Zarqawi & Saudi Wahhabis On Tattarrus.

The dispute among Islamists over tattarrus relates to procedural matters. Can jihadis decide whom to kill and when or should they obtain a fatwa in every case? The starkest defence of tattarrus in this new sense has come from Zarqawi. He says there is no need for a fatwa. A fatwa issued by Bin Laden in 1999 authorising the killing of "enemies of Islam" is enough. It is up to the jihadis to decide who is an enemy of Islam.

Abdullah Mohammed Rashid Al-Rushood was one of Zarqawi's closest allies and most vocal Wahhabi theologians advocating the concept of tattarrus. Rushood, one of Saudi Arabia's most-wanted Salafi militants, was killed in fighting with US forces near Al-Qa'im, on the border with Syria, Al-Qaeda in Iraq on June 23 said in a statement posted on the Web and signed by Zarqawi. A Jordanian Salafi allied to Osama Bin Laden, Zarqawi is the most notorious terrorist chief in Iraq.

The statement did not say when Rushood was killed. US forces have carried out a series of offensives near Al-Qa'im in past weeks against jihadis moving across the border from Syria.

Rushood slipped into Iraq in April, according to the posting, which said the Saudi/Wahhabi militant and a group of "Mujahedeen [jihadis] killed some of the Crusaders until the enemies of God had to withdraw". It added: "When the Crusaders could not enter the area, the only thing they could do was bombard the Mujahedeen with planes. Our Shaikh [Rushood] got what he wished" - martyrdom. Rushood had been No. 24 on a list of the 26 most-wanted Wahhabi terrorist leaders put out by Saudi Arabia two years ago and was one of only three militants on the list still at large. He was one of the main theologians for Al-Qaeda's network in Saudi Arabia, calling for a jihad against the Saudi royal family and Western interests in the Persian Gulf.

Rushood was originally reported killed in July 2004 clashes in Saudi Arabia, but Saudi officials quickly denied the report and said he was still at large. Rushood was one of the Wahhabi religious leaders of the terrorists in the kingdom.

Rushood issued statements through the Internet calling for tattarrus and for young men to join him and his fellow Mujahedeen in fighting jihad. He was known to be a very aggressive and argumentative man. When the Saudi government merged the Girls' Educational Department with the Boys', Rushood led a group of men to the Grand Mufti's house and demanded that action be taken to prevent the merger.

Rushood criticised two well-known Saudi scholars of the Wahhabi order: Shaikh Salman Al-Awda and Shaikh Safar Al-Hawalli, and accused them of being cowards for changing their stands about tattarrus and Wahhabi jihadism. Rushood issued "fatwas" to his followers allowing them to kill Saudi government officials. He was imprisoned in 1997 for accusing government officials of being infidels.

Showabel Al-Zahrani, a Saudi/Wahhabi militant and author of "Views of Theologians Concerning The Rules of Raids and Tattarrus", claims that what is needed is a "flexible understanding" of the concept. He writes: "To demand that a Mujahed get all his operations approved by a theologian in advance is a demand for inaction. The better rule is to allow the Mujahed to do as he sees fit and have his actions approved afterwards".

Abul Unus Al-Shami, one of the Salafi leaders killed in Baghdad in September 2004, held a similar position. His claim was that the Mujahedeen in Iraq had "permanent authority" to kill whomever they thought was necessary in order to "re-conquer Iraq for Islam". This position is supported by several Wahhabi theologians in Saudi Arabia including Hammoud Al-Uqalla, Ali Al-Khudhair, Nasser Al-Fahd, and Ahmad Al-Khalidi.

They say the broader interest of the ummah requires expulsion of the US-led forces from Iraq; the killing of innocent Iraqis in whatever numbers is of no concern to the Mujahedeen whose place in paradise is assured. Other Saudi theologians of the Wahhabi order, including the prominent Shaikhs Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi and Abul Basir Al-Tartussi, apply tattarrus also to situations where no "infidel" troops are present. Thus they justify the killing of innocent Wahhabi Saudis in Saudi Arabia because, they claim, such actions could lead to the establishment of a "truly Islamic regime".

Abu Hafs Al-Masri, mastermind of the Madrid massacre in March 2004, claimed that the Salafi Mujahedeen had the authority to decide when and where and against whom to strike. He wrote: "We are at war against the infidel and its apostate allies. And in a war he who fights has the authority to decide what action is best, leaving the final judgment to The Most High".