AJ Al-Qaeda's relevance in an age of reform

Right now (2:45 EST) star al-Jazeera talk show host Faisal al-Qassem is hosting a show called "Behind the News" focused on a new video from al-Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri laying out his concept of "reform":  it begins with the sharia, jihad is the only route to reform, freedom for the umma must come first, no real reform is possible until the current regimes are gone,  American-style "reforms" don't cut it, and at any rate real reform must come from within Islam and not from America, and "reform can't come from demonstrations and protests" - a direct criticism of Kefaya and the recent protest movements.   

Zawahiri's extended discourse on reform is itself an important commentary about the changing terms of debate in the Arab and Islamic worlds - rather than setting the terms of public discourse, Zawahiri is responding. 

Qassem turns the event of this tape into an opportunity for a remarkable and exceptionally interesting discussion on this topic:  is al-Qaeda relevant in the context of the current push for reform?

Rather than just air or report Zawahiri's remarks, the program presents short excerpts and then gives the guests a chance to comment and respond to each of Zawahiri's points in turn. This turns Zawahiri's tape from a monologue into a dialogue. The three guests - Montasser al-Zayat (the ubiquitous Islamist expert from Egypt), Mohammed Abu Roman (a liberal from Jordan), and Ahmad Baha al-Din Shaaban (a leader from Kefaya) - have the chance to rebut Zawahiri's arguments and defend themselves against his claims. Right now, as I'm writing this, Shabaan (Kefaya) is responding directly and powerfully to Zawahiri and claiming the mantle of reform for his and like-minded democratic movements.   

Qassem refuses to let any of his guests get away with easy answers.  When a Jordanian says that Zawahiri has no place in the current debates, Qassem demands to know why the Muslim Brotherhood is so powerful in places like Egypt and Jordan if Islamist ideas are so irrelevant.  He stopped Zayat cold with a question about Kefaya and Islamists in Egypt. 

Is al-Jazeera doing a positive or negative thing by airing these clips of Zawahiri making his arguments and then giving articulate spokesmen of other political trends the chance to respond, at length and in depth?  Does this unduly legitimize al-Qaeda and Zawahiri by taking his ideas seriously and broadcasting extensive clips of him speaking, or does it help to "wage the war of ideas" by putting those ideas up for intensive scrutiny and debate?   Serious people can disagree about the answers to those questions.

I think that this is al-Jazeera at its best - debating the big issues, with everything on the table.   Others, on both sides, will no doubt see it as al-Jazeera at its worst:  either for giving Zawahiri a platform, or for giving the others the chance to dispute him. 

Comments

[issandr El Amrani]

Wish I'd seen that. What was the question that stopped Al Zayat cold? It must have been a fascinating debate, especially with Al Zayat being so familiar with the way Zawahri thinks (they shared a prison cell once). It reminds me of one of my favorite Al Zayat anecdotes: I attended this conference he organized once on "Islamism after 9.11" during which he read out an email Zawahri had allegedly sent him. At the beginning of the conference everyone went on about how much America was to blame for everything, how it was the central enemy, and so on. Zayat stood up, gave a exasperated sigh, and said: "OK, sure, death to America, death to America, we know we can all agree on that. But where do we go from that?"

(Second favorite anecdote: his email address is monty@...)

Al Zayat is a smart guy who's fashioned himself a niche as an Islamist that the government never touches and represents most non-Brotherhood Islamists in Egyptian courts, as well as serve as the semi-official mouthpiece of the imprisoned Gamaa Islamiya leadership. All this suggests that he has fairly good relations with the regime. But he is also one of the vocal articulator of the idea that hardcore Islamists really have to move on from the Jihadist ideas of the 1970s and offer a political alternative. In other words, he admits that the violent Islamists have lost but wants to salvage something from their project.

[aardvark]

Issandr - have you read Zayat's book "The Road to al-Qaeda"? Fascinating stuff, exactly along the lines you've laid out here.

[aardvark]

I wish I had paid closer attention to the question which stopped Zayat cold. It was kind of funny. Faisal asked him something about Kefaya and the Islamists competing, I think, and there was just silence. Faisal checks his microphone, says something like "can you hear me, are you there". Then you see the visual of Zayat staring down at the ground, and then starting to speak and then stopping himself. He finally gathered his wits, but it's one of the few times I've seen Zayat at a loss. When I get the transcript, I'm going to have to see what the exact question was...