If We're Careful, Al Qaeda May Self-Destruct

Note

Nelly Lahoud's recent seminar for Harvard's Islam in the West Program — "Will Al-Qaida Self Destruct?" — was the subject of the December 13, 2008, Boston Globe Spiritual Life column.

"John McCain called "the war on terror" one of the "the transcendent issues" of our time on the television show "Meet The Press" three years ago, a message he repeated throughout his run for president. Journalists and other politicians have echoed his point, which resonates all the more amid the smoke and blood of Mumbai.

So a suggestion that the poster group for terror, Al Qaeda, is likely to be destroyed by Al Qaeda itself may seem counter-intuitive.

Yet a Kennedy School research fellow made just that case last week. Nelly Lahoud raised the possibility that a transcendent issue of our time could end as a transcendent fizzle, gagging on the religious certitude that feeds the terrorists' taste for violence...."

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