Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (Arabic: أبو محمد المقدسي, romanized: ʾAbū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī; born 1959), or more fully Abu Muhammad Assem al-Maqdisi (Arabic: أبو محمد عاصم المقدسي, romanized: ʾAbū Muḥammad ʿIṣām al-Maqdisī), is the assumed name of Assem ibn Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Barqawi (Arabic: عاصم بن محمد بن طاهر البرقاوي, romanized: ʿIṣām Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Barqāwī), an Islamist Jordanian-Palestinian writer. A Salafi jihadi ideologue, he has popularized many of the most common themes of radical Islam today, like the theological impetus given to the notion of Al Wala' Wal Bara', being the first to declare the Saudi royal family to be apostates or considering democracy a religion, and thus whoever believes in it to be an apostate,^[2] but he is best known as the spiritual mentor of Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the initial leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.^[3] However, an ideological and methodical split emerged between Maqdisi and Zarqawi in 2004 due to Zarqawi's takfeer proclamations towards all the Shia populations in Iraq. Maqdisi opted for a more cautious approach towards targeted Shia killings, attempting to stop Zarqawi's radical ideological movement before Zarqawi's methods become counter-productive.^[4]

The writings of Maqdisi still have a wide following; a study^[5] carried out by the Combating Terrorism Center of the United States Military Academy (USMA) concluded that Maqdisi "is the most influential living Jihadi Theorist" and that "by all measures, Maqdisi is the key contemporary ideologue in the Jihadi intellectual universe". The Tawhed jihadist website, which he owns,^[5] continues to operate; the USMA report describes it as "al-Qa`ida's main online library".