The Rebellion Within

In The Rebellion Within (published in the June 2, 2008 issue of The New Yorker), Lawrence Wright describes the known life of Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif-known in some circles of the extremely secretive jihadist underground as Dr. Fadl.Fadl, an extremely gifted Islamic scholar, met Ayman al-Zawahiri in 1977 while both were attending medical school in Cairo. Within a decade he found himself at the ground floor of the Jihad movement. As a matter of fact, he literally wrote the book on the subject.Two of Fadl's texts, The Essential Guide for Preparation and The Compendium of the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge, became (and probably remain) cornerstones of the training and indoctrination of Al Qaeda recruits in the power vacuum of post-Soviet Afghanistan.Much happened in the following decade. On the sprawling list of Topics Most Americans Ought to Familiarize Themselves With, 1990s-era Afghanistan is certainly near the top. The meteoric rise of the Taliban and the fast polarization of Islamic politics, I should not need to remind you, remain era-defining issues.But there are lengthy books for that, written by people with so much storytelling ability that I, in comparison, look like a kid scribbling with crayons. I recommend going all-out with Steve Coll's excellent Ghost Wars.Anyway, here's how Fadl ended up: In October 2001-seven years after he cut ties with his extremist past and took up supposedly earnest work as a surgeon-was arrested by Yemeni secret police and thrown into an Egyptian prison with a life sentence. Since then, he's mellowed out, renounced violence and become a vocal opponent of Al Qaeda.If you've got an hour to kill, it's a great read. dr seuss cat in hat history