On the tape, Zarqawi said: “We announce that the Iraqi army is an army of apostates and mercenaries that has allied itself with the crusaders and came to destroy Islam and fight Muslims. We will fight it.”
He acknowledges pressure to abandon the struggle, saying he is “saddened and burdened” by people “advising me not to persist in fighting in Iraq”.
Zarqawi says al-Qaeda will soon unveil a new unit, the Omar Corps, to “eradicate” the Badr Brigade, a militia of the country’s biggest Shi’ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
* * * * *
“This is a message for Bush, the arrogant: Your strength has deluded you and you thought that bringing this Ummah to its knees was going to be a cake walk. It never occurred to you that Allah was not going to be kind to you. You claimed that your god ordered you to start this war against us. Where is your god now? The whole world is now witnessing your disgraceful defeat in Iraq at the hands of the people of Tawheed (oneness). Bush, if your god is for real, I challenge you to invoke him to save you from the swaps of Iraq. You once said that those “Mujahideen” worship a wicked idol. Well, the Mujahideen worship Allah and He alone is worthy of being worshiped. It is He (Allah) who filled the hearts of your already coward soldiers with fear of Mujahideen. If your god is for real, invoke him to give your soldiers the courage to stand up and fight.”
In this poignant message, al-Zarqawi also dishes out some strong words to the so-called men of the Muslim Ummah who continue to keep their heads buried in the sand, making several references to Umm Umarah who defended the prophet (pbuh) courageously when the men ran from the battlefield in the battle of Uhod.
“A Mujahid woman is a woman who raises her child not to live but to fight to defend Allah’s religion and die for it.” Shiekh al-Zarqawi goes on to say “Many Iraqi women have written to me asking to permit them to carry out martyrdom operations. One woman has been begging me for 8 months, writing letters to me, not with ink, but with her tears, asking to join the martyrdom brigade. Isn’t a shame that we may have to recruit women because men have turned blind eyes and deaf ears to what the cross worshippers do to their religion and their honor? These days are similar to the days of Umm Umarah who defended the prophet when men ran away from the battle field.”
