Moderation in Fanaticism: The strange release and rearrest of Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi. Without much fanfare, the Jordanian police state released Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi a week ago. He is a former mentor and collaborator of Zarqawi and one of the most formidable and effective--from the stanpoint of the Salafite movement--polemicists and theoreticians of the entire spectrum of fanatical groups. The Jordanian police state even encouraged him to give interviews to the media, and the last one was yesterday's interview on Al-Jazeera, perhaps due to exaggerated evaluations of the impact of his minute disagreements with Zarqawi, and hoping to please US empire. While the taped interview was being aired yesterday, he was rearrested. I will speculate on why. He said many things: he preached "moderation" (within fanaticism presumably--but he would not describe himself as fanatical because fanatics of his ilk equate their fanaticism with "Islam" or their version of it), and disagreed with Zarqawi not on matters of principle but only on style and intensity. Not more than that. He does accept the takfir--the declaration of the infidelity of somebody--of Shi`ites but does not agree with Zarqawi that all Shi`ites are infidels. He implied that only ignorant Shi`ites are not infidels, relying on the authority of Ibn Taymiyyah. He does accept the Zarqawi's practice of killing fellow Muslims (the notion of Tatarrus--I wrote about that before) but thinks that Zarqawi goes too far in its practice. Such are the stylistic differences between the two fanatics. But why would the Jordanian police state rearrest him when he was found innocent of the charges. He declared in the trial that they could not find explosives on him, but that his ideas are explosive. His writings are widely available on the internet among the Salafi-styled groups and movements. His role will only rise, I predict. But he was arrested because, I am only guessing, US and Saudi Arabia wanted him rearrested. They may have found him way too appealing to the fanatical ranks, and may have provided inspiration to some of the Sunni fundamentalist audience. He also discredited the TV-based confessions of former salafites in Saudi Arabia. This may have embarrassed the Saudi government. Stay tuned. On another matter, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (who is illiterate and can not read a text infront of him) used this word in a recent speech: he said that the government will eliminate the "Sha'fat Al-Irhab." "Sha'fat" is an old word that is rarely used in common usage and it means the "origin" or the "root" of. A Beirut-based correspondent for one of the Arab oil-funded TV satellite channels was telling me (based on her experience) how keen her bosses are on censoring every word that is aired by their correspondents. Every report has to be submitted to the oil-rich capital for approval before it can be read, and aired. Often, sections and words are taken out. The new Arab media: glitzy old media with more desire to please US Empire.