"Last week we seen a mother ... she put happiness in the hearts of every Muslim on earth and for years to come. She took her son, she took him herself, and she filmed a video with him for him to go and do a martyrdom operation against the Zionists. She's encouraging him. She's left a message for the Ummah [Islamic nation] — 'this is my son, I'm giving him for you, for the Ummah of Mohammad to wake up, for the mothers to follow!' And he wrote a will and said how much his mother she was encouraging him. And she was waiting all night and after that he went for his mission. Waiting all night, not for the news that her son had passed his A-level [British school exam] or he has got his degree, or he has married the most beautiful woman in the club, but he was shaheed [martyred] and he inflict a lot of suffering and terror in the hearts of Zionists! ... this happened right now in the front of us, in the television [sic], we have seen the tape, you've seen the video — if you haven't seen it, go and ask for it! Everywhere, these are the women of mass destruction to the kuffar [unbelievers], and these are the action [sic] that put terror in their hearts. This kind of women, when they miss their killed children, they don't go and look for their graves ... they look for their position in paradise, so they become more happy, more anxious to go and see them, they want to sacrifice more and more."

Question: Could you explain the background of the legal draft revision of the body of Islamic law introduced by your team?
There are several reasons, actually. It started in 2001 when the Office for the State Minister for Women's Empowerment introduced a policy, namely zero tolerance, which laid the foundation for a national drive against any form of violence. One form of violence that must be eliminated is culturally driven violence. We identified some of the roots of culturally driven violence in some of the articles in the body of Islamic law (KHI).

The second reason came in 2002, when the Directorate General of Religious Judiciary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs proposed a bill on religious courts for marriage and inheritance. But the draft only copied and pasted KHI's draft without any significant changes. Of course, it spelled out penalties. For example, those who practice polygamy in a way that is not in line with the law could face a Rp 20 million fine. But who would monitor for violations? Could the police do that as the ministry does not have officers?

Even if the law was strictly implemented, it would be prone to corruption. People would do anything to get Rp 20 million. It would be better to ban polygamy all at once instead. It would be very dangerous if the bill was deliberated and passed by the House of Representative as it is.

I heard the draft has been submitted by the Supreme Court, which took over the supervision of the religious courts in June, to get the President's consent before it is brought to the House. Imagine if we did nothing to the bill.

Some say your team's draft revision is a revolution in Islamic law.
I don't think so. For example, the ban against polygamy is not new to Muslim societies. It came into effect in Tunisia in 1959 and then Turkey.

Some mainstream Muslim figures say they will not approve the draft revision.
Of course, my team and I anticipated that. Some people in the ministry have also opposed the draft. But we expect people to open up their minds and see that the KHI is not sacred. It is debatable and revisable. It is laws made by humans and for our benefit. Why can't we be realistic and rational?

The KHI was introduced in 1991 through a presidential decree. What were the reasons behind its introduction?
It was issued because the government was very authoritarian. It was actually a response by the government to complaints by people about inconsistent verdicts by the religious courts because the courts used different fiqih (Islamic jurisprudence). There was no Islamic law unification back then. People were not used to the differences. Unfortunately, instead of educating people to accept differences, the government gathered ulemas and Islamic law experts to create the KHI for the sake of (political) stability.

Are you facing different challenges with this draft?
Yes, but I won't give up. Five years ago, no Indonesian imagined there would be a direct presidential election. And now we just held a peaceful direct presidential election. I know we are facing tougher challenges for this draft. It may take us more than five years. Religious issues cannot be taken for granted. Who can say that one opinion is the most authentic? The draft revision is not rigid, everyone is welcome to discuss it, without any political motives.

What has been the public response so far?
We have held a series of discussions and the opposition is unbelievable on two issues: Interfaith marriage and polygamy. Most of the participants could accept other articles in the draft. Some of them told me that if articles on interfaith marriage and polygamy were approved, they would prefer to be atheists.

