Zawahiri's ominous message

Via Now Lebanon, by Hussein Ibish

Ayman al-Zawahiri's latest speech represents al-Qaeda's first major effort at an ideological intervention in the emerging Muslim political landscape.  

The recent video by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ought to be readily dismissible. Unfortunately, his carefully crafted remarks require serious scrutiny. They had multiple messages aimed at numerous constituencies and represent al-Qaeda's first major effort at an ideological intervention in the emerging Muslim political landscape.

 
His principal task was twofold. Until now, al-Qaeda has not known how to respond to the Arab uprisings. Al-Qaeda did not anticipate, inspire or inform them, and their emphasis on elections, democracy and nationalism all run counter to its ideology. Al-Qaeda once again seemed moribund, with many of its leaders killed and its ideology rejected by the overwhelming Arab majority. But renewed political and military chaos in Muslim states threatens to resurrect it, and Zawahiri's address outlined where al-Qaeda sees new opportunities.
 
First, he was trying to present al-Qaeda as the vanguard of all Salafist movements in post-dictatorship Arab states that have emerging, quasi-orderly political systems rather than ongoing, armed civil conflicts. Second, he was trying to position al-Qaeda as the brand-name for all Salafist-Jihadist groups fighting in war-torn regions, particularly the Syrian uprising.
 
Zawahiri was offering himself as the leader of all the Salafists in the Arab world in their emerging rivalry with the Muslim Brotherhood and other less extreme Islamist forces, especially in Egypt. Zawahiri, remember, is himself Egyptian, a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group before moving to Afghanistan and merging with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Zawahiri's most pointed attack was on the new Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, who he said had "no authority."
 
Zawahiri lambasted Morsi at length over Egypt's continuing ties and maintenance of its peace treaty with Israel. As usual, Zawahiri preposterously tried to pose as a champion of the Palestinian cause (for which he plainly has no actual regard whatsoever). Moreover, he clearly implied that the Muslim Brotherhood had "betrayed" the Egyptian revolution, accused the new government of being corrupt and failing to implement Sharia Law, encouraged the kidnapping of Westerners and implicitly endorsed armed resistance against the new Egyptian government.
 
To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=452119##ixzz2AnA5WG9q 

via www.nowlebanon.com