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Posted 7/12/2005 11:32 AM
Al-Zarqawi blasts his mentor for urging restraint in attacks
CAIRO (AP) Terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi criticized his spiritual mentor for urging militants in Iraq to rein in attacks on civilians and warned that the sheik's comments could split Islamic fighters, according to a purported statement posted on an Islamic Web site Tuesday.
The statement, signed by al-Zarqawi, warned his sheik Isam Mohammed al-Barqawi "do not follow the path of Satan that leads to your destruction. Beware, our noble sheik, of the trick of God's enemies to lure you to drive a wedge in the ranks of the mujahedeen."
Al-Barqawi, known in militant circles as Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera from Jordan last week that militants in Iraq should revise their tactics, saying "the number of Iraqis killed in suicide operations has become a tragedy."
Al-Barqawi, who has known al-Zarqawi for more than a decade and taught him radical ideology in prison, gave the interview after he was released from a Jordanian prison. The sheik was arrested again by the Jordanians soon after the interview was taped on suspicion of contacts with militant groups.
In the interview, al-Barqawi said suicide bombings should be carried out, only if necessary so that "no harm would befall Islam." He also disagreed with al-Zarqawi on killing Shiites a frequent target of attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups.
Al-Zarqawi defended attacks on Shiites, saying they had "sacrificed soldiers on behalf of the infidel occupier and supported them against the sincere mujahedeen."
"After their support for the Crusaders, how is it possible for me to not fight them," he said.
In the six-page statement al-Zarqawi addressed al-Barqawi as "his beloved sheik" and asked God to forgive him.
"I would doubt in myself but I would never doubt for a moment in your faith," he wrote, addressing al-Barqawi. "But why would you make for the enemy a path against you brothers?"
Al-Barqawi, who wrote several books mostly on militant Islamic philosophy, is considered one of a few remaining terror ideologues, and he enjoys wide support among radicals worldwide.
Al-Barqawi, a native of the West Bank town of Nablus, and al-Zarqawi, who belongs to a Jordanian Bedouin tribe, teamed with other Arabs in Afghanistan in the late 1980s. Both shared a cellblock in Jordan from 1995 and 1999 for anti state plot before they were freed in an amnesty by King Abdullah II. Al-Zarqawi later went to Afghanistan, then to Iraq.