What is the actual danger of interfaith marriage? Corruption is more dangerous than interfaith marriage, as the former harms the nation. Actually, Islam provides many opinions on interfaith marriage. I just cannot understand why it must be banned. You cannot agree with interfaith marriage, but you cannot order others to follow your belief.

Polygamy causes various social excesses, particularly at the expense of the abandoned wives and children whose status in society is affected. Actually, we believe Islam is monogamous. Polygamy is for prophets and those who have the same level as prophets, not for common human beings like us. People might boast they can uphold fairness in practicing polygamy, but why are 90 percent of polygamous marriages not registered with the state? They must hide their status. Therefore, our draft says that an Islamic marriage is not legal without registering it with the state.

Some Muslim figures may oppose you, but have you won support from other groups? Women groups, perhaps?
We have received some support. But, well, I am rather sad to say that most Muslim women do not understand their rights. They just take their religion for granted. They never question anything when it comes to religion despite some of them having obtained a master's or doctorate. You see, most of them think that being a housewife means you must do household chores without help from their husband. Come on, you don't need a womb to cook, do you? I understand that we live in a patriarchal society, but we must be rational and realistic.

Some people have accused your team of not having convincing arguments to back up some of the articles in the draft?
They may say that, but we studied thousands of books and fiqih over two years. We do not make a textual analysis only as a textbook does not talk; it's humans who talk. My team consists of seven men and three women. We are not paid for this work.

A secret Wahabbi terrorist organization, Kvadrat (Quadrant), whose membership practice "Islam from the roots," was founded in Sarajevo in 1995. Kvadrat has expanded dramatically during 2004 in operations and funding by opening a new string of offices and facilities in Bosnia and in the Raska (Sandzak) Muslim area of southern Serbia. A new base for future operations is being built in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus.

The report claims that individuals who were orphaned as children during the Bosnia-Herzegovina civil war are being indoctrinated and trained in the Wahabbist ideology and in the tactics of terrorism and guerilla warfare. These trained personnel are sent through the "green transversal," a narco-trafficking safe-haven line, that runs from Bosnia, through Turkey and Georgia, to Chechnya, where they join the al-Qaida-supported Chechen Islamist terrorist operations.

The Iranian VEVAK [Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)] have assisted in the training of the youth of Kvadrat, with the Saudi Government providing financial assistance. The Iranian government has denied publicly that it supports Chechen Islamist separatists, in order to protect the continuation of arms and technology trade with Russia.

Bosnian sources have told GIS "The young Kvadrat members have been brainwashed for a decade; since they were little children in most cases. They have been taught to believe that only their zealous approach to Islam is correct; they are fanatical."

Kvadrat operates in the triangle area between Zenica, Tuzla and Sarejavo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The operational leader of the group is Pezo Adnan, though he "takes his orders" from a leader in Vienna, Austria. Adnan lives in Zenica, and has a known muhahedin, "Acit", as his bodyguard and driver. Acit came to Bosnia through Zagreb in 1993, and was a member of the el-Mujahid terrorist unit in Bosnia from October 20, 1993. El-Mujahid operated within the Bosnian Muslim Army in 1995, and participated in beheadings and mass murders of prisoners in Ozren and Vozuca.

The national origin of Acit is not known at this time. He is known, from surveillance, to be in contact with Abu el-Mali, an "emir" (leader" of the el-Mujahid.

Training of the orphan boys has occurred since 2001 on Jablanickom Lake in Podi, Bosnia. A main trainer for indoctrination is Cengic Faruku from Sarajejo, though VEVAK officers are in charge of training in terrorism and guerilla warfare. Known members of Kvadrat include Zulum Almir, killed in Chechnya, and Bijedic Kenan, arrested in Turkey in 2001.

The Saudi funding of Kvadrat is funneled through the High Saudi Committee for Children Without Parental Care (VSK), based in King Fahd Cultural Center, in Sarajevo Bosnia. This organization is led by Sheikh Nasser al-Saeed, and its deputy is Abdul-Rahman al-Rashed. Another individual linked to the organization as a supporter is Khalid al-Aqueli, said to have a Bosnian passport. The VSK's office have been raided by NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR) because of suspected links to terrorists.

