It hasn't received much media attention, but the Jordanian government's surprising decision to quietly release Abu Mohammed al-Maqdessi from prison a few days ago is a fascinating development. Maqdessi is one of the pivotal intellectual figures in the salafi-jihadist milieu. He's best known now for being the guide into the jihad for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but his influence on jihadist thought has gone far deeper than that. His writings feature prominently on jihadist internet sites, and he is reportedly behind one of the key online collections of jihadist writings. Why is Jordan releasing him from prison now?
Abu Mohammed Maqdessi's 2005 al-Jazeera interview which got him sent back to jail
The last time Maqdessi got out of jail (in July 2005), many observers speculated that the Jordanians were hoping that Zarqawi would try to contact him. Instead, he issued a series of statements condemning Zarqawi's practices of "excessive takfir", beheadings, and general brutality as violating sharia and harming the image of the jihad. His very widely-circulated "third party letter" expressing deep concerns about how the doctrine of takfir was being used sparked an enormous amount of discussion on the jihadist forums. At the same time, in a wide-ranging interview with al-Hayat, he defended jihad against Muslim governments which did not enforce sharia (thanks to Chris Blanchard for reminding me of this one). What seemed to cross the line, however, was when he gave a long interview to al-Jazeera; he was rearrested while the program was airing.
He's been back in jail since then, three years without a trial - but it's not like Human Rights Watch or the US government has been banging down the Jordanian door demanding the fair trial or release of the "spiritual guide of salafi-jihadism". His health has reportedly been deteriorating after a series of hunger strikes, and the Red Cross reportedly mediated his release on humanitarian grounds.. but few people commenting on the case seem convinced by the humanitarian explanation for his release. His influence has hardly diminished during his many years of incarceration, from what informed observers can tell.
The narrow question of what prompted Jordan to release one of the most influential living salafi-jihadist thinkers from prison at this precise moment, if not health concerns, has mostly focused on the possibility that he will offer useful criticism of current trends in the jihadist movement and al-Qaeda. At least some close observers expect him to issue a new round of reviews of the jihadist movement, or even a rebuttal of Ayman al-Zawahiri's new book attacking Dr. Fadl's review of jihad. Mohammed Abu Roman, reflecting on a long interview he conducted with him back in 2002, suggests that his thinking has developed significantly and he is now capable of delivering a powerful rethinking of salafi-jihadist thought. But al-Hayat reports that he has promised to stay out of public life and the media as a condition for his release - and no journalists seem to have succeeded in getting an interview with him as of yet - which would presumably dull the impact of such an intervention. At any rate, don't expect him to stay out of jail long - he's been in and out of Jordanian prisons for the last 14 years. But what he does while he's out could be very interesting indeed.
UPDATE: Assaf David of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem sends along this commentary, arguing that humanitarian considerations may indeed have been decisive:
On the Maqdisi affair, actually I think that there is indeed a strong reason to believe that human rights considerations played an important role here. HRW and the government of Jordan have had a quarrel during the last two months on the organization's 2007 report on HR in Jordan, which was titled "Shutting Out the Critics". Probably for the first time, HRW called on western donor states to condition aid to Jordan on amending several laws. Jordan was so furious -- they are much more worried about intl criticism than Egypt, for example -- that for the first time its MFA replied officially with a full report denying most of HRW accusations. A short news item appeared on 5 Feb, claiming that four or five Jordanian prisoners were released from jail, including Maqdisi. The latter's release was later denied but not the others'. Almost all of them were mentioned in the HRW report.
You can read HRW's executive director's response (from Feb 19) to the MFA's letter here; it was there that he mentioned al-Maqdisi as a case study of GID detention rules and practices. After three weeks Maqdisi was released.
Credit to HRW for paying attention to the case of a very difficult prisoner. I remain skeptical that the GID would suddenly care about such things as humanitarian conditions or the rule of law. But it remains an interesting question - thanks to Assaf for the contribution.
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