What sort of Arabs are fighting for Al Qaeda?

Answer 1

Various kinds, but perhaps the most surprising is that Israeli Arabs are participating.

Captured in Baghdad Saturday, March 17, were two--some sources say three--Israeli Arabs, who told their American interrogators they came from the northern Israeli village of Majd al Krum near Carmiel, northeast of Haifa. They were taken prisoner fighting in the central Baghdad district of Bab al Moadham, near the notorious insurgent stronghold of Haifa Street, together with Abu Qetada al Falastini, deputy al Qaeda commander in Iraq.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that al Falastini’s real name is Mahmoud al Madi and he hails from the West Bank town of Nablus.

The Israeli Arabs captured with him formed his inner personal command. Ahead of the new US-led security crackdown in Baghdad ordered by President George W. Bush, al Qaeda pulled its top local commanders out of the city and out of range. It is not clear why the Palestinian group did not join them.

Western intelligence services and agencies engaged in the war on al Qaeda were taken aback by the discovery of Israeli Arabs in al Qaeda’s Iraqi ranks, although they had long ago spotted the veteran Abu Qetada who joined the jihadist movement in 1992. After years spent at training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he came to Iraq in 2004 to fight alongside Abu Musab al Zarqawi. After he was killed by the Americans, the Palestinian was appointed his successor’s deputy.

The Israeli Arabs told their captors that two or three years ago they went to study at fundamentalist Muslim medressas in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they were recruited by al Qaeda. They are believed to have reached Iraq last year with orders from Pakistan to find Abu Qetada and fight the Americans under his command.

Answer 2

The way your question is worded it sounds as if you may be suggesting that only Arabs are part of Al Qaeda. That is simply not the case. Yes, many members of Al Qaeda are Arab but many are not. Arabs, generally, but not always, have the Middle East as their "homeland". Those radicals from say Iran or Pakistan are likely not Arab but of an Asian ethnic group; just as Al Qaeda members from Indonesia are not Arab either.

But perhaps I am reading too much into your question. My answer would be that the type of people who fight for Al Qaeda see a world wide form of Islam becoming a reality through force; they are on the extreme edges of the society in which they live - in other words they are not mainstream citizens. In fact most have probably shed national identification for religious affiliation. Most are of lower income groups, but then again, not all. In fact some are well educated and come from well connected and middle to upper class families (Osama bin Laden for example). There are some general statements that can be made about Al Qaeda members but one of them is not that they are all Arabs.

Answer 3

Poor ones. Refugeed ones. Arabs with axes to grind against the US.. Religious ones. And all those who don't think Israel should exist. In short; most of the Arabs in the Middle East.

Answer 4

Middle Easterners -Including Arabs- fight for Al Qaeda because Osama wants them to sacrifice them selves for Allah or Muhammad or whatever they believe in. He told that Atta will go to heaven when he crashed into the towers.

Answer 5

I think all the arabs who fight for al qaeda do so because of their misled faith in their religion.

These are the type of people who were 'brain washed' by al qaeda to serve their god by means of violence so they can reap their rewards in heaven.

Answer 6

Loyal Muslims.

Allahu Akbar.

Answer 7

The bad ones.

Answer 8

Those who didn't pay attention to the Teachings of Prophet Muhammad.

Answer 9

Sunni probably.

Answer 10

Dumb ones, haha...just kidding...kinda. It's muslim extremists.