Tawhid and Jihad

JTJ

12/12/2006

The terrorist group's full name, Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad, tells us that they represent Islam, that they understand what the Qur'an teaches, and that they are following Muhammad's example. Their common name means: "Monotheism and Holy Fighting.".

Tawhid and Jihad's objective is to establish an Islamic state in Iraq. Their goal is thus identical to that of the Shi'ite clerics who now control Iraq's government, notwithstanding that Tawhid and Jihad is a Sunni organization.

The Islamic terrorist group's preferred targets are coalition forces in Iraq, as well as Iraqi government officials, particularly Shi'ites, and Shi'ite security forces. In full compliance with the Qur'an, Tawhid and Jihad announced that they will "target and kill any Iraqi Muslim who betrays his religion by cooperating with the Infidel Crusaders." Monotheism and Holy Fighting is a Salafi/fundamentalist Islamic gang motivated exclusively by Allah's Qur'anic orders and Muhammad's Sunnah. United and driven by their religious beliefs, their organization is composed of non-Iraqi Muslims, elements of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, and indigenous Sunni Iraqis.

Monotheism and Holy Fighting has engaged in all of the really popular Islamic behaviors: kidnappings, beheadings, assassinations, heavily armed assaults, ambushes, and suicide bombings. They frequently deploy rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, and assault rifles in their attacks. And they are especially adept in the use of explosives, both in the form of suicide bombers and IEDs.

Tawhid and Jihad has been linked to several gruesome murders, including the beheading of the American civilian contractor Nicholas Berg. However, Monotheism and Holy Fighting does not limit its attacks to American civilians, American soldiers, coalition military allies, Iraqi government officials and Iraqi security forces. They have also attacked the United Nations, a wide assortment of humanitarian organizations, Kurdish politicians, and Shi'ite clerics.

In the United State's rush to judgment, Tawhid and Jihad was initially linked to al-Qaeda. But initially, there was no al-Qaeda presence in Iraq. It would be more than a year after the American invasion before a merger of terrorist groups would create an al-Qaeda presence there. On October 17, 2004, eighteen months afer the invasion, Tawhid and Jihad first announced their affiliation with bin Laden and company, pledging to respect the more famous firm's directives.

One of Tawhid and Jihad's leaders is Sami Muhammad Ali Said al-Ja'af. He uses the aliases Abu Yusef and Abu Omar Al-Kurdi. He is an explosives expert. He had risen to prominence and favor in the Sunni Islamic community as a result of his repeated and deadly attacks against U.S and coalition forces in Iraq, as well as against Iraqi Shi'ite civilians. This good Muslim and thus bad person is believed to be responsible for 32 car bombings, collectively resulting in several hundred deaths. Now in detention, Muhammad Ali Said al-Ja'af confessed to building 75% of the car bombs used in Iraq since the March 2003, American invasion, including the ones used in the attack on the U.N. headquarters.

Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi is the spokesperson for Tawhid and Jihad. Although his name is a pseudonym, al-Iraqi frequently posts claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks on jihadist websites. In January 2006 he posted a statement announcing the formation of the Mujahideen Shura Council, a coalition of several Islamic groups.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, known also as Ahmad Fadil Nazal Al-Khalayleh and Ahmed Fadhil Nazzar Khalaylah, is the leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council and considered to be a founder of Tawhid and Jihad. While it was good that Americans killed him on June 7, 2006, deaths of Iraqi civilians have tripled since that time - so it made no difference.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born in the mid 1960s. He is, or was, a Jordanian Palestinian and more importantly a devout Sunni Muslim. His "al-Zarqawi" moniker was actually an alias derived from the name of the terrorist leader's hometown of Zarqa, Jordan. Zarqawi's goals were Tawhid and Jihad's goals, which are Islam's goals: to establish a singular fundamentalist Islamic theocracy in the Middle East and then the world by first deposing all anti-Islamic monarchies in the Middle East. After replacing the secular dictator in Iraq with Islamic clerics, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi envisioned attacking Jewish influences around the world.

In his twenties, Zarqawi left Jordan in the late 1980s to join the Afghan Mujahideen resistance against the Soviets. It was there that he acquired his basic Jihad skills and learned how to operate an effective terrorist group. He returned to Jordan around 1990, but he was arrested by the Jordanian monarchy in 1992 for attempting to set up a Muslim militant group dedicated to overthrowing the king.

In 1999, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was released from jail when King Abdullah declared a general amnesty. Immediately thereafter Zarqawi set up Jund al-Sham, a Salafi Sunni Islamist terrorist group. Initially, he involved himself in the unsuccessful plot to bomb a Radisson hotel on the eve of the year 2000.

Later that year, while on the run from Pakistani and Jordanian officials, Zarqawi made contact with top al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden. With the support of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Zarqawi set up a terrorist training facility for Jordanians in Heart, Afghanistan. During Operation Enduing Freedom, Zarqawi conducted guerrilla operations alongside other fundamentalist Islamic jihadists.

Jordanian intelligence, which is the ultimate oxymoron, alleged that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was wounded in the chest in late 2001. It was then further alleged by those tasked with promoting the now completely discredited notion that Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaeda were close allies, that Zarqawi went to a Baghdad hospital for treatment. During his hospital stay he is said to have set up terrorist sleeper cells in Iraq - or so the story goes. And even if it were true, the creation of "sleeper cells in Iraq" is no more an indictment of complicity against the Ba'athist government than the creation of sleeper cells in America is an indictment of complicity against the American government.

A letter recovered by Coalition forces in the Fall of 2004, alleged to be from al-Zarqawi, stated in reference to bin-Laden, that the "distance between our hearts is close." That was true. Islam, Muhammad, Allah, the Qur'an, and Hadith permeated and poisoned both men's hearts. Yet despite this sentiment Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was an independent and egotistic rebel leader who was known to all as a maverick. Further, on many occasions al-Zarqawi clashed with al-Qaeda's cofounder, Ayman Zawahiri.

Due to his substantial Jihad experiences, and his devotion to Islam, Zarqawi became proficient in deception, media manipulation, recruitment, and organizing terrorist campaigns. Before his death, al-Zarqawi played a major role in killing American soldiers and Shi'ite civilians. He destabilized the Shi'ite dominated Iraqi government and did his part to inspire a religious civil war, all aimed at establishing an Islamist state in Iraq.

It is interesting to note, that in December 2005, Iraqi security officials confirmed that in 2004, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been apprehended and was in custody. But the officials said: "Musab al-Zarqawi was mistakenly released by Iraqi forces." Repeated attempts to eliminate Zarqawi were ultimately successful in June 2006, when special operations forces were able to confirm his location in a house near Ba'qubah with the help of local Shi'ites. He was killed by two 500-pound bombs dropped by F-16s. Only one problem: Iraq is just like Vietnam. With every bomb dropped and every bullet fired, more enemy are manufactured than murdered. The effect of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death on the greater Iraqi terrorist movement has been to increase the carnage considerably.

In a speech broadcast over the internet on January 23rd, 2005, Zarqawi denounced the upcoming elections. He called the candidates demigods and voters infidels. He declared a fierce war against democracy because democracy is the antithesis of Islam. The Jordanian Palestinian Muslim went on to accuse the Americans of rigging the election to favor Iraq's Shi'ite population. At least he got that right.