Three on Dr. Fadl

Now that the dust is settling on the serialization of Sayyid Imam's new book, some bloggers are wondering what it was all about. Count me among the skeptical. As an example of the skepticism, see Rob's post on an article in the Egyptian newspaper al-Dostor that included an interview with the ubiquitous Montasser al-Zayyat:

Zayat said that because of Sayyid Imam’s new book,  the Revisions process has lost some of its value.  Whereas before, the discussions were serious and were based on legitimate Islamic scholarship, Sayyid Imam’s Revisions have turned into an exchange of personal insults between Zawahiri and Imam.   Not seeing anything of value in the latest Revisions, “this will push the  youth to revert to the  Internet and the traditional Jihadist sources which justified the use of violence.”

Will at Jihadica counters mine and other bloggers' skepticism with some good arguments of his own, such as:

Sayyid Imam has a different goal in this book.  He’s already tried to discredit the religious underpinnings of Zawahiri’s ideology.  Now he’s trying to impugn his character.  Zawahiri has said that for the Jihadi Movement to succeed it needs leaders that people can trust.  Sayyid Imam is trying to destroy that trust.  Think of political attack ads; Imam’s gone from attacking Zawahiri on the issues, now he’s attacking his character.

I'm always opened to persuasion. The fact is we won't be able to "measure" the effectiveness Imam's efforts for months, if not years.

Asharq al-Awsat recently profiled the man:

He is Al-Sayyid Imam Abd-al-Qadir Imam al-Sharif and known in the jihadist circles by the name of Dr. Fadl or Sheikh Abdul-Qadir Bin-Abdulaziz, leader and ideological theoretician of the Egyptian "Jihad" group some of whose members took part in the assassination of late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda organization's second-in-command at present, was one of the group's most prominent leaders. Though real information about Dr. Fadl's is not enough to dispel much of the mystery around this important figure, there are still seven places in his life which were full of important events and which recorded the career of this controversial and mysterious figure.