A Doctrine of Takfir: The 2005 Zarqawi Interview on the Shia

Introduction

The following is a structured presentation of a 2005 interview with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). The text outlines his theological and strategic justification for declaring Takfir (excommunication) on the Shia and engaging in sectarian war. This document is presented for educational analysis as a primary source illustrating the ideological foundations of a significant vector of conflict in the post-invasion Iraqi landscape.

Interview

Interviewer Question 1: Are the Shiites not Muslims? So how can we fight them? Is not he who fights them following the path of the Kharijites, and does the hadith: "They kill the people of Islam, And they call upon the idolaters?" not apply to him?

Zarqawi's Response: The Islam of the Rafidites (Shias) today is merely decorative, a verbal claim combined with numerous nullifiers of Islam, ranging from doctrinal nullifiers to verbal or practical nullifiers. Their beliefs and actions place them outside the fold of Islam, making combat against them a religious duty, not a Kharijite deviation.

Interviewer Question 2: Don't many Shiites declare that they do not believe in the distortion of the Qur'an, nor do they slander Aisha, nor do they consider Abu Bakr and Umar to be infidels, and they call for Unity and brotherhood with the Sunnis?

Zarqawi's Response: These claims are merely a smokescreen, a way to deceive the well-intentioned. This deception is based on their principle of Taqiyya (religious dissimulation), which they uphold with a fabricated hadith: “He who has no taqiyya has no religion.” The reality on the ground in Baghdad proves their true nature: they have entered homes openly insulting the Companions of the Prophet, terrorizing children, and violating the sanctity of women while operating in the guise of the army and police. Our sisters in the south have been harmed by them, and they were complicit with the Americans in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison.

Interviewer Question 3: How can the Rafidites be fought against, when they pray and their country is overflowing with Islamic symbols in "Iran" such as their mosques and the attire of their ayatollahs?

Zarqawi's Response: Many Sunnis have been deceived by these appearances. A close examination reveals their worship has no connection to true religion, from their strange prayer timings to their "childish lamentations." Meanwhile, Iran hosts churches and Jewish temples in Isfahan but has no mosques for Sunnis. In Baghdad, they have occupied Sunni mosques. Their land is overflowing with the realities of major and minor polytheism, not genuine Islamic monotheism.

Interviewer Question 4: Isn't Iran one of the countries that applies Islamic law in its constitution?

Zarqawi's Response: It is the law of their clerics ("verses and references") who have distorted the religion. What kind of Islamic law is this where adultery rates are among the highest, and the divinely ordained limits of God are altered, suspended, or distorted? Their leaders are the ones who command and forbid, not the pristine Sharia.

Interviewer Question 5: Are not their leaders scholars of Islam who were saturated with Sharia knowledge and then went out into the arenas of reality?

Zarqawi's Response: These people are among the great misguided ones, immersed in doctrinal violations. Religious knowledge is only valid when it conforms to the Book and the Sunnah. They derive their teachings solely from their Imams, not from the authentic sources. Their foray into politics is to implement their own deviant protocols, not the verses of the Qur’an.

Interviewer Question 6: Didn't the Shiites defend the afflicted Muslims around the world? Didn't they adopt many global causes?

Zarqawi's Response: The Rafidites and their state, Iran, have never been supporters of the Sunnis. Any support is a malicious attempt to convert common Sunnis to Shiism. Their adoption of Sunni causes is hollow. For example, Shiite tribes are now stabbing our Mujahideen in the back in Waziristan alongside the Pakistani army. Some of their own writers have stated that without Iran, America could not have occupied Afghanistan or Iraq.

Interviewer Question 7: Were not the Rafidites among the great heroes of the Lebanese resistance, represented by Hezbollah, attacking the Jews and striving to liberate Palestine?

Zarqawi's Response: Hezbollah is a proxy party in a major global game to absorb and suppress popular uprisings. America could easily remove Hezbollah but does not because its role is not yet over. Furthermore, one cannot applaud a liberator of Palestine if he is a despicable agent; the lesson is in the ideology of the conquerors, not the conquest itself. The historical Fatimids were a stain of shame, not a glory.

Interviewer Question 8: Are the Shiites not fighting to expel the occupier and liberate Iraq? There is no greater proof of this than the Sadr Army revolution!

Zarqawi's Response: The Shiites conspired with the occupier and are now his obedient servants. The "Sadr revolution" was a minor conflict of interest with their masters, and its fate was to be suppressed. Sadr's calls for peaceful solutions are a fraud. Unlike Saddam's secular Baathist army, the Mahdi Army is a sectarian ideological force that paves the way for the false messiah (Dajjal).

Interviewer Question 9: Isn’t igniting sectarian war one of America’s objectives in Iraq? So how can Sunnis pursue it when it is an American goal?

Zarqawi's Response: America is actually afraid of a full-blown sectarian war because it would mean its own resounding defeat and loss of a foothold. Therefore, it dresses the Shiites in the uniforms of the army and police to present them as nationalists to the naive Sunni masses. Their plan is to hide the sectarian nature of the conflict to keep the Sunni populace asleep.

Interviewer Question 10: Isn't openly calling for war against the Shiites more harmful than beneficial, whether among ordinary Muslims or among intellectuals?

Zarqawi's Response: We would not have entered this war were it not for the Rafidites' crimes: the killing of Sunni cadres, the displacement of Sunni families, and the occupation of Sunni mosques. They started this war. The problem is that Muslims have reached a state of humiliation where they cannot recognize the achievements of the Mujahideen, instead attributing events like 9/11 to Mossad.

Interviewer Question 11: Don’t Muslim sheikhs, especially the Sunni community in Iraq, criticize stirring up disputes with their Shiite brothers?

Zarqawi's Response: This so-called "Sunni organization" does not represent the Sunnis. It is a group formed during turmoil, either ignorant of the facts or deliberately masking the truth to keep the masses asleep and submissive.

Interviewer Question 12: Didn't the operations of JTJ group [AQI] result in the killing of innocent people who had no connection to the war? Isn't this enough to deter them from their bombings?

Zarqawi's Response: Leaving matters to the Crusading Americans and their agents would have a more severe consequence. They themselves have bombed "innocent people" and violated honor on a massive scale. But even if they were benign rulers, remaining under the humiliation of man-made law is itself an unbearable condition. The implementation of God’s law is a goal for which blood is rightly shed, necks are cut, and limbs are scattered. Which is worse: souls that are taken, or a religion that is crushed?

This article is written by Abu Dhar al-Bosni (lokiloptr154668 on X) and does not necessarily reflect the views of A.E.P. (the owner of the website), nor does it necessarily represent an agreement with these perspectives.