Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi
| Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi أبو محمد المقدسي |
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| Born |
Essam Muhammad Tahir al-Barqawi 1959 (age 57–58) Nablus, West Bank (then occupied by Jordan) |
| Nationality | Jordanian |
| Ethnicity | Arab (Utaybi) |
| Era | Modern |
| Occupation | Cleric |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Salafi |
| Main interest(s) | Preaching militant Islam and opposing any form of democracy |
| Alma mater | University of Mosul |
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Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (Arabic: أبو محمد المقدسي), or more fully Abu Muhammad Essam al-Maqdisi (أبو محمد عصام المقدسي), is the assumed name of Essam Muhammad Tahir al-Barqawi (عصام محمد طاهر البرقاوي), an Islamist Jordanian-Palestinian writer. He is best known as the spiritual mentor of Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the initial leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, an ideological and methodical split emerged between Maqdisi and Zarqawi in 2004 due to Zarqawi's takfeer proclamations towards 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.
The writings of Maqdisi still have a wide following; a study 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, continues to operate; the USMA report describes it as "al-Qa`ida's main online library".
Maqdisi was born in 1959 in the city of Nablus, West Bank. At a young age his family emigrated to Kuwait. He later studied at the University of Mosul in Iraq. It was during this time he began to take on an Islamist world view.
He began to travel around Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in order to visit with numerous religious students and sheikhs. However he came to believe that many of these religious figures were ignorant of the true state of affairs in the Muslim world. He then began to study the writings of the controversial medieval philosopher Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn Qayyim. While in Medinah he read the writings of the founder of the Wahabi sect Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and was strongly influenced by them.
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