Algeria: Al-Qaeda mufti canned for opposing suicide attacks

Posted by Raymond on October 9, 2008 6:54 PM

Obviously, after all the "scholarly" effort Ayman Zawahiri put in [1] legitimizing suicide bombings, al-Qaeda will be damned if it lets some mufti undermine it. "Algeria: Al-Qaeda mufti 'sacked for opposing suicide attacks,'" from [2] Adnkronos, October 8:

Algiers, 8 Oct. (AKI) - The leader of Al-Qaeda's North African branch has sacked its Islamic scholar or mufti, Rashid Zerami, for opposing suicide bombings in Algeria, local daily Ennahar reports.

Zerami clashed over the issue with the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb's leader, Abdel Malik Droukedel, Ennahar said.

The paper cited the testimony of an unnamed Al-Qaeda turncoat who is now in police custody.

Besides the use of suicide bombers, Droukedel and Zerami also clashed over Al-Qaeda's recent strategy of kidnapping Algerian businessmen or their relatives to obtain a ransom, especially in the northern coastal Kabylia area.

Droukedel has replaced Zerami with Abu Asim, a former leader of the hardline Algerian Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which in 2006 joined the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.

Zerami, also known as Abu al-Hasan al-Rashid headed Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb's religious committee and was in charge of armed combat.


Article printed from Jihad Watch: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/10/algeria-al-qaeda-mufti-canned-for-opposing-suicide-attacks.html

URLs in this post:
[1] http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2008/10/022978print.html
[2] http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2557699899