. The ministry offered a bounty of up to SR7 ($1.87m) for anyone who helps capture a militant or foil an attack. Most of the wanted men are Saudis but some are from Chad, Yemen, Morocco and Mauritania. Fifteen are believed to be at large inside Saudi Arabia while 21 are outside the kingdom. Saudi analyst Faris Bin Houzam said of those outside Saudi Arabia most were likely to be in Iraq. He added: "The issue for the government is when those fighters in Iraq return to Saudi Arabia". Saudi security consultant Nawaf Obaid said most of the Saudis who made up 29 of the 36 names on the new list were "second tier" militants. All but two men on a previous Saudi list of 26 wanted men, published in December 2003, are believed dead or in custody.

President has repeatedly suggested Iraq's emergence as a terrorist magnet is a good thing. He recently said: "Our strategy is clear: We will stay on the offensive against the enemy. We will find them where they hide... We will defeat them in foreign lands so we do not have to face them here at home". The Financial Times on June 25 quoted Daniel Byman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University and the Brookings Institution, as saying Bush may be right, up to a point: Iraq may have a diversion effect, drawing terrorists who would otherwise go elsewhere. He suggested important caveats: "There is an assumption that the number of jihadis is finite. But the problem with Iraq is that it is motivating new people to become jihadis".

Those who manage to leave do so with experience of car and roadside bombings, kidnappings, beheadings and other terrorist techniques in a mostly urban environment. The FT quoted Dutch Ruppersberger, a Democratic congressman from Maryland who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, as saying: "These people are getting experience in combat in Iraq. They are becoming hardened war fighters". The concern may be most acute among Middle Eastern states, particularly Saudi Arabia, which US estimates suggest provide a significant proportion of the foreign fighters in Iraq. Riyadh is trying to stem the flow of militants to Iraq as it fears a blowback.

There may already be other consequences: fighters returning from Iraq are held responsible for a five-fold rise in the supply of hashish in Saudi Arabia in the last year or so. The recent arrest in Manchester of an alleged associate of a suspected suicide bomber in Iraq - both men carrying French passports - suggests jihadis trained in Iraq may also be recycling into the West.

Washington is sensitive to the possibility that Iraq-trained Europeans could enter the US more easily than Saudi passport holders. The internet is used to attract fighters to Iraq. William Schneider, head of the Defence Science Board which advises the Pentagon on science and technology issues, says the internet has become a virtual Afghanistan, a training ground for jihadis, adding: "The training apparatus has moved entirely to cyberspace".

Some ambushes in Iraq are filmed from three different camera angles for web use. Yet a combination of the internet and Iraq could not provide sanctuary to terrorists in the way Afghanistan did before the Taliban was ousted in late 2001, where they were able to hold weddings and other social events. Iraq remains much too dangerous to be a haven.

US Vice President Dick Cheney on June 23 told CNN nearly all foreign jihadis moving into Iraq were being killed, either through their own suicide operations or by US-led forces. He said their main purpose of being in Iraq was to die as well as kill as many people as they could. He doubted that the number of jihadis leaving Iraq alive would be significant.

Cheney said there will be "a lot of bloodshed" as jihadis try to stop moves towards democracy. He added: "The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand that if we're successful at accomplishing our objective - standing up a democracy in Iraq - that that's a huge defeat for them. We will succeed in Iraq...and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story... We're convinced that in fact we'll achieve our objectives".

Cheney said "we've got a pretty good idea of the general area" where Bin Laden is hiding, but he added: "I don't have the street address". Asked to identify the general area, Cheney demurred, saying he would not talk about intelligence matters. Pressed on when Bin Laden might be captured, he said: "What do you expect me to say: Three weeks from next Tuesday? I'm convinced eventually we'll get him".

Cheney compared the current situation in Iraq to the last months of World War II, when Germans launched a desperate offensive in the Battle of the Bulge and the Japanese offered stiff resistance on Okinawa. He said the jihadis will "do everything they can to disrupt" the process, "but I think we're strong enough to defeat them". He declined to say when US forces might leave Iraq. But on an assessment by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that the US might begin reducing troop levels in 2006, Cheney said: "I hope he's correct. There will probably be a continued US presence there for some considerable period of time, because there are some things we do they can't do - for example, air support, some of our intelligence, communications and logistics capabilities. But I think the bulk of the effort will increasingly be taken on by Iraqi forces".

Cheney said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a fellow Republican, was "wrong" when he charged that the White House was "disconnected from reality" about how the situation was deteriorating in Iraq. He said: "[Washington has] got a lot of people in it who were armchair quarterbacks or who like to comment on the passing scene. But those who have predicted the demise of our efforts since 9/11 - as we have fought the war on terror, as we have liberated 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan - did not know what they were talking about".

US and Iraqi forces recently completed a series of operations which their commanders said were successful. Among them were Operation Spear in western Iraq, where at least 60 insurgents were killed and 100 captured, and Operation Lightning in Baghdad, with over 500 arrests. US forces now hold over 14,000 suspected insurgents, and have captured two dozen lieutenants of Zarqawi. There were reports of insurgents fighting each other, foreign Salafis against domestic Sunnis.