The Role Of Ideologues: The Like Of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada al-Filastini and Hani Sibai
30 January 2017By Tore Hamming
This is the fourth Q&A of the interview series with Ahmed Al Hamdan
(@a7taker), a Jihadi-Salafi analyst and author of ''Methodological Difference
Between ISIS and Al Qaida''. Al Hamdan was a former friend of Turki bin Ali,
and a student of Shaykh Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi under whom he studied and was
given Ijazah, becoming one of his official students. Also, Shaykh Abu Qatada
al Filistini wrote an introduction for his book when it was published in the
Arabic language. The interview series contains contains five themes in total
and will all be published on Jihadica.com. You can find the first Q&A here,
the second here and the third here.
Tore Hamming:
Part of the struggle between IS and AQ happens through ideologues either part
of or sympathetic to one of the two movements. AQ has consistently been
supported by major ideologues like Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada al-Filastini
and Hani Sibai, while IS has relied on younger people, most famously Turki
al-Binali. How do you see the role of these ideologues for the broader
struggle within Salafi-Jihadism?
Ahmed Al Hamdan:
In fact, this question has been phrased wrongly.
We must realize that the problems of ISIS are no longer confined to a conflict
with Al Qaeda in just the Arab region only making the Arabs to be the only
influential speakers for Jihad. Rather ISIS has come to every language and
nationalities! And they have come into conflict with groups that are not
Arabs. These nationalities and groups have speakers that speak in their
languages and influence them more than the Arab speakers. I will give you an
example:
Amongst the English speakers, Shaykh Anwar al Awlaki is considered to be one
of the main leaders and ideologues of Jihad, while amongst the Arabic speakers
he is considered to be a Jihadi commander only. Why? It is because all the
Shariah treatises of Shaykh Anwar have been released in the English language.
They were not released in the Arabic language with the exception of 4
statements, which were all exhortative statements.
So if we compare for example the influence of Shaykh Anwar al Awlaki amongst
the English speakers with that of the influence of the Shaykhs such as Abu
Muhammad al Maqdisi and Abu Qatada al Filastini, there is no doubt that Shaykh
Anwar al Awlaki would be much more influential. And this can also be seen with
the American Shaykh Ahmad Jibril. I myself and some of those occupied with the
Arab Jihadi issues had never heard of him at all until recently when
communicating with the English Jihadi media. And we came to know that this
person has a lot of influence and is widely known, despite us having not heard
about him at all before.
And this is a general principle: The more material exists for a person in a
specific language, the more will be his influence upon the speakers of that
language. How many materials of the ideologues of Jihadi groups in Arabic have
been translated into Turkistani language for example? Maybe 2 or 3. So is this
sufficient to influence the Turkistanis in the battle against ISIS? The answer
is no. However when a person like Mufti Abu Dhar Azzam break away and release
a statement criticizing ISIS, this will have a greater effect than translating
some articles of al Maqdisi and al Filistini about ISIS into the Turkestan
language, even if he is less knowledgeable than them. Why is this so? Because
Abu Dhar is known amongst the Turkistanis and he speaks in their language and
he has held lectures and lessons among them. And so, being previously known as
well as a common language is what becomes effective for having influence in
battles, and not just Shariah knowledge.
Who is the foremost ideologue for Jihad and the Jihadi groups in Europe? We
dont know. Perhaps a Shaykh who is young in age and who speaks French will
have a greater influence than Shaykh Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi or Abu Qatada al
Filistini upon the Jihadis who speak in French.
So the person who speaks directly to you and who always keeps you at the
center of the events will be more effective than a person with Islamic
knowledge who does not speak directly to you and who has to use interpreters
who may be late in translating his statements or may not translate all of his
statements.
However because of the worldwide battle against ISIS, there have emerged
communication bridges between groups who are fighting against ISIS who speak
different languages. For example, we see that Dr. Ayman al Zawahiris words
get translated into Russian by the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus (1) or get
translated into Turkistani by the Turkistan Islamic Party, (2) and we have
seen Shaykh Ayman trying to address these organisations by mentioning their
merits. And we have seen how the ideologues and the leaders of the Arab groups
have released statements in solidarity with the Islamic Emirate of Caucasus
against the attempts of ISIS to split its ranks, (3) and we have seen how when
the Turkistan Islamic Party released a speech from its top most leader
refuting ISIS, they put the Arab scholars of Jihad in the background. (4)
So I think we are facing a situation known as ''the globalization of the Jihadi
organisations'' in contrast to ''the globalization of ISIS.''
