It's on: Internal feud roils Al Qaeda

A bitter, year-long feud that has shaken Al Qaeda’s ideological pillars grew even sharper last month. A former associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri accused him of working for Sudanese intelligence, wearing “women’s garments” to flee Afghanistan, and spreading an incorrect Islamic theory of jihad…

Imam’s latest attacks on Zawahiri are so vituperative that some analysts say he has damaged his own credibility. “This is an embarrassment,” former Islamic Jihad member Kamal Habib told Agence France-Presse in Cairo. “I don’t think he realizes what this does to his image.”

McCants argues that Imam’s arguments will likely be most influential outside Al Qaeda’s inner circle of die-hard jihadis. “We shouldn’t be assessing the impact of Imam’s book on jihadis but rather on neutral pious, educated Arabs, particularly high school and college-age youth, whom Imam considers his primary audience,” McCants wrote on his website.