With regard to Abu Mohammed al-Maqdassi's ideology, MEMRI (with all the usual caveats) has just published a long and fairly useful overview of his background and relationship to Zarqawi. Parts of the report are unreliable - MEMRI cites the alleged relationship between al-Jazeera and Zarqawi via Omar Haddid as fact without mentioning that the story was quickly discredited, for example - but I have some confidence in the key parts on Maqdassi since they come directly from Hazem al-Amin's excellent reporting in al-Hayat:
Among the returnees from Kuwait were also some who belonged to the Jihad movement, and they were headed by Issam Muhammad Taher Al-Burqawi, who acquired the name of Sheikh Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi. Al -Maqdisi, a Palestinian, became the spiritual teacher of this movement in Jordan and eventually the spiritual leader of Al-Zarqawi.
Al-Maqdisi went to Afghanistan with the Palestinian Sheikh Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar, (known as Abu Qatadah). When Al-Maqdisi returned to Kuwait and, eventually, to Jordan, Abu Qatadah found refuge in London (he is currently under house arrest). These two figures became the main sources of authority of the Salafi Jihad ideology in Jordan. Prior to his return to Jordan, Al-Maqdisi was either connected with or a member of Jam'iyat Al-Turath Al-Islami (The Society of Islamic Heritage), considered the principal Salafi organization in Kuwait. ...
Arriving in Jordan from Kuwait in 1991, Al-Maqdisi embarked upon organizing a Salafi movement among the Palestinians and Jordanians who had returned from the Jihad in Afghanistan. Among them was Al -Zarqawi. For those involved in this effort, says Al-Hayat, the period was known as "the beginning of the Da'wa (Islamic propagation) – an intensive effort to introduce young men to the concepts of Salafi Jihad.
...
Perhaps one of the most prominent of the clandestine organizations established in Jordan was the Tawheed (Monotheism) organization, later renamed Bay'at Al-Imam. It was founded by Al-Maqdisi in 1992 and joined by Al-Zarqawi in 1993, shortly after his return from his first visit to Afghanistan. In 1994, Jordanian security services uncovered weapons in the possession of these two men. They were imprisoned in the Al-Sawwaqa desert prison until 1999. During the period of their incarceration, the two managed to organize a sizable number of activists....
Al-Hayat cites a man called Abu Othman who was in prison at the time Al-Maqdisi and Al-Zarqawi were incarcerated. According to him, Al-Maqdisi's personality was kind, gentle and non-confrontational. By contrast, Al-Zarqawi showed strength and toughness, in addition to being confrontational. Abu Othmam added that the tribal personality of Abu Mus'ab made it possible for him to extract oaths of allegiance (mubaya'a) from others within the prison. The youths surrounding him in prison, who were JihadImara ("emirate") over the group to Al-Zarqawi in 1996. Under the rule of the Imara, the master, Al-Maqdisi, was obliged to receive the orders of his former student, Al-Zarqawi.
...
Nothing demonstrates the loyalty and devotion of Al-Zarqawi's followers to their leader more than their reaction to what appeared to be a critical article by his former prison mentor Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi. In July 2004, Al-Maqdisi posted on his website an article titled "Al-Zarqawi-Aid and Advice," in which he wrote:
"I say and stress that I am listening to and following the chaos that rages today in Iraq… blowing up cars or setting roadside explosives, by firing mortars in the streets and marketplaces, and other places where Muslims congregate. The hands of the Jihad fighters must remain clean so that they will not be stained by the blood of those who must not be harmed even if they are rebellious and shameless…You must also beware of entanglement by choosing means [of warfare] that are not illegal in the Shari'a."
Al-Maqdisi went on to warn against means and methods such as abducting or killing Muslims on pretexts not based on Islamic law such as the claim that they work for the infidels "where such acts do not reach the [level] of aid to the infidels or aid in harming Muslims." Quite interestingly, Al-Maqdisi warned against attacks on Christian churches, because this strengthens the will of the infidels against Muslims everywhere.
The Jihad fighters were enraged by the article, for they see Al-Zarqawi as "a divine grace," and believe it heresy for anyone – even Al-Zarqawi's teacher and guide, Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi – to think he made a mistake.
So there's one take on Maqdassi. It fits with my own general sense of the man - contrary to what Bashir al-Nafaa said on al-Jazeera yesterday, Maqdassi is no Qaradawi or Huwaydi. He's a strong salafi, not an Islamist moderate, from all the evidence I can find (see this interview with Muhammed al-Muqri of al-Gamaa in al-Sharq al-Awsat, for example). He's a leading theorist of takfir - which he famously declared against the Saudi regime - whereas Qaradawi and many others just signed on (not for the first time) to this declaration forbidding the practice of takfir. In his interview with al-Jazeera, he didn't condemn killing - he just said that this wasn't the time, and that it wasn't helping the cause. His break with Zarqawi over tactics seems real, and important - especially if it influences other salafis against Zarqawi - but he comes from the same milieu and ran in the same circles. (Also see this interpretation by Walid Phares, which seems to me to entirely miss the point, but decide for yourself.)
Not that this is the most relevant part of the whole affair - not compared to, say, fatwas issued by Nelly - but I found it kind of interesting nonetheless.
Shame on Tariq al-Hamid, editor of al-Sharq al-Awsat, for dimissing al-Jazeera's broadcast and discussion of this important interview as just another "Qatari attack on Saudi Arabia.". Nahid Hattar, a radical Jordanian writer who supports the Iraqi insurgency, denounced al-Jazeera's interview with Maqdassi for exaggerating his importance, speculated that years in prison had weakend Maqdassi's mind, complained that Maqdassi seemed weak and confused, and theorized that the whole interview was orchestrated by the Jordanian regime with al-Jazeera's complicity as part of a psychological warfare campaign against Zarqawi. But Hamid has different priorities... al-Sharq al-Awsat's obsession with al-Jazeera can really get embarrassing sometimes. (UPDATE: here's a link to the English version of Hamid, who I'm told prefers to spell his name Alhomayed, sorry about that.)
Comments