Al-Qa'ida yesterday revealed its latest books entitled "The Future of Iraq and the Peninsula After the Fall of Baghdad." It is the last book written by Yusuf Bin-Salih al-Ayiri, the person primarily in charge of al-Qa'ida Internet site who was killed in an exchange of fire with the Saudi security forces in early June. Al-Ayiri, also known as Abu-Muhammad and Abu-Maryam, ranks 10 on the list of 19 people wanted by the Saudi Interior Ministry as suspects in the Riyadh bombings.

In his book, a copy of which Al-Sharq Al-Awsat has obtained off the Internet, Al-Ayiri noted that "the collapse of the Ba'th government is a blessing for Islam and Muslims as the fall of the Arab Ba'th signals the collapse of the infidel pan-Arab slogans that swept the Islamic nation. After Communism, pan-Arabism, secularism, and modernism, the Iraqi Arab Ba'th (Party) has fallen to be replaced by the Islamic banner, which has remained steadfast throughout history to serve as an alternative for the nation, which has realized the failure of the non-Islamic calls regardless of their principles."

Al-Qa'ida webmaster added: "Had the Ba'th achieved victory, this victory would have contributed to the spread and the promotion of its ideology among the Muslims. It would have been difficult for members of the nation to turn down the ideas of a party that achieved a major victory. In addition, the party had recently started to pursue marriage with Islam. It changed its terminology from a purely Ba'thist line that rejected the Islamic slogans to one the embraced Islamic Ba'thist slogans." He added: "A victory by the Ba'th would have caused a major crack in the true concept of Islam within the Islamic nation. A Ba'th military victory certainly would have been less dangerous than the advance of the Crusades, but still it would have constituted a threat to the nation in its creed that would have made it difficult for the nation to revolt against at a later stage, unless it started to threaten the rest of the Muslim countries militarily."

Continuing in his preamble to the book, Al-Ayiri added: "After Baghdad's fall, Iraq's occupation by the Americans, and the latter's victory in the first round of the war, which is yet to end, an important question came to mind: What will the region's religious, military, political, and economic future be if one side triumphs over the other? And what can we do to avert the negative impact? This question requires a long talk and the answer to this question is the talk of analysts nowadays. All analysts, be they Shari'ah scholars, military, economic, or political experts, are trying their best to use the past and the current events to make conclusions about the future. By this we do not mean telling the future as sorcerers do. We mean talking about the future based on current or historical facts, which is part of good planning and proof of sound judgment if a decision is based on these givens. These givens, however, may not be entirely correct. Nevertheless, understanding the givens available on the land of reality is one of the most important elements needed to make a decision."

Al-Ayiri dedicated a whole chapter to talking about the future of the region in light of the US occupation of Iraq. In this chapter, he pointed out that "one of the most wicked aspects of secularism is democracy, which cancels the authority of the Shari'ah on the society and which is in total conflict with it in form and substance. God Almighty has stated that there is no governing but by God. Democracy, however, says that governing is done by the majority of the people."

He added: "The expectations that we have for the future of the region in all domains are generally against Islam and Muslims, and this is not out of pessimism. It is the result of a simple reading of the reality today. Having renounced jihad and settled for worldly affairs, the nation, unfortunately, has left its affairs in the hands of the enemy to run, either directly or by proxy. By mentioning the tragic reality of the nation we are not trying to drive people to despair or pessimism. It is a way to incite people to reject this humiliation, which the Arab infidels would not like to see for their Arabism."

Through the Center of Islamic Studies and Research, the primary spokesman of al-Qa'ida, Al-Ayiri has issued several books; most importantly, "The Truth of the Crusader Wars", "Al-Mizan (the balance) and the Taliban Movement", "Hidayat Al-Hayara fi Hukm Al-Asara" (Guiding the confused people on issues related to prisoners), the "Martyrdom Operations: Suicide or Martyrdom", and other political books. One of the latest books talked about the "theater operation in Moscow and what did the mujahidin benefit from it. Another book is entitled "Firm Principles on the Path of Jihad." A third talked about the "role of women in the jihad against the enemies." The latter was published unofficially in a book by Abdallah al-Zayd.

According to other fundamentalist sites, Al-Ayiri was one of the instructors at "Al-Faruq" site affiliated to Bin Ladin in Afghanistan. From there he left for Sudan, where he spent four months during which he was Bin Ladin's personal guard. He was very close to al-Qa'ida leader during their presence in Sudan. Al-Ayiri was a fervent admirer of the genius of Abu-Hafs al-Masri, the former military commander of al-Qa'ida who was killed during the military operations in Qandahar in October 2001.

Al-Ayiri pointed out that "Iraq's fate will not be any better than that of Afghanistan. Corruption and corrupting are US policies strongly backed by the government. To strengthen the plans for corruption in Iraq, Iraqis will be taught how to cooperate with the occupation government and improve the social and civilian conditions in Iraq. Iraqis, particularly women, will be offered opportunities to contribute to making public decisions. This plan will run along four axes. The first will be to establish an educational system in Iraq that ensures freedom for all, assesses the basic needs of the country, improves public health, and fights diseases."

The author added: "Undoubtedly one of the biggest threats to the domination of Islam and the rule of the Shari'ah in the nation is the US secularism, which will be imposed on the region by force. The people of the Cross want this secularism to be applied throughout the Islamic world. After the occupation of Iraq, the application of this plan in the Islamic world is more likely. As a result, the Islamic world will move from dictatorship to democracy, which means paganism in all aspects of life." He noted that the application of secularism in the Islamic world is a primary, not a secondary, option for the "Zionist-Crusader alliance. He claimed that the era of imposing secularism in the region will be ready for implementation after the renouncement of the "loyalty (to God) and disavowal" (of infidels)" and the rejection of jihad, as is the case in Turkey and other countries that have pursued the same line. He noted that one of the main features of this scheme is to "renounce violence and abandon jihad under justification of reason and the need not to drag the nation toward unequal confrontations."

(Description of Source: London Al-Sharq al-Awsat in Arabic -- Influential Saudi-owned London daily providing independent coverage of Arab and international issues; editorials reflect official Saudi views on foreign policy)