In the week after the London bombings (Full Coverage), two events shook up the world of extremist Islam.

One of the events, as discussed in this article, occurred two days after the bombing when radical Islamist Abu Busayr al-Tartousi posted an Arabic letter on his Web site, roundly denouncing the attacks (Intel Report). His criticism was echoed by others in the right-wing Islamic community and was criticized by many. Discussions on Jihadist message boards following al-Tartousi?s statement contained a number of comments such as ?I cannot believe my eyes,? and, ?how could he do this?? What seemed most worrying to the online Jihadist community commenting on Tartousi?s statement was secondly, his stance, but firstly, the hint of a fracture in the totalitarian unity of the ideology of extremist Islam. After all, lacking the base of operations and accessible, active leadership that they had had in Afghanistan , the only thing al-Qaeda and its supporters have holding them together is ideological unity. This is one of the reasons that ideological conformity is so strongly enforced, and such people as Tartousi are isolated once they speak up.