April 19, 2006: Muslim Fundamentalists Cited on Al-Zawahiri's Fear of Losing Ideological Control

Report compiled from Cairo by Al-Sharq al-Awsat, citing a Washington Post Service report by Craig Whitlock, Special for Al-Sharq al-Awsat: "Fundamentalists say al-Zawahiri fears losing ideological control, tries to magnify his role"

Muntasir al-Zayyat, noted as the attorney of fundamentalists in Egypt, disclosed that he had received two electronic messages from the number two man in Al-Qa'ida organization, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he asks him to stop attacking and criticizing those described by al-Zawahiri as 'mujahidin'.

Al-Zayyat told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that during a seminar on the September attacks held by Al-Mustaqbal Center in January 2003, he received two messages from al-Zawahiri "in violation of all the security arrangements imposed to protect him, to demand from me that I stop attacking his supporters".

Al-Zayyuat told Al-Sharq al-Awsat in a phone contact conducted with him yesterday that he still kepts the electronic message in the personal laptop computer he carries with him wherever he goes. He said the message said word for word "do not oppose the brigades of the mujahidin, for we must combat with all the Americans as they combat with us".

Al-Zayyat expressed a belief, based on his close knowledge of al-Zawahiri and his strictness about his security, that he had assigned somebody to send this message from an Asian country and had not sent it himself.

He said "let us put it this way: tensions have been building up between us for a long time. He always thinks he is right, even if he is alone".

Al-Zawahiri and al-Zayyat shared a dungeon for several months at Al-Qal'a prison in connection with the major jihad case of 1981, after they were arrested among tens of fundamentalists in the wake of the assassination of the late Egyptian President Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat. Al-Zayyat added that al-Zawahiri we see through audio or visual messages beamed across satellite channels is the same person he used to listen to at the Al-Qal'a Prison dungeon in 1981, with the exception of the white beard.

Al-Zayyat, who is divulging for the first time that he had received messages from al-Zawahiri after the September attacks, expressed a belief that the two messages signaled the start of a new phase in the relations between them after a period dominated by an impasse and by sharp differences, and exchanges of criticism. Al-Zawahiri devoted a chapter to lawyer al-Zayyat in his book "Riders under the Prophet's Banners" which Al-Sharq al-Awsat published exclusively on installments four years ago. He criticized al-Zayyat in it because of allegations that he had good relations with Egyptian security bodies. Al-Zayyat retorted in a book of which several editions have been printed, titled "Al-Zawahiri as I have known him". Al-Zayyat says of al-Zawahiri: "He believes all the way that he is right in his approach". The appearance of al-Zawahiri despite the absence of Usama Bin-Ladin reminds the enemies of Al-Qa'ida that it is capable of carrying out more attacks. But a more scrutinizing look at his letters, writings, and meetings with a number of old friends in radical Islamic circles demonstrate another motive: fear of losing his ideological grip on a revolutionary movement that he has sponsored for 40 years.

Al-Zawahiri, who appears beside Bin Ladin in the tapes produced by Al-Qa'ida since 11 September 2001, tries to give the impression that he is in control of Al-Qa'ida affairs through his continuing appearances on the Internet or on the screens of Arab and foreign satellite TV stations. Al--Zayyat comments "he is not in control of Al-Qa'ida affairs in Iraq, but by his appearances and incitement for combat with the Americans, he tries to give the impression that he is in control of the situation there". He adds: "Al-Zawahiri's role at present is more spiritual and moral than actual, meaning that he bolsters the morale of Al-Qa'ida combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan and of other groups that follow the same ideology even if they are not organizationally linked to Al-Qa'ida."

Experts believe Ayman al-Zawahri was the brains behind the 11 September attacks on the United States. He also occupies the number two position after Usama Bin Ladin in the list of the 22 wanted men announced by the US Government in 2001, with a reward of 25 million dollars posted for whoever provides information on his whereabouts.

