Zawahiri, whose story forms the backbone of The Far Enemy is portrayed as an excessively vain man who made the radical choice to join Bin Laden in the 1990s and subsume Tanzim al-Jihad into Al Qaeda—without the knowledge and against the wishes of his top lieutenants—because he was broke and joining up with Al Qaeda would allow him to keep some of his influence in the jihadist universe. The fight was dying down on the home front and the only choices left to him were to join forces with a new breed of terrorists whose ideas he had never before championed, or to fade away into obscurity—a fate worse than death for Zawahiri.
The eclipse of the traditional jihadis had much to do with military defeat, but it was also the inevitable result of intellectual poverty. Far from being a vanguard, the jihadis "have conceptually reached a dead end and no longer possess radically original ideas of any consequence." Al Qaeda striking out at the United States was not the pinnacle of the jihadist movement as some might imagine. Rather, it was an act of desperation that aimed to save the sinking ship by precipitating a "clash of civilizations" with the West that would bring the ummah, or world-wide Muslim community (often disparagingly referred to as the "Arab Street"), into the battle on the jihadists' side.
When measured by this standard, the 9/11 attacks were an utter failure. While many in the Muslim world feel a deep enmity towards the United States, Islamic opinion after the attacks on New York and Washington was almost universally critical of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. If for no other reason, this revelation makes The Far Enemy a critically important book for Westerners to digest. While debate and criticism of the attacks raged in Muslim lands, it was barely mentioned at all in the Western media, who prefer to give voice to firebrands and provocateurs to the exclusion of moderate voices.
Gerges attempts to correct this tremendous imbalance by meticulously delineating prevailing public opinion following the 9/11 attacks. While members of the intelligentsia and the religious leadership throughout Muslim lands were united in their opposition to Al Qaeda, the most vehement criticism came from members of al-Jama'a al-Islamiya itself, who hold Bin Laden and Zawahiri responsible not only for sullying the name of jihad, but for recklessly endangering the ummah as well.
Article comments
1 - ss
Nice review, and I plan to read this one. Also, thanks ti Blogcritics, I doubt I would have heard of this book at all if I hadn't heard of it here.
I read the other day that a man publishing a women's rights magazine in Afghanistan had been arrested. The article described sharia scholars who function as advisers to the Afghani Supreme Court.
It seems like Bush might be pushing the idea of 'spreading freedom' here in the States by showing elections and dictators on trial. Meanwhile in Afghanistan and SCIRI controlled Iraq he's letting the al-Qareeb take a leading role in the courts.
The worst case end result, if we play into the al-Baeed's hands by creating more virulently anti-West young Muslims, would be less freedom in the country we bled (and made others bleed with us) in, and more martyrs for the al-Baeed.
Although on the bright side, for us, we can still count on the al-Baeed to use their new found recruits and munitions to kill other Muslims instead of taking advantage of our tactical errors.
There doesn't appear to be much of a bright side for modern Muslims in all of this.
2 - Silvana
No offense, but Fawaz Gerges is a Lebanese Chrsitian from the North of Lebanon. Just wanted to correct this mis-information.
Thank you