Abdallah Yusuf Azzam

Sheikh Abdallah Yusuf Azzam ( Arabic عبدالله يوسف عزام, DMG ʿAbdallāh Yūsuf ʿAzzām ; * November 14, 1941 in Silat al-Harithiyya , Palestine , in what is now the West Bank ; † November 24, 1989 in Peshawar ) was a Palestinian Islamist ideologue, thought leader of al-Qaeda and mentor of Osama bin Laden . He is considered the father of Islamic jihad in its modern form and was one of the central figures in the financing and organization of the Afghan resistance in the 1980s.

Life

Early years in Jordan and Egypt

Azzam was born on November 14, 1941 in the village of Silat al-Harithiyya near Jenin in the West Bank . He probably joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the mid-1950s . He studied in Damascus (graduated in theology in 1966), where he was the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1965 he married a Palestinian woman whose family fled to the West Bank in 1948 after the founding of Israel. After the Six Day War in 1967, Azzam had to go to Jordan with his family, from where he took part in the armed resistance against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for about a year and a half, but his parents did not approve of this.

In the autumn of 1968 he enrolled at al-Azhar University in Cairo , where he passed an exam in Islamic law a year later . In early 1970 he became a lecturer at the University of Jordan in Amman , a year later he returned to al-Azhar University on a doctoral scholarship, where he obtained a doctorate in Islamic law in 1973. During this time in Cairo he came into contact with the family of the Islamist theorist Sayyid Qutb and probably also with the “blind sheikh” Umar Abd ar-Rahman .

He continued teaching on Shia at Amman University . In 1975 he became one of five councilors for the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood . With his radical Islamic views he came into conflict with the Jordanian authorities, lost his post at Amman University and was expelled in the fall of 1980. He then moved to Mecca to teach at King Abdul Aziz University . There he met Muhammad Qutb , Sayyid Qutb's brother . At the same time the idea matured in him that only an armed jihad could be successful.

Moved to Pakistan

That is why he decided as one of the first Arabs to take part in the fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan after its invasion in 1979 . In 1981 he moved to Islamabad , where he met with the leaders of the Afghan liberation struggle and temporarily taught at the International Islamic University . The first efforts to support the Afghan jihad were not very fruitful. In 1982 he began publishing articles in the Kuwaiti journal al-Mujtamaʿ , in which he spoke of the divine benefits to be given to the martyrs of Afghan jihad , followed by an invitation to young Arabs to "join the caravan."

In 1984 Azzam's work The Defense of Muslim Countries was published as the highest personal duty , which he proclaimed as a fatwa . He took up an idea that had already been formulated, and also applied it to external enemies and not just, as happened before, to internal, that is, governments in his own country. Jihad was internationalized in this way, even if it did not yet extend to foreign territories. Azzam strengthened the ideas of pan-Islamism and Islamic territories, which should be defended in the name of Islam. In Saudi Arabia, however, there was also criticism of his writing. Safar al-Hawālī, an important representative of the Sahwa movement, responded with a lecture on the understanding of jihad , in which he expressed that not jihad, but tawheed , the belief in one God, is the most important individual duty.

Jihadist activism in Peshawar

To be closer to the action, Azzam moved to Peshawar in October 1984 , where he and his protégé Osama bin Laden founded an “Bureau for Mujahideen Services” ( Maktab al-Hadamat ) to support mujahidun from all over the world for jihad in Afghanistan recruit and train. The liberation of Palestine also remained a distant goal of Azzam. Guest houses and training camps were attached to the office. Azzam went to fight in Afghanistan himself and took bin Laden there with him. But his real domain was writing. ʿAzzām launched a magazine called al-Jihad in December 1984 , which was distributed from Peshawar for several years. Published monthly, it contained news from the front and ideological texts, which were then reprinted in Arabic brochures and in some cases also translated into other Islamic languages ​​and into English. At the same time he traveled all over the world to promote the Afghan cause. Among other things, he founded a branch of the office in the USA.

Azzam's advertising was a great success: with money from Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabia and the CIA (via the Pakistani secret service ISI ), an estimated several thousand to 20,000 mujahideen from 20 countries were recruited, especially from 1986 onwards. Above all, bin Laden trained independent Arab combat groups that had been trained in their own camps since 1984. Over the years a kind of Islamist international of Arab fighters and activists emerged.

Nevertheless, Azzam was not without controversy in the jihad movement. The clearest expression of this is his dispute with the head of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood in the mid-1980s, which even led to Azzam's expulsion from the brotherhood. He was accused of neglecting the fight in Afghanistan as the actually “central concern of Islam” in Palestine. However, Azzam was involved in the founding of the Palestinian Hamas in 1987, and in his writings he names Afghanistan and Palestine as well as countries such as Chad, Eritrea, Somalia, the Philippines, Burma and South Yemen.

