Following are excerpts from several TV interviews with Abboud Al-Zumar, a leader in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad Organization, who was imprisoned for complicity in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and was recently pardoned by the Egyptian Armed Forces Supreme Council. The interviews aired on various Egyptian TV channels on March 14, 2011.
To view the clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/0/0/0/0/0/0/2868.
Mehwar TV: Following Sadat's Assassination "a Worse Regime Came to Power"
Abboud Al-Zumar: "I'd like to apologize to the Egyptian people [for the assassination of Sadat], because we did not intend to bring Hosni Mubarak to power. Our goal was to bring about change, and to deliver the Egyptian people from the conditions it found itself in. All we wanted was to rid the people of the Sadat regime. We were hoping that a better regime would replace it, but the outcome was that a worse regime came to power. For this, we apologize. Our intentions were to benefit this society." [...]
Dream 2 TV: Copts Must Pay Jizya
Interviewer: "You helped in the assassination of President Sadat."
Abboud Al-Zumar: "Yes."
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Interviewer: "Was your motivation religious or political? Let us agree that this was an act of killing – the killing of a president, the killing of a human being. What was your main motivation for your complicity in this crime? Was it a religious motivation – after all, he was accused of apostasy – or was it a political motivation, because many people were not pleased with President Sadat's policy?"
Abboud Al-Zumar: "It was a combination of the two. The political issues and his conduct in those days led to a religious problem. Therefore, several religious scholars issued a fatwa that killing him, or at the very least ousting him, was permissible."
Interviewer: "Ousting someone is one thing, and killing him is another..."
Abboud Al-Zumar: "It meant ousting him by killing him, bringing about change. That was the ruling of several religious scholars. Ultimately, we began to plan the assassination, on the basis of this fatwa. We were not religious scholars ourselves but we followed the religious scholars. We asked them, and they said that there was a very big problem, which had to do with the Islamic shari'a, with Sadat's attack against Islam, with his actions against the shari'a, with his attacks against Islamic clothing, with his cursing of religious scholars, and with the Camp David Accord, because Sadat abandoned the Arab framework, signing a separate peace treaty, which led to the collapse of the entire Arab position.
"To my mind, we are still suffering from the Camp David Accord and its consequences." [...]
Interviewer: "The Copts may be a minority, but they are still partners in this country. They have equal rights and obligations in this country."
Abboud Al-Zumar: "That's what we say too. They have the same rights and obligations."
Interviewer: "But you are talking about Jizya, and about protecting them... Some of your ideas undermine the notion that they are equal owners and partners."
Abboud Al-Zumar: "These things have many details and limitations. This does not apply when they do certain things in society... Society must protect them, which is why Islam prescribed the Jizya tax, which is parallel to the zaqat. The Muslims pay zaqat to the state, and the Copts pay the so-called jizya tax." [...]
Nile Life TV: Palestinians have the Right to Conduct Resistance, but Israelis in Egypt May Not Be Threatened
Abboud Al-Zumar: "As I have said in the past, I am against the targeting of tourists. Tourists are granted protection when they enter the country. It is not allowed to kill or threaten them. When they come here, we should respect them..."
Interviewer: "All tourists?"
Abboud Al-Zumar: "Yes."
Interviewer: "Even Israelis?"
Abboud Al-Zumar: "Yes. They enjoy protection. There is no problem with that. When they enter my country, I treat them with respect. But on Palestinian land, I have the right to conduct resistance, because this land is under aggression." [...]
