Ayman al-Zawahiri, Leader, 1991

“[T]he foundation of democracy is built atop the premise ‘rule by the people for the people’ and rejection of the Commandments of Allah, which are all-comprehensive for mankind. Its [democracy’s] essence revolves around the whims and fancies of man, which are articulated in a number of ways, and which become the ruling godhead. It rebels against and prevents the sharia of Allah from becoming established law.”Raymond Ibrahim, trans., The Al-Qaeda Reader (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 133.