Al-Qaeda Faces Decline, Says Expert

Source Article HERE.

From 'AKI': Al-Qaeda's battle against the US has been a failure and the organisation is in decline, according to a leading international terrorism expert. Gilles Kepel, French author and academic, says al-Qaeda has been seriously weakened in Iraq and has been unable to attract widespread support in the Muslim world. "Al Qaeda? It is in decline," Kepel said in an interview published in the Italian daily, Il Sole 24 Ore. "It has not been able to mobilise the masses and create a consensus inside the Muslim world."

"Al-Qaeda's base has now shrunk significantly," he said. "Inside Islamic movements, also the radical movements, there is a very critical process underway with respect to the Jihadi strategy." He recognised there were divisions among Sunni Muslims and in Iraq he said there was a power struggle between the Shia supporters of radical cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, backed by Iran, and the Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Kepel also said that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri (often described as number two to Osama bin Laden) was experiencing a "crisis". "No-one recognises his right to speak in the name of Islam," said Kepel. "Zawahiri is in crisis".

[Editor's Note: Kepel's opinion is in line with my own. See VAT article 'Taliban, Breaking With Al-Qaeda?' written by Hawkeye® dated March 16, 2008 HERE.]

Kepel, who speaks Arab fluently, is the author of 'The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West' and several other books. He is the head of Middle East studies at Sciences Po in Paris, and has just published a new book, 'Terror and Martyrs'.