A Yardstick to How Radical Anwar Al-Awlaki is: Former Bin Laden Mentor Condemns Ft. Hood Massacre as "Irrational" and "Unjustified"
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a statement by Saudi cleric Salman Al-Awdah condemning the Fort Hood shooting. Al-Awdah, who Usama bin Laden described as his "ideal personality" in a March 1997 interview, asserted that "this action taken out by Nidal Hasan was irrational and is empty of thought." According al-Awdah, "this incident has a very negative influence in the West because they [Westerners] see that a man from within the [American] environment and society, and had reached the highest levels [in his career]; despite that, he carried out this attack, so what about the thousands of Muslims who are in the depth of the official establishment, which pushed them to question: are Muslims a Fifth Column? ...Incidents such as these have bad consequences, and undoubtedly this man might have a psychological problem... he was capable of refusing to work whatever the consequences were.” For more, see the NEFA Foundation website.
I was interviewed by Wired's "Danger Room" blog about al-Awdah's chilly response to Anwar al-Awlaki's endorsement of Maj. Hasan.
"Kohlman[n] said that the contrast between Awlaki’s and Awdah’s statements reveals a gap between al-Awdah’s generation of Salafi jihadists, many of whom have mellowed in recent years, and the post-Iraq generation of jihadists. 'The naive younger guys have been raised and fed on bright-eyed propaganda about the ‘Shaykh of the Slaughters’ Zarqawi, beheadings, and suicide bombings. On the other hand, many of the older celebrated advocates of jihad and the mujahideen are increasingly opposed to the fanatical takfiri direction of Al-Qaida — casting it as counterproductive and even criminal…And, of course, these critical issues of jihadi jurisprudence are now being debated and contested largely over the Internet.'"
