Who are you? “Abu Muhammad Al-Julani” the Jihadist or the Moderate Ahmed Hussein Al-Shara?

General

Ahmad Hussein al-Shara, often known by the pseudonym Abu Muhammad al-Julani, was born in 1982. He was born in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, to a father who worked as an economic consultant in the oil business in the 1970s and 1980s, and a mother who taught geography. He returned to Damascus with his family in 1989, when he was seven years old.

In a 2021 interview with American public broadcaster PBS, he stated that his family’s origins in Golan Heights inspired his moniker “Abu Muhammad al-Julani”. He claims that his grandfather fled the Golan Heights in 1967 (during the Six-Day War).

In Damascus, he attended primary and secondary school. After graduating from high school, he attended university in the Department of Communication. According to some stories, he began training to be a doctor before quitting after around two years. In 2003, he left school and joined extremist Islamist organizations in Iraq. He joined the Mujahideen Brigades in Mosul and declared allegiance to Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and eventually one of the founding members of the Islamic State (ISIS). Between 2004 to 2010, the Americans captured Julani and imprisoned him in the Bucha camp. He then joined the Islamic State of Iraq.

The establishment of the Al-Nusra Front and the detachment of Al-Julani from Al-Baghdadi (ISIS)

In mid-2011, Abu Muhammad al-Julani arrived from Iraq to the city of Binnish in the Idlib province in northwestern Syria, together with Abu Muhammad al-Adnani (the official spokesman of the Islamic State in Iraq at the time). They came as representatives of the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The two contacted the city’s dignitaries and told them that they had come to help in the uprising against the regime. At the end of 2011, Al-Julani and Al-Adnani established what was called the Al-Nusra Front (the Aid Front) for the Syrians – against the regime.

The Al-Nusra Front, under the command of Abu Muhammad Al-Julani, began operating in Syria against the Assad regime and its army, with the assistance they received from the Islamic State in Iraq. Al-Julani received significant support as the leader of a strong and cohesive faction against the Syrian regime.

Jabhat al-Nusra remained affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, until the latter decided in 2013 to merge the two organizations into a new entity called the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which would later be called ISIS. Al-Julani announced in an audio recording that he had pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri and had completely detachedfrom ISIS.

Since al-Julani’s separation from ISIS, the differences between the two organizations have increased, and they have waged conflicts in more than one area. The influence of the Al-Nusra Front has increased, and the organization is considered a very cohesive and strong organization.

In 2013, the U.S. State Department designated Abu Muhammad al-Julani a global terrorist, offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest, and designated Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist organization.

Al-Julani’s detachment from Al-Zawahiri (Al-Qaeda), the change of the organization’s name (twice) and moderation (?)

In a surprising decision in July 2016, Al-Julani announced his organization’s disengagement from Al-Qaeda, changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, and said in his first public appearance in front of the cameras, after remaining a mysterious and hidden figure for years, that the decision stemmed from “not giving excuses to the international community, led by America and Russia, to bomb and uproot all Muslims in the Levant under the pretext of harming the Al-Nusra Front, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda.”

In 2017, the organization tried to merge several opposition factions under a new name, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. However, the factions quickly withdrew, leading Al-Julani’s main organization to adopt the new name and expand to northwestern Syria, particularly in the city of Idlib. There, he successfully excluded and expelled various factions of the Syrian opposition, including battalions affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, the Syrian Revolutionary Front, and even the Islamic State itself. He also expelled militant factions such as Jund al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Soldiers), an arm of the Al-Nusra Front, and Hurras al-Din (Guardian of Religion), which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Thus, Al-Julani controlled several areas and imposed himself as one of the strongest parties to the conflict in Syria.

 Since taking control of Idlib, Abu Muhammad al-Julani has gradually and rapidly begun to change his harsh policy. He abolished the committees for the promotion of integrity and the prevention of corruption, which used to interfere in citizens’ affairs. He has also made an appeal to Western public opinion. Therefore, he gave several interviews to Western newspapers, in which he expressed his openness to change.