Kvadrat has been supported by Al-Haramain charity (AHF) -- the Al-Haramain and Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa Charity Foundation -- based in Riyadh. (Note: days after the publication of this report, Arabia announced the dissolution of Al-Haramain Foundation, according to an October 6 report of Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a London-based newspaper (BBC Monitoring International Reports, "Saudi Arabia Announces 'Dissolution' of Controversial Charity Foundation," October 6, 2004.) The United States has publicly linked Al-Haramain to support of terrorists in Chechnya, as well as to the al-Qaida bombings of two U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar e-Salaam in 1998.

The U.S. branch of AHF is headquartered in Oregon and was established in 1997. A federal search warrant was executed on February 18, 2004, against all property owned by the AHF in the United States. The investigation included agents from the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A statement was issued by the U.S. Treasury department on September 9, 2004, designating the AHF a terrorist-linked organization.

The U.S. investigation of AHF revealed criminal violations of tax laws and money laundering. Individuals associated with the U.S. branch concealed the movement of funds to Chechnya by omitting them from tax returns or mischaracterizing their use as being intended for a prayer house in Springfield, Missouri. Funds identified as supporting Chechen refugees were diverted to support the al-Qaida network of Chechen leaders and mujahedin.

AHF has operations through the Union of the Comors, which was identified as a staging area and exfiltration route for the perpetrators of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Last Monday, while I was in Basra watching TV in the afternoon, Al-Fayhaa channel broadcasted a film they said it was sent to the station via e-mail. I have to say that the credibility of the film is questionable but since I found that no one in the media, whether inside or outside Iraq commented on it, I decided to tell you about it and perhaps we could together find some answers.

The film was taped on July 11 this year as written on the screen and it showed six young men, all Iraqi as there looks and accent showed, and they were reading written confessions about attacks they launched against Iraqis and coalition troops.

All those six men (the youngest is 21 years old) mentioned that they were given orders from the "Association of Muslim Scholars" to perform certain operations against "Iraqi collaborators", multinational troops and some moderate She'at clerics. One of the men said that he received (350 000 ID) from a member of the association to assassinate a She'at cleric and when the first attempt failed, he was ordered to try again as he stated.

One of those men claimed that their operations were planned in coordination with other groups of militants, namely "Khalid's legion" and " Ansar Al-Sunna Army" and then he started to list the operations they were involved in and I could count about 15 or so different operations among which there was the murder of the American contractors and mutilating their bodies in Fallujah months ago.

Al-Fayhaa stressed that the film was sent anonymously, and there was no way to identify the authority that captured those men and made them read those confessions and there's also no explanation why this record was kept hidden for about 3 months before it reached the media.

It was obvious that the (frame) of the confessions was prepared by the capturing authority because the structure was the same in all six confessions which all ended with a plea for forgiveness from the law.

The whole story could be made up to provoke a sectarian conflict among Iraqis but there's a weak possibility for this tape to be faked because the six men started their confessions by telling their full names and full addresses (they were all from Baghdad and from the neighborhoods around Haifa street) so I think it would be easy to verify these information.

Could it be that those men were captured by the Iraqi security forces and someone somehow managed to steal a copy? But why don't we see anything done about it till now? Why the government kept it hidden all this time?
The most acceptable theory is that it was sent from a non-governmental authority, like one of the major parties for example, which have militias and are probably able to identify and capture gangs.

Anyway, such parties are part of the interim government and there should be some kind of coordination between the parties and the government's systems but till now, nothing indicates that the government is aware of this issue. Maybe the government is waiting for the right time to take action or trying to gather more evidence and verify the information in the tape.

Most Iraqis and I'm one of them do not need more evidence to believe that this organization is a part of the terror network in Iraq, as they have been very generous in providing us with one proof after the other of their willingness to destroy Iraq and their longing for Saddam's days and their rejection and fear from the ongoing democratic process in Iraq. However and even if the tape was a false one, I think it's past due for a serious and thorough investigation to be carried out.