What to Do

Recently the first issue of the "Department of Indoctrination" of the Al-Qa'ida-Iraq organization's online magazine was published under the title of "The Crest of the Summit of Islam" [Dhurwat Sanam Al-Islam], an expression which is commonly used to designate Jihad. An article in the magazine by a certain Abu Maysara, who is believed to be one of the commanders of the Al-Qai'da organization in Iraq, discusses the identity of the Iraqi Al-Qa'ida organization and outlines its aims:

What is the Al-Qa'ida Organization in Iraq?

"...What is the Al-Qa'ida organization in Iraq? This is an organization consisting of a group of Muslims from amongst the followers of the tradition and the community of believers [ahl al-sunna wa'l jama'a] which tries to please Allah by committing themselves to keep Allah's orders and proscriptions and to see to it that others do so [as well]... it has set for itself a number of central goals which are mutually interrelated and complementary:

"1) Renewing pure monotheism which was brought by our Prophet Muhammad amongst those whose monotheism was sullied by the filth of polytheistic elements, and the spreading of the axiom 'there is no God but Allah' in lands where Islam has not yet arrived.

"2) Jihad for the sake of Allah, so that His message be supreme, and in order to recapture all the lands of the Muslims from the hands of the infidels and the apostates, and to apply the Shari'a law, Allah's law, in these areas, without any distinction [in this respect] between ruler and ruled, and to free the Muslim prisoners of war, since this is a personal obligation [incumbent] on every Muslim, as all the ulama agree...

"3) To come to the aid of Muslims wherever they are and to reclaim the Muslim's dignity, which has been soiled by the [foreign] invaders and their agents, and his human rights of which he has been deprived, and to strive to improve his conditions and circumstances in every respect, both religious and this-wordly -- material, social, educational, etc. -- in accordance with the teachings of Islam...

"4) To re-establish the Rightly-Guided Caliphate in accordance with the Prophet's example, because [according to the tradition] 'whoever dies without having sworn allegiance to a Muslim ruler dies as an unbeliever.'

"Our guiding principle with regard to our great goals is: [to follow] the Koran and the tradition of the Prophet, in the way of the righteous early generations, and [to follow] the elucidations of the great ulama from among those faithful to the Sunna [ahl al-sunna] .

"One of the great principles of our faith is that we should not spill even a drop of Muslim blood unjustly, for the end of the whole world is less significant than the spilling of one Muslim's blood."

(Middle East Media Research Institute, March 24, 2005 - "The Iraqi Al-Qa'ida Organization: A Self-Portrait").