Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, whose real name is Assem ibn Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Barqawi, is a Palestinian writer and Salafi Islamist scholar. Al-Maqdisi is known for popularizing several significant themes within radical Islam, including the theological concept of Al-Wala' wal-Bara'. He is regarded as one of the earliest public Islamists to openly denounce the Saudi royal family as apostates from Islam. Al-Maqdisi posits that democracy functions as a religion in its own right and has accused Muslim advocates of democracy of apostasy. Additionally, he is recognized as the mentor of Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who served as the initial leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In 2004, a significant ideological and methodological divide emerged between al-Maqdisi and al-Zarqawi due to the latter's declaration of takfir against all Iraqi Shīʿites. Al-Maqdisi advocated for targeted killings of Shīʿites instead, to prevent al-Zarqawi's approach from becoming counterproductive.