Undermining Jihad...

The New York Sun is reporting a fascinating development:

One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."

In a serialized manifesto written from prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif is blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The lapsed jihadist even calls for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri.

What happens to Al Qaeda when their philosophical underpinnings are yanked out? I'm not sure, but it's hard to see any way that this is bad news – and one could easily spin a very nice-sounding scenario (Al Qaeda foot-soldiers departing en masse, etc.)…