One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians and ideologues is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying that the 9/11 attacks were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."
These words come from a faxed document sent from an undisclosed prison in Egypt by Sayyed Imam al-Sharif, also known as Dr. Fadl and Abd al-Qadir ibn Abd al-Aziz.Al-Sharif essentially `wrote the book' on al-Qaeda with two important texts on jihad and the justification for al-Qaeda, "Fundamental Concepts Regarding Jihad" and "The Five Ground Rules for the Achieving of Victory or Its Absence." Those books are exercises in Islamic scholarship and cite the Koran and Hadiths as grounds for a war against Muslims like the Egyptian ruling class and against the west and America.
In the document, al-Sharif castigates Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and claims Osama insulted Muhammad by comparing the 9/11 attacks to raids by holy warriors in Islam's early history.And he calls for a special sharia court to try Osama bin Laden and his second in command Ayman al-Zawahri.
Needless to say, this hasn't gone over well with the top brass of al-Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahri made a point of personally mocking al-Sharif last month in a video,and there's obviously some personal bile being spewed both ways.
A lot of the inhabitants of western think tanks are calling this a big moment, one of them even being quoted as saying that it marks `the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda'.
I beg to differ.
While it's certainly welcome and may cause some splintering, it's hardly significant in that way. Al-Sharif is in an undisclosed Egyptian prison with a life sentence, in a country where torturing prisoners is an every day occurrence. He may have been promised or threatened into saying or writing just about anything, and Zawahiri alluded to as much when he mockingly asked in last month's video if the electricity used for the fax machine al-Sharif used also powered the prison's electric chair.
Since al-Sharif is incarcerated and may have been tortured, his latest `conversion' may very well be taken with a grain of salt by the people it was intended to reach.
And after all,let's not forget this. Even if you take what he's written as genuine and uncoerced, al-Sharif isn't saying that jihad against the west is wrong or that sharia is wrong..merely that the way Osama has waged it was a mistake in tactics.
When numerous Islamic clerics outside of a prison setting condemn violent jihad of their own free will, then we might indeed see some changes.
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"The beginning of the end of Al Qaeda..." Man, I must say we have got some pieces of work who inhabit think tanks here!! Can we prosecute people and jail them for being absolute idiots? If we could, the person who uttered that quote should get a life time sentence without the possibility of parole. It is doubtful that this idiot who is quite useful to al Qaeda even knows how dumb that statement is!! Someone needs to point out to this moron that the Koran allows for deception of the infidel. In other words, the word of an Al Qaeda operative who is in prision cannot be trusted.
This moron probably celebrated when he or she learned about the latest NIE that said Iran halted its nuclear program and will be unable to have anclear war head until 2015 or so. Such things are simply to good to be true. As such, they should be dismissed as not being true.
The same thing applies to the "beginning of the end of Al Qaeda" statenebt by one Al Qaeda operative. Based on this information it is simply to good to be true. When I first read about this before I visited Joshua pundit today oh how I wanted this to be true. If only this could be the beginning of the end of Al Qaeda? If only? Perhaps if I wish hard enough this really can be true. Perhaps if I wish hard enough Iran will not have nuclear bomb until 2015 or there about. Simply wihing it were so is not enough. Statements like these fall into the to good to be true category. As such smart people and people who are not captive to destructive ideologies dismiss these things for the falsehoods that they are.
The only way to bring about the beginning of the end of Al Qaeda will be to invade Saudi Arabia, topple its government, and replace with an American led government. In odther words, Saudi Arabia should be colonized. Once it is colonized we can begin the long and arduos process of reforming Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East.
Of course an invasion of Saudi Arabia is unrealistic right now. The American people would not support it. The Government bureacracy would be diamatrically opposed to it and would do every thing in their power to unermine such the war effort. The meida would be opposed to it and we would hve no support for this from allies.
What we can do is develop more of our own oil and gas reserves and build more refineries. This would not stop Al Qaeda or Iskamic terrorists but it would give us some leverage when dealing with OPEC nations and it would deprive Islamic terrorists of a major source of funds. In time we might even be able to neutralize the threat that Islamic terrorists pose to us.
While the news media, the government bureacracy, and the enviro whackos would likekly oppose efforts to develop more of our own oil and gas reserves and to build more refineries, the American people would likely support this effort. As such, it is something we should be able to do. The key will be getting politicians who have the courage to stand up to the enviro whackos and the government bureacrats.
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