Abu Hafs Al-Mauritani…a Jihadist who renounced violence

Al-Qaeda’s former scholar and ideologue Sheikh Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, nicknamed Abu Hafs Al-Mauritani, is widely regarded as its most controversial figure. His statements are drawing much attention in the Muslim and Arab communities. Abu-Hafs has become at the centre of widespread controversies after he decided to break away, declaring repentance. 

Abu-Hafs was born in Mauritania in 1975. He studied Arabic literature and Muslim Sharia in an institute opened in a desert area in his country. He travelled to Afghanistan to take part in Jihad (the holy war) against the Soviet troops in this Muslim country. He came across al-Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden, who admired his excellent Arabic language and his immense knowledge of the Muslim Sharia (jurisprudence)Bin Laden was videotaped in 2000 reciting al-Walid's poem "Thoughts Over al-Aqsa Uprising". Upon a request from Al-Qaeda’s leader, Abu Hafs gave religious lectures to Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. .

He was appointed Al-Qaeda’s Mufti, a powerful position, which entitled him to join its Shura  Council. He quickly established himself as the third powerful man of al-Qaeda, after Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahri, who took oath as Al-Qaeda’s leader after Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011. Abu Hafs was also appointed the director of the Institute of Islamic Studies and Researches in Afghanistan from 1990 until the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. 

In 1998, he travelled to Baghdad in an attempt to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. However, the Iraqi authorities turned him away as the leader did not want to create problems for his country. He shifted his direction to the Sudan. Informed that Abu Hafs was staying in Room 13 at the Dana Hotel in Khartoum, the US sought to arrest him or to have him extradited to a friendly country for interrogation.

The German security authorities, which were in hot pursuit of Abu Hafs, discovered in 1998 that he had asked Mohamed Ould Al-Slahi (a telecommunication engineer and former prisoner of Guantanamo) to transfer DM8000 to him in Afghanistan. The money was transferred in December 1998.

According to substantiated stories, Abu Hafs firmly rejected Bin Laden’s plan to launch a deadly attack on the US (9/11 attack in 2000). Jihadists, who shared the view of Abu Hafs in this regard, included  Mostafa Hamed (Al-Qaeda’s historian), and Siful Adl Mohamed Salah Eddin Zeidan.  One of the 9/11 suspects, Sheikh Mohamed, told his interrogators that Abu Hafs had rejected any large-scale attack on the Americans.

Al-Qaeda’s former Mufti published the book “Islamic Action Between Motives of  Unit and the Advocates of Conflict”, which was recommended by Ayman Al-Zawahri and introduced by Bin Laden. It was alleged that Abu Hafs’ book encouraged Al-Qaeda to merge with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in June 2001. 

Abu Hafs was rumoured to have been killed twice, one of which was during an airstrike on the Afghani city of Zawara Keli on June 8, 2002.

The American invasion of Afghanistan compelled him to flee to Iran. He was put under house arrest from 2003 until April 2012 after he refused to cooperate with the security authorities and give information, which could lead to the arrest of Al-Qaeda’s top ranks. He was extradited to Mauritania on July, 2012, and was released only after he decided to cut his ties with Al-Qaeda and renounce its violence. Nonetheless, Ayman al-Zawahri did not spare any opportunity, in which he acknowledged Abu Hafs for his constructive cooperation with Islamists.

Since his release in 2014, Abu Hafs has been giving statements, which brought him at the centre of the public attention. For example, he denounced Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi for appointing himself the Caliph of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He stressed that Al-Baghdadi’s self-appointment was based on corrupt and wrong priniciples. He came under heavy attack from ISIS, which cast doubt on his loyalty to Jihad. Abdulla bin Abdel-Rahman al-Shanquiti published a study, in which he questioned Abu Hafs’ loyalty to Al-Qaeda. The author also made hints that Abu Hafs must have been an agent.   

Abu Hafs also denounced the declaration of Abu Mohamed al-Joulani leader of Al-Qaeda. He had voiced support to Qatar, after the Arab Quartet (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain) decided to boycott this Gulf state. In the meantime, he is said to enjoy good relationship with several members of the Muslim Brotherhood.   

It is said that in the 1990s Osama Bin Laden made a will, in which he left Abu Hafs 1% of his estate.