Cairo, 13 Nov. (AKI) - Jailed Egyptian terrorist leader, Sayd Imam, ideologue of the Islamist group, Jamaa al-Islamiya, is to release a new manual expected to call for an end to militant operations in Arab-Islamic countries and the killing of civilians.
The controversial new manual written by Sayd Imam and a group of Egyptian Islamic Ulema or scholars, will be released in Egypt on Sunday and is expected to shake up al-Qaeda.
Sayd Imam, a surgeon still known by his underground name of "Dr Fadel", is expected to stress his distance from the al-Qaeda terror network in the book and strong criticism of the organisation's strategy.
The new manual will call for an end to all Jihadi operations inside Arab-Islamic countries as well as an end to the killings of civilians in general and tourists, in particular, of all nationalities.
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It appears that not only tribal leaders are turning on the current jihadists and their warfare tactics. But the appearance of this manual to come is yet more indication of the infighting within the ranks.
Per this article, Sayd Imam was the founder/first commander of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad responsible for Sadat's assassination in 1981. In short, he predates Zawahiri, who assumed command of EIJ from 1993 on. It was Zawahiri who assisted in the formation of AQ with OBL. And in 2001, EIJ merged with al Qaeda. Most members operate outside of Egyptian borders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and Yemen.
Therefore it's reasonable to assume the threads between Sayd and the still in power Zawahiri go back decades. And my gut says that Zawahiri will not welcome this new jihad manual.
As is usual for these continually morphing groups, the psuedo, or aka, names are many for the EIJ. They include according to Terrorism101.org, (as well as other sources) al-Jihad, Egyptian al-Jihad; New Jihad and The Jihad Group. Their primary goal was, like Zawahiri's remains to this day, the overthrow of the Egyptian government. They have not launched a terror attack within Egypt since 1993.
This news of a former founder of EIJ and a new tactic in direct conflict with the current AQ methology is no small potatoes. Some are saying Sayd Imam was forced to write the manual while in the Cairo prison (life sentence). Others say it was done for cash. All attempts to dissuade it's import, and impact, on loyal jihadists everywhere.
But the largest consensus is that this manual, and it's source, will make some unpleasant waves within AQ itself. That's not hard to predict with Sayd's history with the EIJ and Zawahiri. He is laying out new rules of engagement that conflict with AQ's current strategy... something that will not go over well.
1 comment:
This is good news.
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