Dr. Fadl’s new book

Sayyid Imam “Dr. Fadl” al-Sharif, the al Qaeda co-founder and one-time mentor of Ayman al-Zawahri who has, in recent years, become the organization’s most trenchant critic, lambasting its use of violence in his writings from an Egyptian prison cell, is rolling out his latest opus. As usual, online Jihad expert Jarret Brachman breaks the news: 

Al-Sharq al-Awsat has secured exclusive publishing rights and, like his other works, is being trickled it out in serialized format, episode-by-episode.

The book is called, The Future of the Conflict in Afghanistan, and is another hit-piece on UBL and Al-Zawahiri.

Definitely stay tuned to Brachman’s blog as more chapters are released. As an interesting aside, Brachman says the Al-Sharq al-Awsat introduction to the book references Brachman’s profile of Sayyid Imam from FP‘s Top 100 Global Thinkers issue. Here’s an excerpt from the piece: 

An important metric for how vulnerable al Qaeda feels about a given topic is how much its leaders publicly discuss it. Not only has Zawahiri responded to Sharif in multiple video statements and interviews, but in early 2008 he published an entire book on the Internet, titled Exoneration, in which he states that Sharif is blatantly lying and manipulating facts to suit the agenda of his captors. Other al Qaeda leaders, supporters, and surrogates have released their own attacks on Sharif.

Sharif’s recent writings have re-energized a community of former Egyptian terrorists who now stand against the use of violence. Coming from within the movement, he has been able to subvert it in a way no one else ever has.

Also check out Brachman’s recent online piece on the next generation of jihadi pundits.