Dr. Fadl’s Complaint An influential jihadi blames al-Qaeda for the bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By Clifford D. May
In the 20th century, communists waged a struggle for global dominance, but there were conflicts within their ranks as well — disputes over strategy, ideology, and doctrine. Bolsheviks fought Mensheviks; Stalin quarreled with Trotsky (Stalin had the last word: an ice pick delivered to Trotsky’s skull); Maoists broke with the Kremlin.
Nowadays, a new global struggle by a new breed of totalitarians aims not at establishing an international dictatorship of the proletariat, but rather Dar al-Islam, a world ruled by Muslims. Among these self-described jihadis there also are disputes over strategy, ideology, and doctrine.
Sayyid Imam al-Sharif — also known by the nom de guerre Dr. Fadl — may be the most influential Islamist you’ve never heard of. The Telegraph, a British newspaper, notes that he was “part of the tight circle which founded al-Qaeda in 1988 in the closing stages of the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.” He went on to lead an insurgency against Egypt which landed him in Tora prison in southern Cairo where he has since spent his days thinking and writing.