L'Histoire du Dr Fadl

A ne pas rater, The Guardian publie sur son site internet l'histoire du fameux Dr Fadl, a qui j'ai deja fait allusion dans ce blog, en trois volets fort interessants. En attendant de recuperer un clavier AZERTY, je vous propose donc de decouvrir comment l'un des fondateurs et principaux ideologues d'al-Qaida a fini par se detourner de Ben Laden et publiquement denoncer le terrorisme.

The Heretic - Part One

In May 2007, a fax arrived at the London office of the Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat from a shadowy figure in the radical Islamist movement who went by many names. Born Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, he was the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group al-Jihad, and known to those in the underground mainly as Dr Fadl. Members of al-Jihad became part of the original core of al-Qaeda; among them was Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant. Fadl was one of the first members of al-Qaeda's top council. Twenty years ago, he wrote two of the most important books in modern Islamist discourse; al-Qaeda used them to indoctrinate recruits and justify killing. Now Fadl was announcing a new book, rejecting al-Qaeda's violence. 'We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that,' Fadl wrote in his fax, which was sent from Tora Prison, in Egypt.

The Heretic - Part Two

Meanwhile, a furtive conversation was taking place among the imprisoned leaders of the Islamic Group. Karam Zuhdy remained incarcerated, along with more than 20,000 Islamists. 'We started growing older,' he says. 'We started examining the evidence. We began to read books and reconsider.' The prisoners came to feel they had been manipulated into pursuing a violent path. Just opening the subject for discussion was extremely threatening, not only for members of the organisation but for groups that had an interest in prolonging the clash with Egypt's government. Zuhdy points in particular to the Muslim Brotherhood. 'These people, when we launched an initiative against violence, accused us of being weak,' he says. 'They wanted us to continue the violence. We faced very strong opposition inside prison, outside prison and outside Egypt.'

The Heretic - Part Three

Fadl's arguments undermined the entire intellectual framework of jihadist warfare. If the security services in Egypt, in tandem with the al-Azhar scholars, had undertaken to write a refutation of al-Qaeda's doctrine, it would likely have resembled the book Dr Fadl produced; and, indeed, that may have been exactly what occurred. And yet, with so many leaders of al-Jihad endorsing the book, it seemed clear that the organisation itself was now dead. Terrorism in Egypt might continue in some form, but the violent factions were finished, departing amid public exclamations of repentance for the futility and sinfulness of their actions.