And this has resulted in intermingling and openness towards each other due to
the existence of a common enemy. Previously the Russians were fighting the
Caucasians and the Chinese were fighting the Turkistanis and the Americans
were fighting Al Qaeda, most of whom have been Arabs. However these
organisations have now found themselves against a united common enemy, which
is ISIS, which is trying to dismantle them. And this has led to them
eventually coordinating with each other to fight this new enemy which is
threatening the fortresses from within, as opposed to the enemy which is not
common to them all and threatens the fortresses from the outside.
And this is another principle: Whenever there is a single enemy, there is a
larger chance of unity and cooperation.
So due to this, there began to circulate writings which refute ISIS and
translated works have begun to spread in different languages about a single
issue only, that is refuting the misconceptions caused by ISIS. And I think
this is something that has not happened before.
This is one matter. As for the other matter, it is why have younger ideologues
inclined towards ISIS, while their teachers have inclined towards Al Qaeda?
I have answered this question in my previous reply, and I have said that the
greater a persons age and the more his experience in life, the greater will
be his caution in dealing with any newly occurring matter, as opposed to the
one who has no experience and whom you mostly see acting without forethought
and who is more emotional rather than being logical.
Secondly, these students took the lead at a time when those Shaykhs were
imprisoned- I mean the two Shaykhs Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi and Abu Qatada al
Filistini. And I think they said to themselves that ''we must fill the vacuum
left by our Shaykhs'', and they put themselves on the same level of their
Shaykhs, and they began to speak on fresh matters which are very complicated,
in a manner which is different from that of their Shaykhs who used to be calm
and careful. And here let me write a historical testimony:
Turki Binali had gone to Syria twice. The first time, he claimed, he wanted
to send relief aid, and the second time was the one in which he did not
return. And before he went for his first time, he was told not to listen to
only one side, specifically in the matter of the dispute between Jabhat un-Nusrah
and ISIS. But when he returned from Syria, we sat down together, and there was
a change in his tone of speech about Jabahat al Nusra and it had become very
harsh. (5) And when he was asked and told ''Have you tried to hear from Jabhat
un-Nusra when you were in Syria to understand their point of view?'' he said
''No, rather the Islamic State and its representatives are trustworthy and they
do not lie!''… And so there is no need to hear both sides…!
This is not something which someone else has told me, rather I saw it with my
own eyes and heard it with my own ears. So all his books and speeches and
articles with which he supported ISIS were built upon this foundation, which
is hearing only from one side which as per his claim, does not lie. Then it
became clear to us with the passage of time that these representatives would
lie even in their official publications. So look at what happens when a
student takes the place of a teacher while he is not qualified!!
On the other hand, Shaykh Abu Qatada was asked after 20 years, did he benefit
from the events in Algeria when he was young. And he said ''Yes, I have
benefitted greatly, one of the most important of which was to not be deceived
by the way how a questioner formulates his question, because sometimes he will
lie and deceive and formulate questions which are not in accordance with
reality in order to get the Fatwa he wants to support his stance against his
opponents. So whenever I feel that a person is doing this, I would ignore his
questions so that he does not take my Fatwas to misuse them in an improper
manner''. (6)
But the person with little experience will fall into this mistake and he will
sympathise with the questioner who has formulated his question showing him
being oppressed, and he will issue a Fatwa according to what he likes and
desires.
What makes a person forget himself or forget his real position is those around
him, especially when they praise and exaggerate in praising the student of
knowledge, and when he is addressed as 'Shaykh and 'scholar and with other
such names. And when many people repeat these words it causes him to actually
think that he has become a Shaykh and a scholar and that he is entitled to
speak on the most complex matters. Therefore he should not be misled by such
words of praise, and they must not cause him to forget his actual position.
And if he knew what his actual position is, he will not be affected by such
praises and speak on critical issues while not being qualified for it, because
he knows his true worth, and he will not be carried away by these people who
praise him as he knows that they are exaggerating or maybe they are
exaggerating for other purposes, such as to cause you to fall into this trap,
and hence you would be careful. But the one with little experience is often
naïve and not cautious or aware.
In the end, how is it possible for the gap between the generations to have an
effect in supporting different organisations? There is no doubt that the
influence of the teachers is much greater, and the level of their fame and
their positions are greater than these students who emerged only through the
internet. Shaykh al Maqdisi is a person who is well-known to the most
prominent leaders and to all the chiefs of the Jihadi movement, and likewise
Shaykh Abu Qatada. They are considered by many as sources of reference on
religious matters for Al Qaeda, (7) as opposed to these students who are not
famous, because many of the students used to write under pseudonyms and some
of them did not reveal who they are even to this day. So some are hesitant in
promoting or mentioning people who are unknown, and many of them have stopped
writing after joining ISIS.
And this is because of two issues. First, they are busy in teaching and
education because ISIS have seized large areas in Iraq and Syria and it needs
to fill this vacuum by teachers of Sharia, who hold seminars, speeches and
lessons. And the one who becomes busy with that will find it difficult to
write replies and research on the internet. The second issue is that which
Shaykh Al Maqdisi himself informed me, from his contact with people in ISIS
which was that the minister of information who was recently killed had
prevented these people from writing under their real names, fearing that they
would achieve high status and then split later, which could be used as
propaganda to dissuade people from joining ISIS. Apart from that there is no
doubt that the teachers are the ones with more influence and credibility than
the students and they are ahead of them for the following reasons:
Because their knowledge on religion and awareness on Islamic and religious
matters is more than the students.
Because they are well known and are people who had their stances and
sacrifices and firmness that are known for over three decades, unlike many of
the students who write under pseudonyms and who only jumped towards the
forefront in few years and who are actually unknown, except to a small group
of people, and their stances, sacrifices and firmness are unknown. And because
of previous security issues there was a fear of promoting people who are
unknown. (8) Thus many of these people have been ignored. As for those from
the students who are known, they are not widely known amongst the Mujahideen
and their sacrifices are nothing in front of those of their teachers who
suffered trials and tribulations.
Another issue is that the style of the Shaykhs when they respond would remain
within the confines of scientific method, as opposed to the response of their
students to their teachers. They would respond to their teachers by
transgressing the boundaries of scientific method and go in a method which
contains insults, rudeness and by using words of filth, derision and mockery,
which would make them in a weaker position in the sight of the neutral
observer.
ISIS knows that the teachers have a greater influence than their students.
Because of that, even if some of the students join them, they would still not
be content with that, rather they would be determined to discredit the Shaykhs
by tarnishing their image. For example, the publication which was released
under the title ''Smashing the idol of Al Maqdisi'' after Shaykh al Maqdisi
became a mediator between them and the Jordanian government in the matter of
the Jordanian pilot, Muadh al Kasasbah, they deliberately tried to confuse
between ''mediation'' and ''representation'', and they portrayed him as a
representative of the government which he makes Takfeer upon. And hence
because he has become their 'representative then he has deviated from his
path in the matter of disassociating from these governments. This is despite
the fact that in the same recording, there are words which confirm that he is
not a representative, such as him describing the Jordanian pilot as an
apostate..!!
Another matter is that they have gone beyond the stage of confusing and gone
into the stage of lying. They stated in one of their magazines, that Shaykh
Abu Qatada has alliance to the Tawaghit! (9) This is despite the fact that
just one week before the release of the magazine, Shaykh Abu Qatada wrote in a
tweet ''The Muslims have not stopped falling into the same mistakes which they
made before, the crime of allying with the Tawaghit''…!! (10)
But why does ISIS strive so hard to do this? It is because they know that the
students are not enough and that it is the teachers who have a greater
influence.
