Abu-Musab al-Suri was born in Aleppo, Syria in November of 1958 and is still alive today, although he is no longer able to spread his radical ideas as his whereabouts are a secret to those outside of the U.S. government agents holding him in captivity. The name Abu-Musab al-Suri is not actually the name he was given at birth, it was a name that he adopted through war; his real name is Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Setmariam Nasar. He is a Syrian jihadist who has had a great influence on the plans for Al-Qaeda to move forward after the incidents of 9/11. His ideas are the backbone of what has continued to give power to Al-Qaeda after these attacks.
It is stated that al-Suri is “the most important strategist for the Islamic jihadist movement of the last 20 years.” (Boyle, 2). Al-Suri’s ideas were predominantly used after the attacks of 9/11 however his sharing of his ideas about how Al-Qaeda should be handling certain situations goes back to long before 9/11 occurred. For example, at the end of the 1980s he offered his opinion to Osama bin Laden that Al-Qaeda was not using enough force and violence against Saudi Arabia. While many of his ideas are tied to Al-Qaeda, al-Suri gathered his opinions and concepts from multiple different “radical islamic organizations and networks” (Boyle, 2). This denies a kind of devotion to one specific group and rather accepts whatever ideas he sees fitting, regardless of their source. His ideas about furthering Al-Qaeda and how that should be done differ from those of Osama bin Laden’s, creating a competition for an active sense of leadership. After the dissolution of the taliban, al-Suri travelled to Pakistan where he was able to spread his ideas online, as well as work on the book that he wrote, expressing his notions about the future of Al-Qaeda. This book was entitled, Global Islamic Resistance Call , and it was published and shared at mass through the internet in the transitioning months from 2004 to 2005. In this book, he discreetly wrote about his belief that the force of Al-Qaeda and other organizations of the like were not strong enough to undermine the forces of the western countries which in turn explains his ideas about there being a change in Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. Prior to this book being written, al-Suri gave talks in Afghanistan which were recorded and also widely spread, to influence more people and to gain more power for him. Al-Suri was also a main suspect in the London bombings, and while it turned out that he was not directly affiliated with these attacks, his ideas helped influence the people who were behind them. After the attacks, al-Suri, himself, said; “I swear to God that I have in me a joy stronger than the joy of the farmer who sees the harvest of his fruits after a long planting and efforts and patience throughout decades of building.” This quotation reinforces the notion that he supported these forms of extreme violence and believed in the necessity of these aggressive actions against other, western, countries, therefore having faith in terrorism. Al-Suri’s objectives were essentially realized through the “islamic militants” creation of multiple groups used for different methods of attack. These methods include smaller groups positioned to perform random attacks as well as larger groups who are in constant warfare. In November of 2005, al-Suri was arrested in Pakistan, this being a very significant arrest because it was uncommon for someone who was a post 9/11 influence to be arrested, as many of the people caught by the government had ideas predating the attack in 2001. Abu-Musab al-Suri’s ideas are still being put into motion today as many of the people he personally influenced are now in power positions in numerous different islamic groups. Due to how widely his perceptions were shared and how dedicated he was to a life of terrorism he belonged to, his influence will continue to be perpetrated through his followers.
Sarah Kirkwood
Works Cited
- Boyle, Michael J. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) 84, no. 5
(2008): 1054-055. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25144948 .
- Cruickshank, Paul and Mohannad Hage Ali. 2007. “Abu Musab Al Suri: Architect of the New Al Qaeda.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30 (1): 1-14. doi:10.1080/10576100601049928. http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1057610x/v30i0001/1_amasaotnaq .
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