Al Qaeda the loser in Arab revolutions
By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst
February 24, 2011 -- Updated 1130 GMT (1930 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Peter Bergen: Egypt revolt everything al Qaeda hates: Secular, liberal,
with women
* Al Qaeda and bin Laden even oppose the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, he
writes
* Bergen: Muslim world has been rejecting bin Laden, al Qaeda and its
suicide attacks
* Al Qaeda offers nothing for millions of jobless, he says, just violence
and a Taliban "utopia"
Editor's note: Peter Bergen is the director of the national security studies
program at the New America Foundation in Washington; a fellow at New York
University's Center on Law and Security and CNN's national security analyst. He
is the author of the just-published book, "The Longest War: The Enduring
Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda."
(CNN) -- Osama bin Laden must be sitting in his comfortably appointed hideaway
somewhere in northwest Pakistan watching the events in the Middle East unfold
with a mixture of glee and despair.
Glee, because overthrowing the dictatorships and monarchies of the Middle East
has long been his central goal.
Despair, because none of the Arab revolutions has anything to do with him.
There were no revolutionaries in the streets of Cairo carrying placards with
pictures of bin Laden's face, nor are the protesters in Bahrain spouting al
Qaeda's venomous critiques of the West. Those calling for the overthrow of
Gadhafi are not graduates of bin Laden's training camps.
There were no revolutionaries in the streets of Cairo carrying placards with
pictures of bin Laden's face.
--Peter Bergen
The Google executive and Facebook revolutionaries who launched the revolt in
Egypt represent everything that bin Laden and al Qaeda hate: Secular, liberal
and anti-authoritarian, they also include -- gasp -- women.
Even the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist mass movement in Egypt, which joined
the revolution as it was already in motion, is opposed by al Qaeda.
The Brotherhood participates in conventional politics and elections, which bin
Laden and his followers believe are against Islam.
Al Qaeda's No. 2, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, has even written an entire
book condemning the Muslim Brotherhood.
Predictably, last week Zawahiri released an audiotape opportunistically seeking
to position al Qaeda as having some sort of role in the momentous events
unfolding in the Arab world.
In the tape Zawahiri called for his native Egypt to be governed as an Islamic
state. Of course, Egypt is already a country where Islam plays a key role as
about nine out of 10 Egyptians are Muslim, and Al-Azhar University in central
Cairo is the nearest that Sunni Islam comes to having a Vatican.
What Zawahiri means by his call for an Islamic state is that Egypt should be
run as a Taliban-style theocracy with no rights for women or minorities.
Egyptians are not clamoring for Taliban-like rule. Quite the reverse: They want
elections, respect for human rights, and a plan to get Egypt's stagnant economy
back on its feet.
And the protests in Cairo were notable for the warm relations that were
exhibited between Christians and Muslims. Al Qaeda regards Christians as
"infidels" who should be killed.
Even before the revolutionaries first took to the streets of Tunisia, al Qaeda
was losing the "war of ideas" in the Islamic world.
--Peter Bergen
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RELATED TOPICS
* Al Qaeda
* Osama bin Laden
* Egypt
* Islam
* Protests and Demonstrations
The revolts in the Middle East underline al Qaeda's increasing irrelevance to
Muslims. Even before the revolutionaries first took to the streets of Tunisia,
al Qaeda was losing the "war of ideas" in the Islamic world.
>From Indonesia to Jordan, support for bin Laden, al-Qaeda and its signature
>tactic -- the suicide attack -- has been plunging for years, according to any
>number of polls.
That's because more and more Muslims know that many of the victims of al Qaeda
and its allies are themselves Muslim civilians. For groups that pose as the
defenders of true Islam, this is not impressive.
And there is a widespread understanding among Muslims that al Qaeda isn't
offering anything in the way of ideas about how to improve the lot of the tens
of millions of young men without jobs in the Islamic world.
All al Qaeda is offering is violence and the promise of a Taliban-style utopia
here on earth.
The vast majority of Muslims don't approve of the violence and they aren't
taken in by the empty promises of utopia as imagined by the Taliban.
Bin Laden will feel compelled to release his own tape in the coming days
commenting on the revolutions in the Arab world. Few will be listening.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen.
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