Islamists, Experts Speculate on Abu Hamza, new leader of “al-Qaeda in Iraq”
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the new leader of the Salafi Jihadis in Iraq, has threatened to kill Sunni Arab leaders cooperating with the US in the Green Zone in the center of Baghdad.
al-Sharq al-Awsat interviews Sunni Islamists and Arab experts on Islamists for their reaction to the emergence of al-Muhajir as the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Its sources thought him likely from the Levant (Syria or Lebanon, maybe Jordan), an expert in Islamic canon law, and from the post-Afghanistan generation of radical Sunni activists (perhaps even cutting his teeth on violence in Iraq itself during the past 3 years).
The USG Open Source Center translates:
‘Report on Islamic Fundamentalists’ Opinions on al-Zarqawi’s Successor
Report from London by Muhammad al-Shaf’i: “Fundamentalists differ on personality of Abu-Hamzah al-Muhajir, concur he is a non-Iraqi Shari’a scholar and will be more Zarqaw-yish and violent”Al-Sharq al-Awsat (Internet Version-WWW)
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 T16:45:28ZJournal Code: 1431 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT
Document Type: OSC Translated Text
Word Count: 815A prominent Egyptian fundamentalist leader has expressed the view that Abu-Hamzah al-Muhajir, the successor of al-Zarqawi at the head of the Emirate of Al-Qa’ida Organization in Iraq (expression similar to the one once used for Taliban in Afghanistan), will be more Zarqawi-yish and prone to violence than Abu-Mus’ab himself who was killed by US forces last week. Fundamentalist web sites were meanwhile abuzz yesterday with entries of fundamentalists proclaiming their fealty to al-Muhajir. A fundamentalist leader living outside Britain, who requested that his name not be disclosed, told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that Abu-Hamzah al-Muhajir hails from the land of the Levant, that he is reputed to be well versed in Shari’a science, and that he was one of the founders of the organization along with Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi.