Free Republic

On August 4, 2006, Al-Qaeda released a video in which Ayman Al-Zawahiri claimed that the Egyptian Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya group had joined its ranks. Later, in his videotape on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Al-Zawahiri repeated his claim that Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya - together with the Algerian GSPC (Groupe salafiste pour la predication et le combat) - had joined Al-Qaeda. Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya was quick to deny this claim. One of its leaders, Najih Ibrahim, told the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that they had refused to join Al-Qaeda "because their goal is jihad, whereas our goal is Islam." [1] Indeed, Al-Gama'a...