Page 2 of 2 Portrait of a jihadi
leader By Chris Heffelfinger
training camps in Kuwait and posted
technical assistance on explosives making and
other training materials to his website.
Yet the specific acts of support to local
terrorist groups pale in comparison to the effect
he has had on countless Muslims guided by his
teachings. His rulings and commentary on current
events and political issues - like his
contemporaries Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu
Basir al-Tartusi - frame the debate among
Salafis, and between them and
other Muslims. Even if temporarily silenced by the
imposition of an official government ban, the
writings of such individuals will live on into the
indefinite future, reposted on various Islamist
websites and discussion forums.
The
doctrine of the Salafi movement instructs Muslims
on all aspects of life, from the mundane to
societal and political. Salafis, more so than
traditional Sunni Muslims, restrict individual
interpretation or consensus among scholars as
sources of law, relying instead on the accounts of
the first three generations of Muslims (the Salaf
al-Saliyeen, or Righteous Predecessors, for which
the movement is named). With their desire to
return to the Islamic purity of 7th-century
Arabia, the movement leaves no room for
disagreement or compromise in its doctrine.
Competing ideas are labeled bida'
(innovation), kufr (disbelief), or
shirk (polytheism, in particular as it
applies to loyalty to a democratic regime and
man-made laws).
This ideology is
perpetuated largely through extensive funding from
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf
states that are predominately Salafi (the movement
originated in the late 1700s in the Najd,
present-day eastern Saudi Arabia). Under this
rubric, many Salafi teachings often condone jihad
as a legitimate response to the military,
political and economic aggression of the West.
Ali's teachings An article by
Ali published on April 17, and republished widely
across Islamic websites such as Islamicnews.net,
declared that Iraq has been "a demonstration to
the occupiers ... the Americans and Safavids"
(Iranians). His extreme distrust of Shi'ites and
their "true" agenda is persistent throughout his
writings. Yet, more surprising, the same comments
were made in an interview with Islamonline.net, a
widely popular Islamic website under Yusuf
al-Qaradawi. Clearly, his views and teachings have
found an audience outside the relatively narrow
ranks of the Salafi-jihadis.
Another
recent article, "What Will Follow the Coming War",
argues that the United States has brought and
instilled ignorance along with its occupation, an
intentional plan to corrupt the people of Iraq and
the region (the period before Islam in Arabia is
known as the age of ignorance). Similar to Ali's
own long-range strategic thinking, he sees the US
war as aimed at achieving two developments: the
uprooting of Islam from society and the dividing
of Iraq into pieces to be controlled by Iran,
Israel and the United States. Accordingly, the
only response to this aggression is for Muslims to
join the jihad against these forces.
A
fascinating parallel exists between Ali's call for
a war against the occupiers of Iraq with that of
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (the founder of the
Salafi/Wahhabi movement) and his ideological
justifications for war against the foreign
occupiers, the Ottoman Turks. Both called for
jihad against fellow, non-Arab Muslims. In Ali's
case, it was a call to jihad against the Shi'ites
of Iran; in ibn Abd al-Wahhab's, it was the
Sufi-practicing Sunni Turks. Although clearly a
religious movement, one cannot discount that it is
an Arab-led movement, whose discourse and
literature are almost exclusively in Arabic
(indeed, in the classical Arabic tongue of Arabia,
where it was born). Other such instances have
occurred, like Ibn Taymiyya's famous fatwa
against the Mongols (the 13th-century scholar who
inspired much of ibn Abd al-Wahhab's movement),
declaring his fellow Muslims unbelievers for being
insincere in their Islam, and hence lawful
enemies.
Conclusion Despite his
clear ties to al-Qaeda and mujahideen in Kuwait,
Hamid al-Ali is presented to thousands of Muslims
as simply a senior Kuwaiti cleric. He enjoys this
prestige, as do other Salafis, because of the
juxtaposition of the Salafi movement with the two
holiest sites in Islam, Mecca and Medina.
To many, especially those less-educated
Muslims who fulfill their hajj duties,
Salafi Islam is simply pure, or highly
conservative, Islam. Its exclusive reliance on the
holy texts of Islam, seen by many as a return to
the basics of the religion, obscures its true
doctrine. It is thus seen not as a 17th-century
movement arising largely out of the drive to expel
Turkish Ottomans and their forces from Arabia, but
Sunni Muslims who enjoy among the highest
authority in Islam. Given this climate - and the
view toward the Salafi movement by Muslims, Arabs
and the West - it is unlikely that figures like
Hamid al-Ali will cease the education and
indoctrination of young Muslims into jihad.
Notes 1. See Militant
Ideology Atlas at the Combating
Terrorism Center at West Point, New York. 2.
Biographical data from al-sira al-dhatiyya
bi-fadhilat al-Shaykh Hamid bin Abd Allah
al-Ali (Curriculum Vitae of Sheikh Hamid bin
Abd Allah al-Ali), on H-alAli.net. 3. US
Treasury Department press release, "Treasury
Designations Target Terrorist Facilitators",
December 7, 2006.
Chris
Heffelfinger is an independent researcher
affiliated with the Combating Terrorism Center at
the US Military Academy, West Point, New York.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
