Al-Qaida: Struggle needs wives willing to let their men go to heaven

Al-Qaida in Afghanistan needs electrical engineers, medical doctors, Islamic scholars and, in particular, understanding wives, announced the movement's commander in a new audio message Thursday. Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, the self-proclaimed leader of the movement's Afghan branch, gave a 45-minute recruitment speech in a tape entitled, "They've lied, now comes the combat," that appeared on militant Islamist Web sites, and slammed Arab leaders for being traitors. He urged scholars, doctors and electrical engineers to join the Mujahideen in their fight "because the combat needs all expertise and efforts." Abu al-Yazeed also called on the parents to allow their sons to fight. He also went out of his way to address Muslim wives and admonished them "not to be an obstacle between your husbands and paradise, because the virtuous woman who loves her husband desires her husband to escape hell and go to heaven." For those who do succeed in becoming martyrs, he cited the familiar Quranic verses promising a reward of over 70 virgins in paradise.