ISIS is trying to neutralize the influence of these Shaykhs, and when they
will no longer have influence, then their students will at once take a
superior position. Shaykh Abu Ahmad al Jazaairi, who is a Shariah leader of Al
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib, has spoken the truth when he said: ''Bringing
down the symbolic personalities means necessarily the rising of the inferior
ones. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said ''When there doesnt remain any
scholar then the people will take the ignorant ones as their leaders and they
will be asked, and they will give Fatwas without knowledge, thus becoming
misguided and misguiding the others''. (11)
==========================
Footnotes:
(1) It is the speech entitled ''The scholar in action'' which is part of the
series ''Carry the weapon of the martyr''. It has been translated by the media
committee of the State of Dagestan VD.
(2) It is the speech ''Turkistan- Patience and then victory'' from the series
(The Islamic Spring). It has been translated by ''Sawt ul Islam'' which is the
media wing of the Turkistan Islamic Party.
(3) The joint statement ''A statement about the recent events in the Causasus''
issued on 28 January 2015, which had the participation of a group of Shaykhs
the most notable being Shaykh Ibrahim Rubaish, Shaykh Harith al Nadhari,
Shaykh Khalid Batarfi, Dr. Sami al Uraidi , Abu Maria al Qahtani and Dr.
Abdullah al Muhaysini.
(4) A special interview by Sawt ul-Islam with the leader of the Turkistan
Party, Shaykh Abdul Haq, in Feburary 2016
(5) As a fact, the tone of Turki Binali regarding al Nusra was different in
the past. I had written a response to one of the opponents, but before
publishing it, I sent it to Turki Binali in his Facebook account, on 20
October 2013. So he replied to me privately and said ''May Allah bless you.
These are beautiful points, but do not cause differences between JN and ISIS,
for we are with JN against the Tawaghit and their lackeys, but we condemn
their mistake in leaving ISIS''. But when he returned back from Syria, his
stance became different and he no longer even agreed to spread the videos
showing the operations carried out by Al Nusrah against the Tawaghit and their
stooges. And he would compel you to take your stance and choose to support
ISIS and be hostile to everyone who oppose them, the first and foremost being
Jabhat al Nusra.
(6) Shaykh Abu Qatada said in his third audio meeting in Al Fajr room on
Paltalk on 22 April 2015: ''We benefited a lot from the experience in Algeria,
and the greatest of them was in the problem of lying and using different
technical words. For example, if a Sunni man from one of the Jihadi groups in
one of the countries send you a message saying ''Oh Shaykh, an innovator has
appeared amongst us and we have found with him documents indicating that he
will contact the regime to reconcile with them, and we have found with him
documents showing that he is planning a coup to overthrow the leadership in
order to reconcile with the regime and deviate the Jihad into such and such
path etc.'', and you think that he is a Sunni. So what answer will you give him
if you are a student of knowledge? The answer would be: He is causing
corruption in the land, and the least you can do is stop him, and if you
cannot end his innovation without killing him, then kill him. This is what the
scholars say. But we would discover later on that the innovation was not like
how the questioner had mentioned but it was something else. So is the mistake
in your Fatwa, or is the mistake and the lie from the questioner? And because
of that, the questions asked by some brothers would remain with me pending for
months and I would not reply to them. They are trustworthy brothers but they
narrate the incidents as they like and as they see.
(7) Shaykh Ayman Al Zawahiri in his book ''The Exoneration'' has considered
Shaykh Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi as a reference point for Al Qaeda (p.44) as
well as Shaykh Abu Qatada (p.47). And Turki bin Ali wrote a book entitled ''Al
Qawl An-Narjisi Bi Adaalat Sheikhina Al Maqdisi'' (a book containing
collections of statements from different scholars who spoke about the virtue
of Sheikh Maqdisi and praised him) and another book ''Al Qilaada Fee Tazkiyath
Sheikhina Abu Qatada'' and in these two books Binali gathered a collection of
testimonies of Jihadi leaders from all the fronts of Jihad regarding these two
Shaykhs. The students of these Shaykhs did not gain even a small fraction of
the trust that the leaders of Mujahideen have in these Shaykhs.