As for fighting tactics, Azzam opposed the concept of the revolutionary avant-garde taking power through a coup d'état. Instead, he relied on the formation of a “solid base” ( al-Qāʿida as-sulba ) of long-time tried and ideologically trained fighters, which he called for in April 1988 in the journal al-Jihad . A meeting for this purpose that took place shortly afterwards, however, was chaired by bin Laden and marked his turning away from Azzam.

In 1989 Azzam died from a bomb in Peshawar . The culprit is unclear, suspected are the CIA , the Mossad , Osama bin Laden , Aiman ​​az-Zawahiri , Afghan mujahedeen and the ISI .

Azzam has authored over 100 books and articles. After his death, his works were distributed by the London-based publishing house Azzam Publications . Abu Musab az-Zarqawi and Mullah Krekar were also influenced by Azzam .

Theories about the death of Abdallah Azzam

Various perpetrators are possible to have murdered Azzam. The most common assumption is that Osama bin Laden ordered the assassination of Azzam. According to sources, a dispute arose between Azzam and bin Laden over the future of Arab fighters in Afghanistan, among many other differences. A second theory is based on Aiman ​​az-Zawahiri as the mastermind behind the attack, with which Azzam had also fallen out. According to the third theory, Azzam fell victim to rival Afghan tribal troops who sought to prevent Azzam from interfering in their affairs. Other theories accuse the Pakistani secret service ISI, the American CIA , and the Israeli Mossad .

Ideology and meaning

According to the Norwegian terrorism researcher Thomas Hegghammer , Abdallah Azzam's legacy has three important dimensions:

1. Political dimension: Azzam was a central force in the expansion of the Afghan jihad from a regional conflict to a global conflict in the 1980s.
2. Organizational dimension: Azzam's involvement in the Afghan resistance, the opening of foreign sources of money and the recruitment of thousands of Arabs for the Afghanistan resistance earned him the name "father of the Arab Afghans".
3. Ideological dimension: Azzam is widely regarded as the first theoretician of global jihad.

Jihad theory

Abdallah Azzam developed a two-part jihad theory that he used to portray the armed struggle in Afghanistan and Palestine as a religious duty. On the one hand, he developed a general jihad concept in which armed jihad is interpreted as divinely commanded. On the other hand, his theory includes a typology. In it, Azzam differentiates between an offensive jihad, which is collectively binding, and a defensive jihad, which is individually binding.

Azzam's views on defensive jihad are central to justifying jihadist terrorism: Participation in defensive jihad is individually mandatory as soon as an Islamic country is attacked. From this point on, every Muslim worldwide has a fundamental duty to defend or recapture the country. Should the Muslims of the attacked territory not be able to defend their country on their own, then all other Muslims would gradually be called upon to repel the attack.

Azzam applied these theoretical considerations to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Palestine at the time. The fight there is the individual duty of every Muslim, since it is a defensive jihad. The long-term goal of this defensive struggle is ultimately the recapture of all formerly Muslim-ruled areas.

Ideology about Islam and politics

Azzam reinterpreted the concept of jihad: Instead of fighting the enemy within, it was now time to fight the enemy outside, an external threat, a non-Muslim power that occupied and oppressed Muslim lands as in Afghanistan (and Palestine). This represents a departure from the doctrine of the Egyptian radicals, which was prevalent until then, which viewed jihad primarily as a means against the oppression of a people by a Muslim ruler.

Azzam's Islamism was also more territorial than any other form of Islamism. He did not see jihad as a means to liberate a political system, a state, but rather Muslim soil wherever it is. His theories thus found widespread support in trouble spots such as Bosnia, Chechnya and the Palestinian territories in the 1990s. He also emphasized the idea of ​​understanding political successes as a result of small revolutionary groups instead of large-scale military successes - an important ideological prerequisite for the birth of numerous extremist groups and terrorist organizations that rely on precisely this tactic of small but effective guerrilla or terrorism -Fight set.

Azzam was also a strong advocate of pan-Islamism. He is thus regarded as the mastermind of those international Islamist organizations that formed during the 1990s - before his ideology, most radical Islamist groups were more nationalist.

Azzam and International Terrorism

With his ideology of the glorification of the martyr's death, Azzam made a strong contribution to the development of the martyr cult that led to the suicide bombings in the 1980s and 1990s. Still, Azzam never spoke out in favor of launching attacks against the area of ​​distant enemies. He did not call for a worldwide uprising against undefined "enemies of Islam". It can therefore be assumed that Abdallah Azzam was radical in many of his views, but cannot be considered the real spiritual father of today's terrorist organizations.

