Abū Qatāda “The Palestinian” is among the most influential ideologues of the salafi-jihadi movement. Born in Palestine, Abū Qatāda grew up in the Jordanian capital Amman, spent time among jihadi guerrillas in Pakistan, and ended up a militant preacher in London. Over the last decade, while going in and out of prison accused of aiding international terrorism, Abū Qatāda has worked to define the theological basis of al-Qaida and likeminded movements. This article explores the Palestinian preacher’s background, activism and ideological communication, focusing on the relationship with his land of origin. It finds that the jihadi thinker seems largely to have ignored his country of origin in both word and deed. This is counter-intuitive given that Abū Qatāda represents a movement presenting the liberation of Palestine as the heart of a worldwide armed holy struggle. However, jihadi ideologues tread a fine line between nationalism and worldliness on one hand, and transnational religious purism on the other.
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Dominique Thomas, Le Londonistan, La Voix Du Djihad (Paris: Editions Michalon, 2003).
See e.g. Raffaello Pantucci, “British Hostage Threatened with Death Unless Abu Qatada is Released from British Prison”, Terrorism Monitor, 7 (13) (2009).
Mary Anne Weaver, “The Short, Violent Life of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi”, The Atlantic, July/August issue (2006), http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/07/the-short-violent-life-of-abu-musab-al-zarqawi/304983/?single_page=true (accessed 14 June 2013).
Wagemakers, A Quietist Jihadi, p. 202; E-mail correspondence with Joas Wagemakers 15 May 2013.
Abū Qatāda, Al-Jihād wa-l-Ijtihād: Taʾammulāt fī l-Manhaj (ʿAmmān: Dār al-Bayāriq, 1999). For practical reasons in the article I refer to an online, searchable word version of the book, available at abokatada.110mb.com/kotob/aljihad.doc (accessed 14 June 2013).
Terence McKenna, “The Recruiters”, CBC Newsworld, 16 June 2002, www.cbc.ca/na tional/news/recruiters/hassaine.html (accessed 2003).
SIAC (2007), p. 13.
Fawaz A. Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 223.
SIAC (2007), p. 7.
Abū Qatāda, “An Address to the Muslims from Abû Qatâdah, ‘Umar ibn Mahmûd Abû ‘Umar”, At-Tibyan 2 September (2009), https://web.archive.org/web/20120206180315/http://www.tibyan.co.cc/2009/09/address-to-muslims-from-abu-qatadah.html (accessed March 2012).
Abū Qatāda, “The Abandonment of Masajid Adh-Dhirar”, At-Tibyan (unknown date), http://www.archive.org/download/guidebooks/masaajid_dhiraar.pdf (accessed 14 June 2013).
By 22 June 2013, “Characteristics of the Victorious Party” had been downloaded 26,142 times and read 127,676 times; “Why Jihad” downloaded 14,929 times and read 88,916 times. Moreover, the statistics show that each of the 98 texts entitled “Between the Two Methods”, which together make up the booklet “Jihad and Interpretation” had been viewed between 11,042 and 25,294 times (download statistics do “appear not to” function). It should be noted that MTJ website statistics must be viewed with sound scepticism. Numbers may be manipulated. It is impossible to say exactly who hides behind the numbers (jihadis, curious members of the public, researchers, security officials, etc.). Moreover, some texts need to be downloaded so as to see content whereas others can be viewed directly on the website, something that affects the numbers (a frequently downloaded text does thus not have to be popular, but rather many people had to download it because of the setup of the website).
Abū Qatāda, “Li-mādhā l-Jihād?” [Why Jihad], sub-section “Wujūb qitālihim” [The Duty of Fighting Them], translation of relevant paragraph “he (Ibn Taymiyya) also said it has been affirmed by the Sunnah from a number of angles that the punishment for an apostate is greater than for an original unbeliever.”, http://www.tawhed.ws/r1?i=6439&x= yrvjtyr8 (accessed March 2013).
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Abū Qatāda “The Palestinian” is among the most influential ideologues of the salafi-jihadi movement. Born in Palestine, Abū Qatāda grew up in the Jordanian capital Amman, spent time among jihadi guerrillas in Pakistan, and ended up a militant preacher in London. Over the last decade, while going in and out of prison accused of aiding international terrorism, Abū Qatāda has worked to define the theological basis of al-Qaida and likeminded movements. This article explores the Palestinian preacher’s background, activism and ideological communication, focusing on the relationship with his land of origin. It finds that the jihadi thinker seems largely to have ignored his country of origin in both word and deed. This is counter-intuitive given that Abū Qatāda represents a movement presenting the liberation of Palestine as the heart of a worldwide armed holy struggle. However, jihadi ideologues tread a fine line between nationalism and worldliness on one hand, and transnational religious purism on the other.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 847 | 157 | 15 |
Full Text Views | 43 | 4 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 73 | 13 | 2 |