Bin Laden’s loss of moral authority
Much has been made of the loss of moral authority the US has suffered as a consequence of George Bush’s post-911 military solutions to jihadism and security threats. Still, it cuts both ways. Part of Bin Laden’s strategy was that any response from the US would cause Muslims to join his cause in a “you’re either with us or against us” manner. Early on, this seemed to be working, but the ideological purity of Al Qaeda’s Takfiri principles and their justification for massive, and often deliberate, loss of civilian life (including Muslims) was always going to be a public relations problem.
You can’t go around beheading whole villages in Iraq, or blow up markets full of innocent people and expect people to march behind you. The anti-war movement and Sean Penn may accuse Bush of murdering hundreds of thousands, but even amongst Jihadist circles it does get noticed that the direct responsibility for a lot of those deaths may not lie with Americans.
Some in the US are already starting to talk about the demise of Al Qaeda:
Mr Zarate and others have seen several recent encouraging developments. Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden, held a 90-minute Internet conversation with radicals during which he was forced on several occasions to defend al-Qa’eda’s killing of Muslim civilians.
Last year prominent Saudi cleric Salman Awdah wrote an open letter to bin Laden condemning the deaths of innocent parties and accusing the terrorists of harming Muslim charities through association.
The senior official said the formation last month in London of the Quilliam Foundation, the counter-extremist think-tank led by former Hizb ut-Tahrir members Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, was another reason for optimism.
“There are indicators all over the world of where al-Qa’eda’s programme is not meeting with the grand acceptance that it assumed,” he said.
The US is heartened by al-Qa’eda’s failure to create a political wing or to dilute its policy of violence as a means to establishing a new caliphate.
“They are not going to stop bombing people and claiming that those who don’t think like them are unbelievers. They are almost digging a deeper hole for themselves by finding new enemies,” the official added, citing a recent Zawahiri audio message that berated the United Nations, Norway, Japan and Buddhists along with familiar targets like the US and Britain.
Of course, that still leaves us with a massive problem, but it is far from the clash of civilisations that Bin Laden wanted.
“Yes Sir, they are two for the price of one now, with a free al-Zawahiri bobble-head.”
Comments
| 15 May 2008, 1:07 pm |
AQ concentrate on blowing up Sunni funeral parties now. They’re doing all they can to ensure they’re universally despised, even by the one faction they aren’t ideologically committed to killing.
So their policy on Iraq is now effectively “Death to all Iraqis!”, you can see that this might not command much support, in, err, Iraq.
| 15 May 2008, 1:21 pm |
Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden, held a 90-minute Internet conversation with radicals during which he was forced on several occasions to defend al-Qa’eda’s killing of Muslim civilians.
This is obviously a bad sign for al-Qaeda.
But it is worth bearing in mind that Zawahiri was having to do precisely the same thing over a decade ago after the Luxor temple massacre. It didn’t seem to put the brakes on his rather demented vision then, and I don’t think it will now.
My point is that no amount of internal criticism is ever going to reign him in.
| 15 May 2008, 1:35 pm |
Guardian:
**A young girl carrying explosives that killed her, an Iraqi captain and injured four soldiers was blown up by remote control, officials said today.
The incident happened as she approached an Iraqi command post in Youssifiyah, south Baghdad, earlier this morning.
Iraqi army Lieutenant Ahmed Ali confirmed that the girl, who had hidden explosives strapped to her, was the cause of the blast.**
| 15 May 2008, 1:39 pm |
Mark T
But they just shot German infidels at Luxor. Their tactic of killing Shia apostates in Iraq was controversial enough. Now that they ‘progressed’ to killing the very faction they ’support’ I think they may have hit on the one strategy guaranteed to ensure they never again attain the wide-spread admiration they once enjoyed.
There will always be maniacs that supoport their drive to kill all infidels and the vast majority of Muslims too. But the vast majority of Muslims probably won’t back that position for obvious reasons…
| 15 May 2008, 1:45 pm |
Another indicator is Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to take command of the current Iraqi/US offensive against Al-Qaeda’s last Mesopotamian stronghold in Mosul. Al-Qaeda may yet retain isolated cells throughout that country, but their strategic defeat is inevitable.
| 15 May 2008, 1:50 pm |
never attain the wide-spread admiration they once enjoyed
Naturally. The public finds it quite painful to get a dose of the medicine it once admired.
| 15 May 2008, 1:51 pm |
But they just shot German infidels at Luxor
And Egyptians.
But I think you misunderstand me slightly. My point was only the narrow one that the likes of Zawahiri and Bin Laden (and their close acolytes) will not be deflected by any criticism. They are sociopaths. And they will be able to rationalise the killing of practically anyone.
(Obviously it’s good news if their potential pool of recruits is diminished by their actions - I wasn’t disputing that point).
| 15 May 2008, 1:55 pm |
Mark T
Fair point, yes I misunderstood you. They’re sociopaths, my point is that, following some spectacular ’successes’ over the last few years, this is now reasonably well understood by Muslims from Morrocco to Indonesia.
| 15 May 2008, 2:32 pm |
You can’t have development without a peaceful society, one where prople trust each other. The wiser sections of the population in the Muslim world who want to set up fully functioning capitalism and earn themselves a fortune, know they can’t do it with these creatures running amok. The Islamic world will be forced to deal with these scum eventually.
| 15 May 2008, 4:25 pm |
The Islamic world will be forced to deal with these scum eventually
They can start by disinfecting the intolerant crap that pervades every aspect of their culture- the schoolbooks, mosques, media, etc. Then perhaps, progress to teaching their children that those who belong to different cultures or religions are not inferior.
It won’t eliminate the current scum, but the next generation may adopt be a bit more worldly.
| 15 May 2008, 9:30 pm |
Guardian:
**A young girl carrying explosives that killed her, an Iraqi captain and injured four soldiers was blown up by remote control, officials said today.
The BBC is reporting that she “blew herself up”. This should be relatively easy to confirm and do her justice. Obscene.
| 15 May 2008, 9:46 pm |
I see that it was a little eight-year ld. Any ‘moral authority’ that al-Queda may have possessed must surely now be exhausted.
| 15 May 2008, 10:01 pm |
AQ’s popularity is plummetting throughout the muslim world. See for example the Pew and other polls. Let’s hope it’s because muslims are waking up to the evils of political islamism. More realistically, it’s probably because they don’t like losers. The biggest single reason is the loss of prestige suffered by AQ as a result of the anti-AQ Sunni Awakening in Iraq, the Sunni alliance with the Americans and the massive military and political defeat suffered by AQ in Iraq as a result. Squirm-inducing implication: Iraq is the central front in the fight against Islamic terrorism. Luckily, we’re winning.
| 15 May 2008, 10:19 pm |
Losers, BM? Remind us what religion the Awakening is.
| 16 May 2008, 2:25 pm |
Looks like we weren’t wrong about Al-Qaeda’s implosion in Iraq
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