http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&article=555455&issueno=11389

In this 9th and final chapter in the book, which was apparently completed a year ago,  Sayyid Imam Sharif (aka Dr. Fadl) examines the demise of Ayman al-Zawahiri. After having dedicated thirty years to collapsing the Egyptian government, al-Zawahiri still finds himself  with no tangible successes to which he can point. Dr.  Fadl references the classic April 1995 article al-Zawahiri wrote for al-Jihad Mujahideen Bulletin entitled, “The Road to Jerusalem Passes Through Cairo” and discusses his single-minded focus on the Egyptian context until coming under the spell of Bin Laden who manipulated al-Zawahiri into targeting the United States.  Because UBL and al-Zawahiri were unable to mobilize the Muslims masses with their calls for violence except for the several hundred young kids they brainwashed who marched off to die in Iraq or Afghanistan, he says that AQ is again nothing more than a pawn stuck without a backer in a complicated game.  Even though gambling is haram in Islam, UBL and al-Zawahiri have been gambling with the blood of Muslims worldwide, he argues. Their gamble has led to nothing but the death of countless Muslims and the displacement of millions. UBL has been able to galvanize some of those who are legitimately upset with the US by piggybacking his grievances on top of those, his are illegitimate because they violate basic tenets of Islam.

Some have been unable to separate the desire for revenge against the US with UBL’s offer to provide it but for very different reasons, which according to Sayyid Imam Sharif is UBL’s own question for glory and ambition.   UBL plays Robin Hood, he says, trying to convince Muslims that he’s killing the Crusaders to help the Muslims.  But in so doing he has:

- sacrificed the Taliban regime by provoking the US into military invasion and occupation

- sacrificed Muslim lives by brainwashing them and having them commit attacks

- sold out their own brothers

- accepted funding from the Sudanese intelligence service

- declared war on America, which provoked them into invading and occupying two Islamic countries and then tried to declare a truce with them

- made the ummah the guinea pigs for UBL and al-Zawahiri’s blind dogmatic ambition

http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&article=555254&issueno=11388

No time for in-depth analysis now but in short, this chapter tears UBL apart. Dr. Fadl rips him for making miscalculations on 9/11, his truce offerings, for his conception of jihad and for brainwashing Muslim youth, particularly the 9/11 hijackers who killed themselves without first obtaining the permission of their families, for AQ’s self-alienation in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Waziristan and elsewhere.

The challenge for UBL is that even though he blew it for the Taliban on 9/11, he can’t apologize to the Taliban for wrecking their safe-haven because that would mean that 9/11 was a mistake, which would them nullify the martyrdom of the 9/11 hijackers, which he can’t do since AQ’s whole reputation is premised on 9/11.  Same goes for all the other places where AQ has gone operational but in so doing, ended up alienating themselves.

As an aside, why is this story not being discussed in English much beyond this website?  Is it because people don’t know who Dr. Fadl is or why he’s significant?  Or is it because people don’t think that books like this have any impact?  Is it that people believe Dr. Fadl to be irrelevant? Or that even if he is significant, such books may matter intellectually but not operationally?

Beats me – but it sure is baffling. Dr. Fadl has provided a series of roadmaps for how to savage al-Qaida. It’s all right here.