Several days ago, Marc Lynch linked to a very a thoughtful article by Hussam Tammam on the significance of the revisions by the Islamic Group and by Sayyid Imam. Today, Rob at the Shack has cited the article as one more piece of incontrovertible evidence for his Imam-doesn’t-matter argument. I won’t rehash all of that [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Sayyid Imam’
Hussam Tammam On Sayyid Imam
Posted: 22nd December 2008 by Will McCants in Egypt, UncategorizedTags: Sayyid Imam
0
Maqdisi’s High-Wire Act
Posted: 14th December 2008 by Will McCants in JordanTags: Jordan, Maqdisi, Sayyid Imam, Zarqawi
On December 4, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi–Zarqawi’s former mentor and one of the world’s most influential Jihadi ideologues–spoke briefly to the al-Ansar Paltalk chat group. In his brief remarks, Maqdisi appears to distance himself from the Jihadi revisionists: For you and me I prescribe the fear of God, working for the sake of this religion, and [...]
More On Sayyid Imam’s Effectiveness
Posted: 11th December 2008 by Will McCants in Arab media, Egypt, Uncategorized, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
Monika Maslikowski has a smart take on Sayyid Imam’s communication strategy vs. that of Zawahiri (it’s part of a larger assessment of the latter’s stumbles as a communicator this year). She seconds my argument that Imam’s personal attacks on Zawahiri are effective because “Zawahiri’s success as a leader is dependent on whether or not he [...]
Response To Rob At The Shack
Posted: 5th December 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Arab media, Egypt, Uncategorized, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
We’re probably now at the point of diminishing returns, but the issue of Jihadi revisions is important enough to work through the particulars until it’s clear what’s fact, what’s unproven, and what’s merely a matter of taste. It’s important not just for assessing the impact of Sayyid Imam’s work but for understanding how ideological challenges [...]
The Connection Between Sayyid Imam And The Mumbai Attacks
Posted: 5th December 2008 by Will McCants in PakistanTags: Mumbai, Sayyid Imam
Khalil al-Anani wrote an article two days ago about the ideological connection between Sayyid Imam and the Mumbai attackers. There are bits I disagree with, but he’s right to highlight the contribution of Sayyid Imam’s earlier works to the attackers and the contribution of his current revision to our understanding of those attacks. A paraphrastic [...]
Assessing The Impact Of Jihadi Revisionists
Posted: 3rd December 2008 by Will McCants in Arab media, Egypt, Uncategorized, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
Rob at Media Shack has posted a summary of a discussion on al-`Arabiyya’s “Death Industry.” Of interest to him (and me) is Montasir Zayat’s assessment of Sayyid Imam’s latest book (Zayat only read the first one and a half chapters). Here’s Rob’s take: In Zayat’s view, what’s being printed now in Al-Masri Al-Youm is a [...]
The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 13 (Final)
Posted: 2nd December 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Egypt, Hezbollah, Uncategorized, ZawahiriTags: Bin Laden, Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
Sayyid Imam wraps up his new book today. Much of his final criticism is aimed at Bin Laden, whom he describes as incurious and incapable of holding himself accountable for his errors. Regarding the latter, Imam compares Bin Laden negatively to Hassan Nasrallah, who apologized and offered compensation to the Lebanese civilians whose homes had [...]
The Impact Of The Denudation
Posted: 1st December 2008 by Will McCants in Egypt, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
When Sayyid Imam’s first book was released serially last year, CT pundits were split. Some, like Lawrence Wright and Peter Bergen, said it was evidence of a serious fissure in the Jihadi Movement and would further divide it. Others, like Michael Scheuer, said it was neither evidence of a fissure nor would it divide the [...]
The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 12
Posted: 1st December 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Egypt, Iraq, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
Sayyid Imam has some surprising things to say about Sayyid Qutb and some interesting speculation on Zawahiri’s tenuous position in al-Qaeda. He also observes that Libyan and Mauritanian students serve as Zawahiri’s primary research assistants. I don’t know about their nationalities, but there’s no doubt Zawahiri has research assistants (as do many productive academics). [...]
The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 11
Posted: 30th November 2008 by Will McCants in Egypt, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
In today’s installment, Sayyid Imam issues another mubahala, this time concerning the publication of his Compendium. You’ll have to look at Zawahiri’s Exoneration to really understand what Sayyid Imam is reacting to, but in short he believes that Zawahiri plagarized his book. There’s also some pointed barbs about Zawahiri’s hunger for media attention. Imam connects [...]