Al Qaeda letter "bullshit" says Juan Cole. posted by Richard Seymour

Okay, he didn't quite say that, but he did say this:

The very first element of the letter is the blessing on the Prophet. It says:

al-salah wa al-salam `ala rasuli'llahi wa a-lihi wa suhubihi . . .

(peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of God and his family and his companions . . .)

the phrase "salla Allahu `alayhi wa alihi wa sallam" (the blessings and peace of God be upon him and his family) is a Shiite form of the salutation, because of the emphasis of the Shiites on the House or descendants of the Prophet. Because of the cultural influence of Shiism in South Asia, one does find that form of the salutation in Pakistan and India among Sunni Muslims.

...

I do not believe that an Egyptian like al-Zawahiri would use this phraseology at all. But he certainly would not use it to open a letter to a Salafi. Sunni hardliners deeply object to what they see as Shiite idolatry of the imams or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, for whom they made shrines such as Ali's at Najaf and Husayn's at Karbala. In fact, hard line Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia attacked and sacked Karbala in 1803.

Cole also notes that the letter contains several other references that would be made by a Shiite rather than a Sunni, and - as some commenters noted on this blog yesterday - the curious reference to good old times between Zawahiri and Zarqawi clashes jarringly with the known facts about Zarqawi's rivalry with Al Qaeda. He concludes:

My gut tells me that the letter is a forgery. Most likely it is a black psy-ops operation of the US. But it could also come from Iran, since the mistakes are those a Shiite might make when pretending to be a Sunni. Or it could come from an Iraqi Shiite group attempting to manipulate the United States. Hmmm.

(I imagine Cole placing his pinky to the side of his mouth like Dr Evil when he writes 'Hmmm'). So, on top of the obvious logical flaws in the letter, there are now religious solecisms that tend to suggest that the thing was written by either Shiites or by US black-ops. Let's be honest - this is the work of American intelligence. Are we supposed to believe that a Shiite government or group wouldn't understand the doctrinal differences between Sunnis and Shi'ites? A puerile fakery, and a pretty reliable guide as to how highly they rate the Western public's intelligence.