Public censure for bin Laden

[unixronin]

A little old, I know; this was published ten days ago, but I just now came across it.  It seems Osama bin Laden has been "read out from the altar", as the Irish would put it, by Saudi preacher and religious scholar Salman al-Oadah.

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?"

[...]

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."

Al-Qaeda is suffering serious internal schisms, according to this report, with an internal revolt in Mesopotamia by "Sunni tribes and fighters fed up with its sectarian terrorism and fanaticism", and other major difficulties in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.  bin Laden has responded with a run to the left and Marxist ideology.

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.

Granted, this is just one scholar, and granted bin Laden's support is still strong among radicals in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Nevertheless, it appears al-Oadah is not alone in his viewpoint.  Judging by the excerpts quoted in this article, al-Oadah basically stopped only about one step short of outright denouncing bin Laden as an apostate.  This looks to me as though the Arabic-speaking world is starting to wake up to the fact that with "friends" like bin Laden, they have little need for enemies — and judging by his sudden switch to Marxist ideology, one could speculate that bin Laden is aware that his days as a spokesman and figurehead for Islamic jihadism may be numbered.

Comments

[house-pundit.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Once they realize that we will leave them the fuck alone if we quit having to worry about them coming and killing us, and if we can count on them to identify and quell their own nutballs who would come and kill us, then the war's over.

This is a big step on their part, and it shows that while they'll talk about suicidally killing us, and send their sons as suicide bombers, etc., that they really hate and aren't willing to bear *occupation*, and the suicidal idiots inevitably doing blue-on-blue to their own civilians instead of killing our soldiers (too hard to do).

We've found something they hate more than they hate leaving us the fuck alone.

Woot!