al-Qaeda In Iraq

The Weekly Standard: al-Qaeda In Iraq (continues on to page 2)

What I learned from this article is that the organization of al-Qaeda (which is composed primarily of Sunni) is pursuing a ideology. That ideology was thought up by Sayyid Qutb in the 50's and 60's, his thoughts were that "god alone has the power to make laws and to judge." So when leaders make laws and judge each other in a non religious way they are disobeying God. Muslims who obey these leaders, are "treating their leaders as gods" so are guilty of polytheism, the worst sin. This then makes them unbelievers and not true Muslims, regardless of whether they otherwise obey Muslim law and practice. This ideology is properly called takfirism. Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri take this ideology even further by believing that only states that rule according to sharia as well as work actively to spread "righteous rule" across the earth are they "legitimate".

I also learned that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, is even more extremist with the ideology that most of the other al-Qaeda organizations. Zarqawi insists that the duty to convert or kill apostates supersedes even the duty to wage war against the regular unbeliever. Now, AQI has also attacked Western targets, he was implicated in the 2002 murder of USAID official Lawrence Foley in Jordan, and in the bombing of the United Nations office in Baghdad on August 19, 2003. But he mainly concentrates on Shia tagets. AQI has targeted mainly Iraqis, with its preferred weapon is suicide car-bombings, aimed at places where large numbers of Iraqi civilians, especially Shia, congregate. AQI also attacks judges in Iraq because they take away from God his power to judge. It even formally declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq.

Questions I had while reading the text:
Why do the Sunni hate the Shia?
How big is AQI?
What many of the total al-Qaeda insurgents are specifically part of AQI?