THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 158, June 20, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AL-QA'IDA'S ZAWAHIRI, BIGGER THREAT THAN OSAMA?
By Raymond Ibrahim
AYMAN ZAWAHIRI: THE NEW LEADER OF AL-QA'IDA -- WHAT MAKES ZAWAHIRI SO DANGEROUS: HIS
HARSH & RELENTLESS DEDICATION TO VIOLENT JIHAD -- HIS LONG HISTORY OF BEING A STAUNCH UPHOLDER &
PRACTITIONER OF THE THE POPULAR JIHADIST SLOGAN: "JIHAD & THE RIFLE ALONE; NO NEGOTIATIONS, NO
CONFERENCES, & NO DIALOGUES" -- THE BEST SUMMARY OF ZAWAHIRI'S VIEWS: "WARFARE AGAINST INFIDELS,
LOYALTY TO THE BELIEVERS, & JIHAD IN THE PATH OF ALLAH; SUCH IS A COURSE OF ACTION THAT ALL WHO ARE
VIGILANT FOR THE TRIUMPH OF ISLAM SHOULD VIE IN, GIVING & SACRIFICING IN THE CAUSE OF LIBERATING THE LANDS
OF THE MUSLIMS, MAKING ISLAM SUPREME IN ITS OWN LAND, & THEN SPREADING IT AROUND THE WORLD."
FULL STORY:
Now that Ayman Zawahiri has assumed leadership of al-Qa'ida, it is important to end the widespread perception that he
is a dour intellectual who is disconnected from young, would-be jihadists. The fact is, Zawahiri is a wily, dangerous, and
imposing leader who should be considered no less of a threat — and perhaps even more so — than his predecessor.
Like Osama bin Laden, the Egyptian Zawahiri has jihadi bona fides and served in the Afghan war against the Soviets,
primarily as a physician. Moreover, Zawahiri's imprisonment and torture after the assassination of Anwar Sadat by
Islamic Jihad, which he headed, seems to have hardened him more than bin Laden. From his prison cell he memorably
delivered a passionate speech — in English, no less. Seeing a video of it dispels any notion that he is an uncharismatic
leader.
Even so, focusing on charisma is misleading. Although charisma has its place in leadership positions in Islam, knowledge
demands greater authority. After all, the guardians of Islam are called ulema — literally, "those who know." And
compared with bin Laden, Zawahiri is certainly more knowledgeable. He has long been seen as the al-Qa'ida's theoretician,
and thus commands great respect.
Because I have always believed that Zawahiri was key to understanding al-Qa'ida's worldview, when I compiled The
Al-Qa'ida Reader in 2007, I included more of his writings than bin Laden's, specifically Zawahiri's three long treatises.
FEIGN FRIENDSHIP
According to his own words, Zawahiri insists that Muslims must always harbor enmity for "infidels," or non-Muslims,
particularly Jews and Christians. He advocates that Muslims feign friendship with infidels whenever it is advantageous:
"We grin to the faces of some peoples, while our hearts curse them." He is a great proponent and articulator of the
"superiority" of martyrdom/suicide operations and despises democracy because it creates "equality between the
citizenry," allows freedom of religion and abolishes "man's domination over woman."
Zawahiri's views may be best summed up by the following passage:
"Warfare against infidels, loyalty to the believers, and
jihad in the path of Allah; Such is a course of action
that all who are vigilant for the triumph of Islam should
vie in, giving and sacrificing in the cause of liberating
the lands of the Muslims, making Islam supreme in its
own land, and then spreading it around the world."
RELENTLESS DEDICATION
Indeed, what makes Zawahiri so dangerous is his harsh and relentless dedication to jihad. Although many Islamist
organizations have learned that violence isn't the best vehicle to power, Zawahiri has a long history of being a staunch
upholder of the popular jihadist slogan "Jihad and the rifle alone; no negotiations, no conferences, and no dialogues."
He wrote a long book in the early 1990s, Al Hisad Al Murr (The Bitter Harvest), condemning Egypt's
Muslim Brotherhood for taking the nonviolent course to power and actually participating in elections. It's worth noting,
in retrospect, that the Brotherhood's approach has been more successful at achieving political influence.
Likewise, Zawahiri is primarily responsible for redirecting the jihadists' terror attacks from Middle East targets to the
U.S.A. in order to foment a mass conflagration between the West and Islamists — an all or nothing strategy.
WOULD-BE JIHADISTS
Will his severity turn off aspiring jihadists, as some analysts suggest? Perhaps. But it will make those who remain that
much more committed and lethal. Moreover, numbers don't matter much when it comes to engaging in terrorism: the
September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.A. were committed by 19 jihadists.
Finally, when it comes to questioning the popularity, charisma or even efficacy of Zawahiri, al-Qa'ida's new leader
himself once made a relevant point. Asked about the status of bin Laden and other jihadists, Zawahiri waxed
philosophically:
"Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual
or organization. It is a struggle between truth and
falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the Earth and
those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and
Sheikh Osama bin Laden — may Allah protect them
from all evil — are merely two soldiers of Islam in the
journey of jihad, while the struggle between truth
(Islam) and falsehood (non-Islam) transcends time."
As independent jihadists increasingly take action into their own hands — whether the would-be shoe bomber and
Christmas bomber, the Madrid and London bombers, or Nidal Hasan and the Fort Hood army base attack — we must
acknowledge that the doctrine of jihad, the idea itself, is more dangerous than the jihadists who come and go, including
bin Laden and Zawahiri themselves.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is the Associate Director of the Middle East Forum,
a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, author of the Al-Qa'ida entry for the World Almanac of
Islamism, and the editor/translator of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection of tranlations of key texts and
documents of the Islamist movement. Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and political propaganda comprising
this collection help readers comprehend the origins, development, history, and serious danger of the Islamist war
doctrines of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida and implacable enemies of the U.S.A.
and the West.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Bloomberg, June 19, 2011, and can be
found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2971/al-qaeda-zawahiri-bigger-threat-than- osama)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 20, 2011
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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