Ayman al-Zawahiri is facing sharp criticism from fundamentalists because of his repeated public appearances and attempts to intervene directly in numerous Arab and Islamic events and issues, and his demand that all those who oppose what he calls "Hilf al-Kufr" (the Alliance of the Infidels) should go out to jihad. One of these interventions was al-Zawahiri's demand that the HAMAS movement give up its historic elections accomplishment. In a video tape aired by Al-Jazirah Channel last March, he called on the Islamic Resistance Movement HAMAS to resume armed struggle and not observe the peace agreements signed between the PA and Israel. Al-Zawahiri said in addressing the HAMAS movement that won in the Palestinian legislative elections last 25 January "it is necessary not to recognize the capitulation agreements signed by the seculars of the PA. The only option available to you is to resume the armed struggle until the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of an Islamic State". Al-Zawahiri's intervention in the affairs of others, the fundamentalists say, have not stopped at the HAMAS movement but also reached the Arab League and the Muslim Brothers because of their participation in the parliamentary elections conducted in Egypt last November. He asserted they have implemented the American design and said that "the elections game in Egypt was organized by the United States that gave the opportunity to the (Islamic) trends to take part".

The 11-September attacks resulted in temporarily uniting the rival Al-Qa'ida wings under the leadership of Bin Ladin and al-Zawahiri. But the extensive ideological and tactical differences have risen to the surface once more, according to analysts and former colleagues of al-Zawahiri. The splits are reflected in al-Zawhiri's numerous speeches in which he tries to assert his influence on a number of issues that appear unrelated to the main subject: the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the elections in Egypt.

Says Egyptian Islamist Usamah Rushdi, the former media spokesman for the banned Egyptian Al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah (Islamic Group): "Al-Zawahiri is losing his reputation among the fundamentalist by his repeated appearances and his talking about everything from Afghanistan to Iraq and Palestine."

Rushdi said in a phone contact with Al-Sharq al-Awsat that "it is not fair that al-Zawahiri should hijack the causes of Palestine, Chechnya, and Kashmir, talk in their name, and takes over tutelage over them at the expense of their indigenous people". Rushdi said in echoing the direct fundamentalist criticism of al-Zawahiri: "It is not fair that he should try to impose his tutelage on the Arab and Islamic issues that have historic and political dimensions and that are of concern primarily to their own people". He asked "is it rational that al-Zawahiri should come out and talk about a ceasefire between Al-Qa'ida and the West? What is happening is an attempt to hijack the Islamic causes. Such issues require details, rather than being put in a single basket". Rushdi explained: "Al-Zawahiri wants to say that he is personally behind what is happening in Iraq, the Middle East, Britain, and Europe. This is not true--we know it and he knows it."

Rushdi told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that he became acquainted with al-Zawahiri at the Turah hard labor prison in 1981, after he was transferred from Al-Qa'la Prison, and that he had seen him in the disciplinary ward, where he was an ordinary person. Al-Zawahiri admitted in front of them the defeat of his group and its dissolution after the assassination of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He added that he had confessed (informed) under severe torture at Al-Qal'a Prison on officers in his group including Isam al-Qamari.

He said that at Turah Prison al-Zawahiri was a polite and quiet-tempered person, with good personal traits. He was not an Emir on anybody because he had already dissolved his group. But he reformed his group in 1985 at the border town of Peshawar under the name of Al-Jihad organization. However, differences erupted within the group once again and it was disbanded. He reformed it yet once again in 1987 under the name of Jama'at al-Jihad (Al-Jihad Group). This is the group that became allied in 1988 with Bin Ladin under the name "Al-Jabhah al-Alamiyah li qital al-Yahud wa al-Salibiyyin" (the Global Front for Combat with the Jews and the Crusaders).

Last March 4, US President George Bush visited Pakistan, where a reconnaissance plane belonging to the CIA had delivered a missile strike two months earlier in a failed bid to kill al-Zawahiri. A short time before Bush departed, al-Zawahiri provided another stunning reminder of his ability to elude. In a video tape beamed by Al-Jazirah satellite channel, the 54-year-old Egyptian surgeon delivered an attack on the political and military American presence in the Middle East.

In connection with the elections that were conducted in Iraq, Egypt, the Palestinian territories, and Saudi Arabia, many experts believe that al-Zawahiri and his ideological allies fear that that the popular sentiments in the Middle East can turn against their objective of setting up a unified caliphate to rule all the world's Muslims.

But HAMAS, the Muslim Brothers and other active Islamic groups have balked at replying publicly to al-Zawahiri's criticism. Dr Hani al-Siba'i, an Egyptian who has obtained political asylum in Britain where he resides, and who has known al-Zawahiri for years, expects that there will be a change if the United States left Iraq.

(Description of Source: London Al-Sharq al-Awsat (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic -- Influential Saudi-owned London daily providing independent coverage of Arab and international issues; editorials reflect official Saudi views on foreign policy)