Sulaiman Al-Alwan Explained

Religion:Islam
Sulaymān al-ʿAlwān
Alt:a headshot of Sulaymān bin Nāṣir bin ʿAbdillāh al-ʿAlwān wearing a red and white checked keffiyeh
Birth Name:Sulaymān ibn Nāṣir al-ʿAlwān
Birth Date:1969
Birth Place:Buraidah, Saudi Arabia
Other Names:Abū ʿAbd Allāh
Nationality:Saudi Arabian
Denomination:Sunni
Jurisprudence:Hanbali
Creed:Athari
Movement:Salafi Jihadism, Shuaybiyya
Main Interests:Hadith, Politics
Influences:Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taymiyya, Hamoud al Aqla al Shuebi
Influenced:Abdullah al-Muhaysini

Sulaymān al-ʿAlwān (Arabic: سليمان بن ناصر بن عبد الله العلوان, Sulaymān bin Nāṣir bin ʿAbdillāh al-ʿAlwān, born 1969) is a Saudi theoretician of militant jihad.[1] He is known to have memorised the 9 books of Hadith with the chain of narrations known as 'Isnaad'. At a young age, he memorised a lot of texts in different Islamic sciences alongside the explanations of these texts.[2] [3]

Fatwa

In 2000, he issued a fatwa endorsing the use of suicide bombings against Israel, and in 2001 he supported the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban.[4] Al-Alwan's mosque in Al-Qassim Province was criticised by moderate Islamic scholars as a "terrorist factory". Among his students was Abdulaziz al-Omari, one of the plane hijackers in the September 11 attacks.[5] After the September 11 attacks, Al-Alwan issued two fatwas (21 September 2001 and 19 October 2001), in which he declared that any Muslim who supported the Americans in Afghanistan was an infidel, and called on all Muslims to support the Afghans and Taliban by any means, including jihad.[4] In January 2002, Alwan and two other radical Saudi clerics, Hamoud al-Aqla al-Shuebi and Ali al-Khudair, wrote a letter to Taliban leader Mullah Omar praising him and referred to him as the Commander of the faithful.[6]

Prison

On 31 March 2003, 11 days after the start of the Iraq War, al-Alwan published an open letter in which he called on the Iraqi people to fight the American soldiers and use suicide bombings against them.[4] On 28 April 2004, Saudi authorities arrested al-Alwan[7] and after being held for 9 years without trial, he was released on 5 December 2012.[8]

In October 2013, Alwan was sentenced to a 15-year prison term; charges included questioning the legitimacy of the country's rulers.He was due to be released in 2019.[9] [10]

See also

Notes and References

  1. [Bernard Haykel]
  2. Web site: هل حرّض سليمان العلوان على قتل جنود الطوارئ بالمدينة؟. 6 July 2016. Arabi21.com. 14 December 2021.
  3. https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/17089/ISIM_18_Re-Reading_al-Qaeda_Writings_of_Yusuf_al-Ayiri.pdf?sequence=1 Re-Reading al-Qaeda Writings of Yusuf al-Ayiri
  4. http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=country&category=&publisher=THE_JF&type=&coi=IRQ&rid=&docid=4d6e1c982&skip=0 From 9/11 to Iraq: The Long Arm of Saudi Arabia’s Suliman al-Elwan
  5. Web site: Report of 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004. TXT. 232–3, 521. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20041020144854/http://www.decloah.com/mirrors/9-11/911_Report.txt. 2004-10-20.
  6. News: Mystery sheikh fuels Saudi jitters. David. Pallister. 15 December 2001. The Guardian. 24 May 2018.
  7. Jarret Brachman: Global jihadism Theory and practice. New York 2009, S. 64f. googlebooks
  8. Web site: Fatwa By Saudi Sheikh: Soccer Players Are Infidels. Memri.org. 10 January 2013.
  9. Web site: تمديد اعتقال الداعية السعودي سليمان العلوان رغم إتمامه حكما بالسجن 15 عاما. Alquds.co.uk. 26 November 2018. 14 December 2021.
  10. Web site: Appeals Court upholds 15-year jail sentence of 'Al-Qaeda mufti'. Arab News. 28 November 2013.