Wright is the autor of The Looming Tower, the best book on the history of Al Qaeda out there.
The article (and the book) is fantastic reading for anyone willing to let go of the media's comic-book portrait of Al Qaeda as being faceless, mindless automotons waiting for Bin Laden's orders.
Posts: 75 | Registered: Nov 2001
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I read this article just two days ago, I found it to be very interesting as well.
Dr. Fadl's reformed views definitely have some interesting moderate undertones but I found it worthy of note that he didn't exactly go from bloodthirsty to Gandhi either. It would have felt almost disingenuous if he had.
I'm glad he repudiates targeting innocents, and his concept of a visa being a contract of protection that should not be violated is new to me.
I snickered when al-Zawahiri in his letter of response to Fadl's new book in essence said, "Why are you being so hard on Al-Qaeda, Hamas is just as bad if not worse!?"
Perish the thought that Israel should ever be attacked again, but I think that inquisitor who asked Zarqawi in essence, "Why do you constantly rail against Israel and the Jews but you don't actually do anything to oppose them," has a point.
It's sad that so many of these terrorists rot in jail and then have to be told by their former leaders, "Hey, I kinda had a change of heart."
I can only hope Fadl is right in that Al-Qaeda is rotten on the inside and could fall apart once general consensus in their base is that they don't actually accomplish anything positive.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Small problem with this, it is very easy to find the good side of God when you are trapped in prison paying for your crimes. It looks especially good to the parole board.
But, finding the good side when it suits you doesn't prevent you from later finding the bad side when it is then convenient for you.
I really don't trust jail house conversions. They are a little too convenient.
quote:Originally posted by BlueWizard: Small problem with this, it is very easy to find the good side of God when you are trapped in prison paying for your crimes. It looks especially good to the parole board.
But, finding the good side when it suits you doesn't prevent you from later finding the bad side when it is then convenient for you.
I really don't trust jail house conversions. They are a little too convenient.
Steve/bluewizard
Read the article, they discuss this very point. I think age often crushes the vigor and bullheadedness of youth. Jail just happens to be an accelerant for this process.
Many of the men condemned to death with no chance of release experience the same conversion. But then again, I've always believed it's easier to throw your life away in an instant for the sake of God's work than it is to live a long life centered on that same goal.
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Yeah, Wright is very concerned about the possiblity the book was coerced. We're not just talking about a "Parole Board"--we're talking about Egyptian prisons here. The line that Wright draws up to the creation of Al Quaeda passes directly through the gunning down of a bunch of members of the Muslim Brotherhood in their cells while in Egyptian prison.
But despite his skepticism, Wright basically buys that these are Fadl's own ideas. And al-Zawahiri must have felt the ideas were more than just lip service, or he wouldn't have felt to write a 200 page response letter basically written to the public.
To me, the difference between the book and the letter underscore the entire difference between the two factions. The book was written based in Islamic law, as a legal/religious analysis of the way they were fighting. The response letter was largely political, and betrayed a lot of al-Zawahiri's limited knowledge of Islamic law.
Wright says that much of the split in the group and in other "wanna-be" al Quaeda groups is basically down the same lines. The religously motivated and the politcally motivated are clashing when their motives, means, and goals don't overlap.
And to the degree that there's nuance in every individual member of the different groups, there's probably conflict in each person's heart as well.
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I'd love to see a response from some of the major heavyweights in Congress, the White House and the presidential race respond to questions addressed in it.
I think the biggest thing to take away from this is that the depth of this issue is something we've barely scratched the surface of, and that some projects require tweezers rather than a hammer to produce meaningful results.
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