Al Qaeda's Civil War

Sayyid Imam al-Sharif: The terrorist attacks on September 11 wer
e both immoral and counterproductive, he writes.

Al-Qaeda Founder Launches Fierce Attack On Osama bin Laden -- The Telegraph

One of al-Qaeda's founding leaders, Dr Fadl, has begun an ideological revolt against Osama bin Laden, blaming him for "every drop" of blood spilt in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, who goes by the nom de guerre Dr Fadl, helped bin Laden create al-Qaeda and then led an Islamist insurgency in Egypt in the 1990s.

But in a book written from inside an Egyptian prison, he has launched a frontal attack on al-Qaeda's ideology and the personal failings of bin Laden and particularly his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Twenty years ago, Dr Fadl became al-Qaeda's intellectual figurehead with a crucial book setting out the rationale for global jihad against the West.

Today, however, he believes the murder of innocent people is both contrary to Islam and a strategic error. "Every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers," writes Dr Fadl.

Read more ....

My Comment: Dr. Fadl has been critical of Al Qaeda and its leaders for the past few years. But it has only been in the past year that his criticism is now being publicized by the press, and his support from Islamic clerics and scholars is becoming known.

The Rebellion Within -- An Al Qaeda Mastermind Questions Terrorism.

A must read article from The New Yorker:

Last May, a fax arrived at the London office of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al Awsat from a shadowy figure in the radical Islamist movement who went by many names. Born Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, he was the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad, and known to those in the underground mainly as Dr. Fadl. Members of Al Jihad became part of the original core of Al Qaeda; among them was Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant. Fadl was one of the first members of Al Qaeda’s top council. Twenty years ago, he wrote two of the most important books in modern Islamist discourse; Al Qaeda used them to indoctrinate recruits and justify killing. Now Fadl was announcing a new book, rejecting Al Qaeda’s violence. “We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that,” Fadl wrote in his fax, which was sent from Tora Prison, in Egypt.

Read more ....

My Comment: This article is a continuation of a story that was actually done by Global Terrorism Analysis in December, 2007. Both articles deserved to be read by those who are studying the internal ideological battle that are now underway in the Jihad movement.

But both articles are bringing up the essential important point .... how can we (the West and moderate Muslims) defeat this violent religious ideology. In my opinion, we can defeat this ideology by positioning ourselves to do the following:

1) Military action: Defeat or hinder those groups who are unwilling to negotiate or compromise.

2) Crate and promote an environment for economic freedom, growth, and development.

3) The promotion of a free press and the idea that freedom of expression is a human right.

4) The support of local governments and officials that support points 2 and 3.

5) A legal system that respects tradition, but also certain basic human rights.

and the most important point of all ....

6) Education and the free flow of information. By exposing the young to all the best that the West has to offer .... this in the long run .... 2 or 3 generations later .... will have a far greater and positive impact than any military, political, or economic action.

Continuing with the comment ....
The fact that certain Al Qaeda and other terrorist masterminds are now not only openly debating the moral authority of islamic militancy .... but are in fact calling for the cessation of all violence, is an action that hits at the core of what is Islamic fundamentalism.

It is no surprise that al-Zawahiri had to respond. This moment reminds me of when Mikhail Gorbachev started to voice the need for the Soviet Union to change its ways .... no surprise .... a few years later the Soviet Union was no more. Any movement, when it loses it ideological or moral compass, will go adrift and it will disappear.

Islamic Jihad has been with mankind since the time of Muhammed. We all going to succeed, but the violent tenants of Jihad are not going to disappear overnight .... but this is a start.