Abu Mohamed al-Maqdisi…the Jihadist ideologue

Abu Mohamed al-Maqdisi is the assumed named of Abu Mohamed Assem ibn Tahir al-Hafi al-Outaibi al-Maqdisi. Nicknamed Assem al-Barqawi, the Jordanian-Palestinian Jihadist ideologue was born in the Palestinian city of Nablus in 1959. His writings and teachings have a big influence on Al-Qaeda’s young fighters. Abu-Mohamed al-Maqdisi is also known as the most influential scholar and ideologue of Takferee ideology across the world. Perpetrators of bombings, which took place in Riyadh in 1955, confessed that they were acting under the influence of al-Maqdisi’s writings and explanations.  

Al-Maqdisi travelled to Kuwait in 1979 to join Ahl Al-Thawryieen, which was linked to an extremist group formed by Jihman al-Outaibi. However, he decided to quit after he was engaged in ideological and methodical dispute with al-Outaibi.

He had to travel to Pakistan after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. During a brief sojourn in Peshawar, he concluded his book “Highlights of the Blasphemy of the Saudi State”, in which he launched a scathing attack on religious institutions in the kingdom.

Al-Maqdisi came across Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahri in Afghanistan. He returned to Jordan in late 1980s to join Baiyat al-Imam group (allegiance to the Imam), which was formed by Jordanian Jihadists, who returned from Afghanistan in early 1990s of the last century. 

In 1993, He was arrested, together with Ahmed Fadil al-Khalaylla, nicknamed Abu Mosaab al-Zarkawi. They were given 15 years in prison. Both Jihadists were pardoned in 1999 when Jordanian King Abdulla II celebrated his ascension to the throne. Nonetheless, he was rearrested in Jordan in 2000 and was given 30 days for violating traffic rules.

Legitimising 9/11

In the wake of 9/11 attack, Abu Mohamed al-Maqdisi issued a fatwa, in which he legitimised disastrous acts against civilians. He wrote a study “This Is What I Owe Allah”, in which he defended the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the US. He was arrested. However, his detentions did not frustrate his call for Jihad (the holy war). In 2006, the Jordanian intelligence intervened to set him free. Following his release, wild differences ran between him and Abu Mosaab al-Zarkawi, who wanted to deploy the Jihadists across the world. He sent al-Zarkawi a message “Support and Advice”, in which he protested to violent acts against Shi’a and Christians in Iraq.  

It was al-Maqdisi, who reorganized and restructured the Jordanian Jihadist movement in the wake of a series of crackdowns and mass arrests by the Jordanian security authorities after al-Zarkawi-linked group  launched  a bombing attack in Amman in 2005. The Jordanian Jihadist Movement had almost collapsed and a large number of its fighters broke away after the Americans assassinated al-Zarkawi in June 2006. Differences were instigated between al-Maqdisi, who opted for non-violent Jihad and al-Zarkawi-linked fighters, who wanted to pursue violence and bloodshed.  

In nearly 2015, al-Maqdisi was released from detention to allegedly intervene with ISIS’s leaders, including Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, to free pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, who was captured by ISIS after his F-16 aircraft crashed over Syria.  However, the intercession of al-Maqdisi collapsed and the Jordanian pilot was burnt alive.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood denounced the ideology of Jihadists, al-Maqdisi refused to condemn its members for being non-believers. In the meantime, he harshly criticized ISIS for its savage and brutal acts.

The Baiyat al-Imam movement, also known as “Jamaat al-Tawheed” is a Salafi Jihadist formed in Jordan in early 1990s by Jordanian Jihadists after returning from Afghanistan. Al-Maqdisi was selected the Emir of Daawa; and al-Zarkawi the Emir of the Movement.  Baiyat al-Imam condemned governments and royal regimes as non-believer. Its Emir refused to take part in the parliament elections in Jordan in 1992.