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September 1, 2007 Special Dispatch No. 1694

Islamist Websites Monitoring Project No. 131

September 1, 2007
Special Dispatch No. 1694

Al-Qaeda Maghreb Clarifies Rules on Dealing with Mujahideen Who Abandon Jihad

On August 14, 2007, Mustafa Kartali, a prominent Algerian Islamist who had accepted an amnesty deal and laid down his weapons, was wounded in an assassination attempt (see http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/2500.htm). On August 21, Islamist websites posted a communiqué from the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claiming that one of its members had carried out the attack, but that he had acted alone and on his own initiative, and that the group did not sanction targeting Kartali. The communiqué, issued in the name of organization commander Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wadoud and dated August 19, also set out the group's general principles regarding the targeting of former jihadists:

"…Desisting from jihad and turning one's self in to the apostates [i.e. the government], whether as individuals or as a group, in the guise of a truce (hudna) or a reconciliation (musalaha), and upon the misguidance of the clerics of evil – this is a sin that falls somewhere between a cardinal sin and apostasy, depending on the context surrounding this sin and its perpetrator. Likewise, it is a grave strategic error."

The communiqué goes on to say that, after considering the relevant shari'a issues and the costs and benefits of attacking people like Kartali, "we are not in favor of targeting this category of those who desist from jihad in the guise of truce or reconciliation, apart from those whose involvement in fighting and killing mujahideen is clearly established."

The group claims that instructions to this effect were given to the group's commanders, but that "Allah willed that one of our soldiers targeted Mustafa Kartali, the leader of the truce-makers in the Larbaa region, without consulting the leadership and without receiving their consent… The explosion that targeted Mustafa Kartali, which we did not order and which occurred without our knowledge, was an error, and we do not approve of it, and we bear the shari'a consequences for it before Allah and before our Muslim nation."

In conclusion, Al-Qaeda Maghreb reminded those who have abandoned the jihad of their jihad days, and admonished them for abandoning the jihad and thus committing a cardinal sin. "Know that… the gate of repentance from sin is open, and that the best way of atonement and expiation for one's sins is jihad."

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