The Rebellion Within

A massive article on the internal fissures within Al Queda's "intellectual" movement.

I put it in quotes because AQ is long discredited as any type of serious intellectual movement - even amongst Islamicist critics. But to have the authors of the texts they use to justify jihad come out and condemn the leadership, criticize them personally, and basically call out a public "bullshit," can't help but harm the movement.

Imagine Thomas Jefferson or James Madison criticizing the policies of the government and how that might take a bit of wind out your sails...

Plus, some really personal disses on Ayman Zawahiri:

"In 1977, Zawahiri asked Imam to join his group, presenting himself as a mere delegate of the organization. Imam told Al Hayat that his agreement was conditional upon meeting the Islamic scholars who Zawahiri insisted were in the group; clerical authority was essential to validate the drastic deeds these men were contemplating. The meeting never happened. “Ayman was a charlatan who used secrecy as a pretext,” Imam said. “I discovered that Ayman himself was the emir of this group, and that it didn’t have any sheikhs.”"

"Zawahiri, who had given up the names of other Al Jihad members as well, was humiliated by this betrayal." (essentially - Z was a rat)

"Their relationship had turned edgy and competitive, and, besides, Fadl held a low opinion of Zawahiri’s abilities as a surgeon. “He asked me to stand with him and teach him how to perform operations,” Fadl told Al Hayat. “I taught him until he could perform them on his own. Were it not for that, he would have been exposed, as he had contracted for a job for which he was unqualified.”" (Z was a bad doctor)

And some other thoughts that seem right:

“People hate America, and the Islamist movements feel their hatred and their impotence. Ramming America has become the shortest road to fame and leadership among the Arabs and Muslims. But what good is it if you destroy one of your enemy’s buildings, and he destroys one of your countries? What good is it if you kill one of his people, and he kills a thousand of yours? . . . That, in short, is my evaluation of 9/11.”

That's a lesson I'd hope more jihadis would learn.