Nasir al-Fahd

Nasir al-Fahd (Arabic: ناصر الفهد‎, also known as Nasir bin Hamad al-Fahd al-Humayyin) is an influential Saudi Arabian Salafi Jihadist[1] cleric and scholar. He was arrested in 2003.

Biography

Nasir al-Fahd was born in Riyadh in 1968 to a religious Saudi family. He studied at Imam University’s College of Shari’a in Riyadh and in 1992, he was appointed as a dean at Umm al-Qura University.[2] He was arrested in 1994 after writing a poem deriding the “loose morals” of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud’s wife. Following his release in 1997, he became closely linked to the Buraydah-based “al-Shu’aybi school”, named after the strict cleric Hamoud al-Aqla al-Shuebi.[2]

al-Fahd and other clerics associated with this school, such as Ali al-Khudair and Sulaiman Al-Alwan, became influential among Jihadists because they condemned the Saudi state and provided clerical backing for many extreme stances. al-Fahd wrote in support of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban,[3] wrote that any Muslim who aided the American war effort in any manner in Afghanistan or Iraq was an infidel,[2] and in a notorious 2003 Fatwa, al-Fahd endorsed the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) as an act of retaliation for the deaths of millions of Muslims in various global conflicts.[4]

al-Fahd was arrested in May 2003 in Saudi Arabia following the suicide bombings of residential compounds in Riyadh that killed 34 people. In a November 2003 interview on Saudi television, al-Fahd withdrew several of his militant fatwas, describing them as "a grave mistake".[5] Al-Fahd later denounced this televised appearance, stating that he still considered the Saudi state an apostate regime and endorsed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.[2] On 16 November 2012, a fatwa was posted online attributed to Al-Fahd, where he ruled that the Jews were the greatest enemies of Islam and that Jihad against them anywhere in the world is an important duty.[6]

On 25 August 2015, it was reported that Nasir al-Fahd had pledged his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, and advised other Muslims to join the Islamic State and pledge allegiance.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Scheuer, Michael (2011-01-20). Osama Bin Laden. Oxford University Press. p. 247. ISBN 9780199753277.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Saudi Arabia’s Jihadi Jailbird: A Portrait of al-Shu’aybi Ideologue Nasir al-Fahd". Intelligence Quarterly. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism Since 1979 Thomas Hegghammer, 2010. pg95
  4. ↑ "Al Qaeda's Nuclear Ambitions". Foreign Policy. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Sheikh Nasser Ibn Hamad al-Fahd withdraws several fatwas ...", Ain al-Yaqeen, November 28, 2003
  6. ↑ "Saudi Mujahid Sheikh: Jihad Against The Cursed Jews Everywhere Is A Supreme Duty". MEMRI. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  7. ↑ Johnson, Bridget. "Saudi Cleric Who Issued Fatwa on WMD Permissibility Pledges Allegiance to ISIS". PJ Media. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
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