Recall that during Al-Julani’s inaugural media appearance in 2013 with Al-Jazeera, he positioned himself with his back to the camera, obscured by a black cover concealing his head and face. He advocated for the formation of a government in Syria based on Islamic law. Approximately eight years later, he participated in an interview for PBS’s “Frontline” show, appearing on camera with a shirt and jacket. He asserted at the time that it was unjust to categorize him as a terrorist and that he condemned the murder of innocents, emphasizing that his group had never endangered the West.

Those who met Abu Muhammad al-Julani at the time described his controversial personality as ambitious and rigorous, yet dynamic and pragmatic. He managed to establish close ties with a wide range of conservative environments in the Idlib province, as well as with various personalities and factions in the province and beyond. He also upheld positive relationships with Ahrar al-Sham-led Islamist organizations, referring to their members as ” His Brother in Idea.”

Al-Nusra Front’s Activity in Southern Syria

The southern Syrian region occupied a central place in the context of the civil war due to its strategic importance. The Jaysh al-Fatah (Liberation Army) established an operations room in 2015, serving as a coordination headquarters for Sunni jihadist terrorist organizations. The Al-Nusra Front, under the leadership of Abu Muhammad Al-Julani, initiated the establishment of this headquarters. Organizations such as Faylaq al-Sham (Battalion al-Sham), Akhrar al-Sham (Freedom of Al-Sham), and other small jihadist groups later joined it.

The Al-Nusra Front maintained a notably vigorous and influential presence in the Deraa Province, with its operations subsequently extending into the Quneitra Province and the Al-Ghouta region. At its peak, the organization boasted approximately 2,400 fighters; however, after violent confrontations with the Syrian regime and its supporters, only about 700 activists, mostly from Deraa, remained. 

In the summer of 2016, most of the Al-Nusra Front’s operatives moved from the Deraa Province to northwestern Syria to Idlib as part of a secret agreement with the Syrian regime. Following the relocation, a small group of Al-Nusra Front operatives chose to stay in their communities in southern Syria.

From the Idlib Enclave Rescue Government to the Syrian Salvation Government after the Fall of Assad

In November 2017, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) established the “Salvation Government” in Idlib. Simultaneously to its buildup of its military power, the organization ran a kind of state for all intents and purposes in the areas under its control, dealing with education, health, internal security, and public services.

With the start of the major offensive against the Syrian regime on November 27, 2024, and the entry of the rebels into the city of Aleppo, Al-Julani appeared in a video in which he handed out orders over the phone, reminded the fighters of the instructions to protect people and avoid entering homes, conveying messages of reassurance to minorities in Syria who fear the armed groups. In another statement, he also called on the Alawite community (the Assad family’s sect) in Syria to distance themselves from the government and be part of the “future Syria” that “does not recognize sectarianism.”

In a message to Christians after the takeover of Aleppo, Al-Julani said that “they are safe and their property is protected,” urging them to stay in their homes, rejecting the “psychological warfare” and intimidation waged by the Syrian regime.

It should be noted that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, in contrast to its previous approach, adopted the slogans of the Syrian civilian opposition, whether by adopting the Syrian flag of independence as its flag or by using symbols on the uniforms of its members.

In recent days, al-Julani has begun publishing statements signed under his real name, Ahmed al-Shara, as part of attempts to show that he has “stripped” his previous persona as leader of a militant organization and has begun to lean more and more toward a “Syrian national project.”

In an interview Al-Julani gave to CNN in an unknown location in Syria on December 07

Al-Julani spoke of plans to establish an institutionalized government and “a council to be elected by the people.” During the interview, Al-Julani sought to reassure the minorities and non-Muslim sects in Syria, stressing that they will live in peace and security under the rule of the opposition factions, saying, “No one has the right to erase another sect or religion, because these sects of religion have coexisted in the region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.”

Al-Julani stressed that Syria deserves a system of government based on institutions and not on individual rule, referring to Assad, adding, “We are talking about a bigger project, we are talking about building Syria.”

However, there are those who doubt these intentions and statements. Those who are skeptical believe that the flexibility and aspiration for change are nothing more than a ploy by which Al-Julani seeks to present himself and his organization as a party acceptable to the international community and regional powers, and on the other hand, to gain the affection and faith of the diverse Syrian society on its religious, ethnic, and ethnic spectrum.

Time will tell…