"'Sadat is a martyr, may God bless him'

July 16 2003 at 11:54AM

By Nadia Abou El-Magd

Cairo, Egypt - A leader in the militant group that assassinated former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat called the president a martyr and said he regretted his role in the murder, in an interview published on Wednesday.

Karam Zohdy, leader of Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group, is serving a life sentence in a tight security prison for his role in the October 1981 assassination.

"Yes, Sadat is a martyr, may God bless him with his mercy," Zohdy, 51, told the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat in a rare interview.

'Their main concern became killing Americans, Christians and crusaders without discrimination'
Zohdy said he regrets his "wrong ijtihad", or religious opinion, and if he could turn back time: "I would interfere to prevent it."

Zohdy is among those who ordered the assassination, a plot that also involved the militant Jihad group.

Sadat had been condemned by radicals for standing in the way of establishing an Islamic state and for being the first Arab leader to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, once Egypt's largest Islamic militant group, attempted to overthrow the government during the 1990s in bloody campaign that killed more than a thousand people, mostly militants, tourists and police.

Zohdy said all those killed in that violence were martyrs.

According to Islam, martyrs are those who died in defence of their religion, honour, self, or were unjustly killed, and are believed to go directly to heaven.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya renounced violence in 1997.

The following year, Jihad entered an alliance with Osama bin Laden, formally establishing al-Qaeda with the goal of fighting Americans and Jews around the world.

Zohdy said that strategy has no Islamic legal base, as "their main concern became killing Americans, Christians and crusaders without discrimination".

In May, the jailed leaders of Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya issued a statement condemning al-Qaeda-linked suicide explosions in Saudi Arabia and Morocco and urging Muslim youth not to participate in al-Qaeda terror attacks. - Sapa-AP"


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