Significance for the Afghanistan war 1985–1989

“No other person (played) a more important role than Abdallah Azzam in efforts to pool the support of the Muslim world for the Afghan cause. His systematic efforts to make propaganda, to collect money and to establish networks, contributed significantly to the internationalization of a conflict that otherwise would have remained only a regional dispute on the fringes of the Muslim world. "

Significance for the Middle East conflict

Azzam's theories were of great importance and influence in his homeland, the Palestinian Territories: “It can be said that his writings there contributed to the redefinition of the Middle East conflict. In the eyes of many, the Palestinians were not waging a nationalist struggle for their own state, but a bitter struggle for Muslim soil. "

Azzam on the Middle East conflict:

“The Palestinian problem can only be solved through jihad. (...) Jihad and the gun, that is all. No negotiation, no conference, no dialogue. "

Publications

In total, ʿAzzām has published more than a hundred books, articles and lectures recorded on audio cassettes . The following are particularly well known:

• al-Qāʿida aṣ-ṣulba ("The solid base"), article in his journal al-Jihad an article in which he developed the idea of al-Qaeda as an Islamist avant-garde.
• ʿUššāq al-ḥūr ("The lovers of the virgins of paradise")
• The Defense of Muslim Lands . (The defense of Islamic countries, a supreme personal duty. Fatwa.) 1984 Translation into English by followers of Azzam
• Join the caravan! (Follow the caravan!) 1987 In English. Accessed January 16, 2015 .

literature

• Jean-Charles Brisard: The New Face of Al-Qaida. Zarqawi and the escalation of violence. Propylaea, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-549-07266-X .
• Abdelasiem El Difraoui: Al-Qaida par l'image. La prophétie du martyre . Presses universitaires de France, Paris, 2013. pp. 38–42.
• Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. In: Gilles Kepel , Jean-Pierre Milelli (eds.): Al-Qaida. Texts of Terror. Piper, Munich et al. 2006, ISBN 3-492-04912-5 , pp. 145-173.
• Andreas Hubertus: God's deadly tools. Characteristics of terrorist theology in Christianity and Islam , writings on extremism and terrorism research, Volume 12 , Brühl 2018, ISBN 978-3-938407-90-5 , pp. 200–247.
• Stéphane Lacroix: Awakening Islam. The politics of religious dissent in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 2011, ISBN 978-0-674-04964-2 , pp. 110-114.
• Thomas J. Moser: Politics on God's path. On the genesis and transformation of militant Sunni Islamism. Innsbruck University Press, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-902811-67-7 , pp. 111-120.
• Michael Pohly, Khalid Durán: Osama bin Laden and international terrorism (= Ullstein. 36346). Ullstein, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-548-36346-6 .
• Berndt Georg Thamm : Al-Qaida. The network of terror. Diederichs, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7205-2636-4 .

Web links

• Biography ( Memento from March 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English; archive version from March 29, 2008)
• Voices of jihad , pp. 66 ff. Summary, in English; with quotes

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: The Caravan. Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020, ISBN 978-0-521-76595-4 , pp. 11 , doi : 10.1017 / 9781139049375 (English, limited preview in Google book search).
2. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. In: Gilles Kepel, Jean-Pierre Milelli (eds.): Al-Qaida. Texts of Terror. Piper, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-492-04912-5 , pp. 164-170.
3. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 151.
4. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 152 f.
5. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: The Caravan. Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad. Cambridge 2020, p. 100–107 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
6. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: The Caravan. Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad. Cambridge 2020, p. 116–117 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
7. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 157.
8. ↑ See Lacroix 110.
9. ↑ See Lacroix 111.
10. ↑ See Lacroix 113.
11. ↑ Cf. Patrick Franke : Return of the Holy War? Jihad theories in modern Islam. In: André Stanisavljevic, Ralf Zwengel (ed.): Religion and violence. Islam after September 11th. Mostar Friedensprojekt eV, Potsdam 2002, ISBN 3-00-009936-0 , pp. 47–68, here p. 62.
12. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 164.
13. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 165.
14. ↑ Andreas Hubertus: Deadly tools of God. Features of terrorist theology in Christianity and Islam . Brühl 2018, ISBN 978-3-938407-90-5 , pp. 208-221 .
15. ↑ Andreas Hubertus: Deadly tools of God. Features of terrorist theology in Christianity and Islam . Brühl 2018, ISBN 978-3-938407-90-5 , pp. 209 .
16. ↑ Andreas Hubertus: Deadly tools of God. Features of terrorist theology in Christianity and Islam . Brühl 2018, ISBN 978-3-938407-90-5 , pp. 219-221 .
17. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, pp. 167–168.
18. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 168.
19. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 169.
20. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 170.
21. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 165.
22. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 167.
23. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer: Introduction: Abdullah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad. Munich 2006, p. 168.
24. ↑ Cf. El Difraoui: Al-Qaida par l'image. 2013. p. 83.
25. ↑ Accessed on January 16, 2015. Compiled in print by Gilles Kepel, Jean-Pierre Milelli (Ed.): Al Qaeda in its own words. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-674-02804-3 . German version on the Internet.