(8) Leadership status in the Jihadi organisations should only be given to a
person who has undergone hardships and trials and has remained firm. Shaykh
Usama Bin Ladin says while putting down the condition to qualify for
leadership that ''It is necessary that the top level leadership be from those
who have been tested and examined thoroughly.'' [First set of Abbottabad
Documents, Index number- SOCOM-2012-0000016] And one of the types of this test
is to go to battles and fight, because the spy often sells his principles in
exchange for money in order to live, but in the battles there is a very big
possibility for him to get killed and so his true nature will be seen. Shaykh
Usama bin Ladin says: ''For example, here we feel reassured when people go to
the front lines and get tested there'' [First set of Abbottabad Documents,
Index number: SOCOM-2012-0000003]. And from previous experience, the Jihadi
groups learnt about the problem of the leadership being taken over by people
who are unknown or who did not have any previous experience in the field of
trials. Muhammad Suroor Zayn al Abideen (the one to whom the Suroori movement
has been ascribed to, which is a Salafi school of thought) who had associated
with some people who were involved in the Syrian Jihadi during the Eighties,
had mentioned the incident of the infiltration into the leadership by a person
named as Abu Abdullah al Jasari who used to read the Quran a lot and offer
prayers at night and wake the youth for prayer, and just because of these
actions he was made part of the leadership even though he was unknown and no
one from the Islamic groups knew him. Then he took part in the arrest of Adnan
Al Uqla and the top leadership and in aborting the armed struggle. (Refer to
his book: How to protect the Islamic ranks from the hypocrites, p.77) Shaykh
Abu Musab al Suri has confirmed this information in his book ''The Jihadi
Islamic revolution in Syria – Experiences and Lessons'' (p.150)
(9) The ''Rumiyah'' magazine, first issue, page 29-30, September 2016
(10) His personal twitter account is ''@sheikhabuqatadh'' on 25 August 2016.
Link here
(11) His personal twitter account is ''@ahmed_karim25'' on 15 May 2016. Link
here
Tore Hamming:
In terms of ideologues, the struggle between al-Qaida and the Islamic State
could be framed as a struggle between teachers and their students. Have the
teachers been rendered irrelevant by the fierce rhetoric or do they continue
to influence Jihadi followers in great numbers? Or are new elements, like
language, implying that new ideologues are shining in the increasing
globalised Jihadi environment?
It is actually all about the language. Or almost. That could easily be the
initial conclusion of Al Hamdan in his assessment of the influence of
contemporary Jihadi-Salafi ideologues. The prominence of an ideologue is not
necessarily dependent on his knowledge, or cultural capital, but to a great
extent on his way of connecting with listeners. It is interesting to hear from
a keen Jihadi follower like Al Hamdan that Ahmad Jibril was unknown to him
until recently although he is a household name in many Jihadi circles in the
West.
The above statement about the importance of language is only true to some
extent. Despite the fact that most of their statement are in Arabic, the
Jordanian 'teachers of Abu Qatada and al-Maqdisi, who have been extensively
studied in several articles on Jihadica, continue to be dominant voices among
individuals sympathetic to the Jihadi project all over the world.
In a discussion I had with the London-based Abu Mahmoud al-Filistini about the
importance of ideologues in the fitna between al-Qaida and the Islamic State,
he told me that ideologues are by far the most actors in influencing people.
''Even more than any military commander'', Abu Mahmoud said. This is also why it
is so interesting to follow how these ideologues intervene in the fitna, who
they side with and how they manage to influence 'the masses. As a result, it
is not surprising that Jihadi groups and media organisations put a lot of
effort into translating speeches, statements, videos etc. Almost every time I
check my Telegram, there is an update on a new language added to the
repertoire of a channel.
The competitive nature of the al-Qaida – Islamic State relationship is
affecting the logic of the entire Jihadi field. Lately, this has been very
evident in the case of Jund al-Aqsa. This competitive environment and the
flexible position of many groups is not only considered a risk from an al-Qaida
or an Islamic State perspective, but also as a potential. This is a central
issue for Jihadi ideologues and the media supporting them as they seek to warn
people against the opposing group, while promoting their own camp. In the case
of Maqdisi, Abu Qatada, and Hani Sibai they all have +50,000 followers on
Twitter and their statements are discussed intensively and listened to. This
mobilising power continues to be important for al-Qaida and is something the
Islamic State is envying.
Initially, the students proved capable substitutes of the teachers, but as
time is passing it is my impression that the latter is slowly regaining their
importance in the eyes of Jihadis around the world.
©
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