May 11, 2016

On April 24, 2013, Saudi national Omar al-Muhaysini was killed in Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, alongside his fellow countryman Abdul Aziz al-Othman, aka Abu Omar al-Jazrawi, who is said to be the first Saudi national to join al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra. Muhaysini, the younger brother of Sheikh Mohammad al-Muhaysini, a leading Saudi cleric and the former head of the country’s powerful Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, was allegedly assassinated by the Islamic State (IS) along with Jazrawi.

A few months later, Omar Muhaysini’s nephew Abdullah Muhaysini, a renowned young cleric, announced that he was headed to Syria, leaving behind his family in Mecca. The nephew said he came to Syria to bridge the gap between IS and other factions. In an interview with the Swiss Islamic Central Council, he said, “I was an admirer of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq, and I thought they were victims of lies.” He said he decided to travel to Syria despite the travel ban imposed on him by the Saudi authorities. “They impose travel bans to prevent those who support the mujahedeen on the path of Allah from going to Syria.”

Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, Muhaysini has taken part in several campaigns aimed at raising funds to help jihadi groups and victims of the war. His sermons in Mecca were dedicated partially to Syria. Yet it might be that the death of his young uncle was a main reason behind his decision to migrate to Syria to join the fight there.

In Syria, Muhaysini presented himself as a mediator between factions. He asked to meet IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but was granted permission instead to meet the caliph’s (now deceased) No. 2, Abu Ali al-Anbari. Muhaysini suggested that differences between the factions that are fighting to topple Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad should have a religious court to rule among them so that they won’t fight each other. In a few months, Muhaysini took sides and became hostile to IS and sided with Jabhat al-Nusra and its allies — yet he was conscious about not calling himself a member of any faction. He started appearing in videos calling on Muslims to join the fight against the Syrian government at a time when his opponents started questioning the real role he was playing in Syria, with his launching a war of words on IS as well as other factions.

It was not until March 2015 that the young Saudi preacher found himself a suitable position in the hierarchy of the Syrian revolution’s factions. He founded Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, that brought together around nine factions, including Jabhat al-Nusra. Muhaysini became the general judge of the new coalition that fought several decisive battles in Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Daraa, Quneitra and Qalamoun, appearing in several videos from the field, giving fiery speeches and taking part in the battles, such as in Tel al-Ais where he was injured for the fourth time since his arrival in Syria. His popularity was growing to the extent that an Iranian official told Al-Monitor for an April article, “I can see a new bin Laden being created. He’s also Saudi, and he’s now being treated as a rebel: Abdullah al-Muhaysini. It’s really strange how history repeats itself.”