ji·had·ica

The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 4

Part 4 of the Denudation is a little more techy, but there is a nice rebuttal of al-Qaeda’s principle of reciprocity, which, as Sayyid Imam says, really does underpin a lot of its members’ moral reasoning about violence.  In this vein, Sayyid Imam slaps Nasir al-Fahd hard in the face for his famous WMD fatwa. Paraphrastic translation follows: Under the illegitimate principle of attacking the far enemy first, Al-Qaeda provoked the U.S. into attacking Afghanistan, which then made jihad an obligation for every individual, without conditions.  Yet Zawahiri and Bin Laden didn’t stay and fight; rather, they fled in women’s garments.  When this is pointed out to them, they say, “Our role is only to incite others to fight.”  But the Prophet both incited and fought and so should they.  Zawahiri is only good at fleeing, inciting, collecting donations, and talking to the media. *  The heresy of excommunication and killing

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Will McCants November 23, 2008

The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 3

As with Wednesday’s installment, Sayyid Imam saves the good stuff for last.  He obliquely chides Mullah Omar for not turning over Bin Laden to the U.S.  Imam also discloses that Bin Laden was plotting with Pakistani intelligence before 9/11 without the permission of Mullah Omar and alleges that he worked with ISI head Gen. Mahmud Ahmed.  Finally, Imam reveals that Zawahiri did not know of the 9/11 attacks until after they happened.  In all, the picture he paints of Zawahiri is of a man very peripheral to al-Qaeda operations until after 9/11.   At the beginning of today’s installment, Sayyid Imam rebuts several of the principles underpinning the “school of al-Qaeda” and reprises the argument of his last book that even though jihad is a duty, there are conditions that must be met before it can be undertaken.  My paraphrastic translation follows: Muslims are the cause of their own problems,

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Will McCants November 21, 2008

The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 2

Here’s a paraphrastic translation of the second installment published today.  I promise, it’s worth reading to the climactic end: As I said yesterday, the testimony and hadith transmissions of a liar are not acceptable in Islamic law or in the religious sciences.  So Zawahiri’s religious pronouncement’s in the Exoneration should be rejected. [Sayyid Imam goes on to quote medieval scholars in support of his position.] Before I get into Zawahiri’s jurisprudential mistakes, I want to say that this is not merely about the errors of one man on some jurisprudential issues.  It is the attempt to establish a corrupt, wayward school (madhhab) to justify excess in shedding blood.  I will detail how this school was established, examine its fundamentals, and refute them.  This corrupt school has been called by some, “the al-Qaeda concept.” 1.  How was the school of al-Qaeda established for excess in shedding blood? The school emerged in

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Will McCants November 19, 2008

The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 1

Al-Masry al-Youm has begun its serial publication of Sayyid Imam’s new book, The Denudation of the Exoneration.  Since Media Shack won’t be covering it in depth, I’ll be posting summaries of it here as it comes out.  I’ll also .pdf the webpage so readers of Arabic won’t have to go scratching around for it later. The first installment begins with “The Lies of Zawahiri,” so you know it’s going to be good.  Highlights are the revelation that Zawahiri was a Sudanese agent in the early ’90s and Sayyid Imam’s call to a mubahala.  As you’ll see, it’s hard not to believe that Sayyid Imam relishes the chance he’s been given to put his finger in Zawahiri’s eye.  Here is a summary: Zawahiri repeatedly says I wrote the Document [the Tarshid] under the supervision of the U.S. and the Jews.  He is a liar and I call him to a mubahala.

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Will McCants November 18, 2008

Al-Qaida Advises the Arab Spring: Yemen

Uh-oh. Several jihadi scholars are engaged in some ideological infighting again and it’s not pretty. As long-time readers of Jihadica know only too well, several jihadi ideologues have participated in quite heated debates about jihad, violence and suicide bombings with the people who are supposedly their brothers in arms. The best-known among these are the accusations between Sayyid Imam and Ayman al-Zawahiri (see here for the first installment of Will’s series of posts on this subject, for example) and the conflict between Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and the supporters of his former pupil Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi (see here, for instance). This time, it’s the Syrian-British shaykh Abu Basir al-Tartusi who starts this discussion by criticising the Yemeni militant group Ansar al-Shari’a, which is responsible for several major attacks in Yemen in the past months and is said to have strong ties to al-Qaida. This discussion does not just tell us something

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Joas Wagemakers June 5, 2012

Revisions or Just a Change of Heart?

Islam Online, an Islamic website founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently published an article called “Jihadist Revisions or Changing Their Minds” by Jordanian writer Yasir al-Za’aterah. It argued that revisionists (see here, here, and here) may have shifted their positions on violence, but they have not changed their fundamental political views. Al-Za’aterah stated that the revisionists are basing their new approach on “religious legitimacy,” which is what they used to justify their violence in the past. He maintained that the issue of forcibly expelling an unjust leader who claims to be a Muslim is contentious in Islamic jurisprudence because it often involves many “mistakes”, making it closer to what scholars consider fitna or civil unrest, which is why many refuse to condone force against a Muslim ruler. Al-Za’aterah concluded that modern Islamic movements have not rejected armed insurrection because they consider violence non-permissible; rather, they have rejected it because such action

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Scott Sanford November 21, 2009

Libyan Jihad Revisions

There is a very significant development taking place in the so-called war of ideas. Senior leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), who recently laid down their arms, are publishing a Dr. Fadl-like treatise revising their previous understanding of jihad. The text, entitled “the Book of Correctional Studies” (kitab al-dirasat al-tashihiyya), is being published as a nine-part series on the website www.oealibya.com. You can find the first three chapters here, here and here. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to look at it in detail, but Jarret Brachman will be covering the story. He already has some interesting background info and analysis. The text in itself is probably not a landmark work of Islamic jurisprudence, but it is important because it adds to what may now be called a corpus of treatises by former militants challenging al-Qaida on theological grounds. The trend started with al-Gamaa al-Islamiya in Egypt, continued

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Thomas Hegghammer September 8, 2009

Response To Rob At The Shack

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 to Jihadism fail or succeed.  My response to Rob is below the fold:

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Will McCants December 5, 2008

The Connection Between Sayyid Imam And The Mumbai Attacks

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 summary follows:

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Will McCants December 5, 2008

Assessing The Impact Of Jihadi Revisionists

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 disgrace and jeopardizes the reputation of the entire Revisions process.   No Jihadists or even Muslims anywhere will treat them seriously. Rob agrees with this sentiment (as does Nathan Field).  But that’s not exactly what Zayat says.  Zayat does say the book is a disgrace, but he’s also pessimistic that anything can move Jihadis, no matter how refined.  Here he is in the same interview responding to the host’s question of which man, Imam or Zawahiri, has more popularity: Dr. Sayyid Imam has an abundance of Sharia knowledge and he certainly had these beliefs before he

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Will McCants December 3, 2008
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