Yasir Abu Hilala, the al-Jazeera journalist whose interview with Abu Mohammed al-Maqdassi prompted the latter's re-arrest, has some interesting thoughts about the incident in today's al-Ghad. Under the headline "Zaraqawi-Maqdassi dialogue... a step in the direction of moderation", Abu Hilala links the dialogue to changes in the nature of the media and information:
One can follow the dialogues of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Shaykh Abu Mohammed al-Maqdassi whether one is in Peshawar or Zarqa or Suwaqah Prison, because the information revolution has made that possible. It began with Maqdassi's posting on the internet, and then moved to dialogues on the broadcast and print media, and in response Abu Musab used the internet... This information explosion is in the interests of moderation, because most extremists have secret thoughts... and on the other hand, most moderate when they bring their thoughts and arguments out into the open....
When the Muslim Brothers in Egypt developed the culture of takfir it was during the monstrous conditions of Nasser's prisons. At that time, the Brotherhood's guide Hassan Hudaybi issued a book "Dawa not Judgement" which responded to the ideas in books by Sayyid Qutb... The dialogue of Zarqawi and Maqdassi is no less important than the dialogues of "Dawa Not Judgement", because the salafi jihadi thought grows strong around the world... this is not a marginal or isolated idea but rather wide spread.
Abu Hilala argues that even if Maqdassi has not turned his back on his ideas, his argument with Zarqawi can have great effect on potentially radical young men like the ones currently on trial in Jordan for their alleged involvement in terrorist plots, or the ones contemplating traveling to Iraq to join Zarqawi. Very similar to the argument in the Dan Murphy piece mentioned earlier today.
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