His mentor turns on bin Laden By Fawaz A. Gerges Friday, September 21, 2007 NEW YORK:
After Osama bin Laden reappeared on the world's television screens on the sixth anniversary of 9-11, commentaries focused on his newly blackened beard and his changed message. But more important was the reaction of a Saudi cleric. In an open letter, one of bin Laden's most prominent Saudi mentors, the preacher and scholar Salman al-Oadah, publicly reproached bin Laden for causing widespread mayhem and killing. "How many innocent children, elderly people, and women have been killed in the name of Al Qaeda?" asked al-Oadah in a letter on his Web site, Islamtoday.com, and in comments on an Arabic television station. "How many people have been forced to flee their homes, and how much blood has been shed in the name of Al Qaeda?" Al-Oadah is a prominent Salafi preacher with a large following in Saudi Arabia and abroad. In the 1990s, he was imprisoned by the Saudi regime along with four leading clerics for criticizing the kingdom's close relationship with the United States, particularly the stationing of American troops there after the 1991 Gulf war. It is worth noting that the decision to post American forces in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, was the catalyst for bin Laden's murderous journey. Throughout the 1990s, he frequently cited al-Oadah as a critic of the Saud royal family and fellow Salafi who shared his strict religious vision and world view. Although al-Oadah and other senior Muslim scholars condemned the 9-11 attacks, until now they had refrained from direct criticism of bin Laden. Now, with al-Oadah's new frontal assault on bin Laden, there is no longer any ambiguity. In his statement, al-Oadah holds bin Laden personally accountable for the occupation of Muslim lands in Afghanistan and Iraq, the displacement of millions of Iraqis and the killings of thousands of Afghans, and for deluding young Muslims and tarnishing the image of Islam and Muslims all over the world. "Are you happy to meet Allah with this heavy burden on your shoulders?" al-Oadah asks bin Laden. "It is a weighty burden indeed - at least hundreds of thousands of innocent people, if not millions [displaced and killed]. And it is all because of the 'crimes' perpetrated against civilians by bin Laden's Al Qaeda on 9/11." Al-Oadah also reminds his former disciple that Islam prohibits the killing of any bird or animal, let alone "innocent people, regardless of what justification is given." The open letter to bin Laden has received considerable publicity in the Arab media, including the Al Jazeera network and Islamonline.com, and has already elicited angry reactions from Al Qaeda supporters. Indeed, the attack on bin Laden and his group by a respected religious authority is lethal, especially coming at a critical juncture for Al Qaeda and like-minded militant factions worldwide. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia - the group in Iraq that is largely independent of bin Laden - is facing an internal revolt by Sunni tribes and fighters fed up with its sectarian terrorism and fanaticism. Another militant group, Fatah al-Islam, which subscribes to Al Qaeda's ideology and was formerly located in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el Bared in northern Lebanon, was dealt a mortal blow by Lebanese authorities and was met with universal rejection by Palestinian and Lebanese opinion. Al Qaeda's affiliate in Saudi Arabia has also suffered major setbacks and is hard pressed. For the first time in his address to the American people, bin Laden borrowed the language of Marx and antiglobalization to try to galvanize Americans against their purported tormentors - big capital, multinationals and globalization. Bin Laden's use of secular-political language was a conscious yet naïve attempt to drive a wedge between Americans and their leaders who, he said, served the interests of the capitalist system and the war industry. By trying to join the debate raging in the United States over the war in Iraq and due legal process, bin Laden thought to broaden his global constituency and score gains in the war of ideas. But he evidently did not expect a direct rebuke from one of his Salafi mentors. Dispensing with formalities, al-Oadah assailed bin Laden over the 9/11 spark that lit fires throughout the world. "You are responsible, brother Osama, for spreading Takfiri ideology [excommunication of Muslims] and fostering a culture of suicide bombings that has caused bloodshed and suffering and brought ruin to entire Muslim communities and families." Never before has bin Laden been subjected to this sort of censure from a Salafi scholar, and especially from one who cannot simply be dismissed as a vessel of the ruling regime. Al-Oadah's record of defiance of the Saudi royal family speaks volumes for his independence and moral courage. His credibility as a defender of Muslim rights worldwide is also unassailable. In November 2004, al-Oadah and 25 prominent Saudi religious scholars, posted an open letter on the Internet urging Iraqis to support fighters waging legitimate jihad against "the big crime of America's occupation of Iraq." Now the same al-Oadah heaps praise on those jihadist "brave hearts" and "courageous minds" that have defected from Al Qaeda and distanced themselves from its terrorism. "Many of your brethren in Egypt, Algeria and elsewhere have come to see the end of the road for Al Qaeda's ideology," al-Oadah said. "They now realize how destructive and dangerous it is." Al-Oadah's public censure of bin Laden deepens internal fissures within the Salafi universe, which has supplied Al Qaeda group with many of its foot soldiers. And although Al Qaeda seems to be revitalizing its infrastructure in the Pakistan-Afghan tribal areas, it faces insurmountable challenges in the Arab hinterland, its historic social base of support. "O Allah! I plead my innocence to You from what Osama is doing, and from those who affiliate themselves to his name or work under his banner," concludes al-Oadah's letter. Time will tell whether Al Qaeda is affected more by bin Laden's new leftist attitude or by this new display of Islamic disenchantment. Fawaz A. Gerges, professor of international affairs and Arab and Muslim politics at Sarah Lawrence College, recently returned from 15 months in the Middle East. His books include "Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy" and "The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global."
