Mahfouz Ould al-Walid

Mahfouz Ould al-Walid محفوظ ولد الوالد
Born	1975
Nationality	Mauritania
Other names	Abu Hafs al-Mauritani Khalid al-Shanqiti Mafouz Walad al-Walid
Known for	Islamic scholar and poet affiliated with al-Qaeda until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Mahfouz Ould al-Walid (Arabic: محفوظ ولد الوالد), kunya Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, is a Mauritanian Islamic scholar and poet previously associated with al-Qaeda. A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he ran a religious school called the Institute of Islamic Studies in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from the late 1990s until the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Al-Walid was on the shura council of al-Qaeda and was the head of the sharia committee.

Along with Mustafa Hamid, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Saeed al-Masri and Saif al-Adel, al-Walid opposed the September 11 attacks two months prior to their execution. Under interrogation, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said that al-Walid had opposed any large-scale attack against the United States and wrote Bin Laden a stern letter warning against any such action, quoting the Quran.

Al-Walid fled from Afghanistan to Iran after the American invasion and was held there under house arrest from 2003 until April 2012. At that time, Iran extradited him to Mauritania, where he was held in prison until his release on July 7, 2012. He was released after renouncing his ties to al-Qaeda and condemning the September 11 attacks.

The publisher of the magazine Al-Talib (The Student), al-Walid wrote poetry that attracted the attention of Osama bin Laden, and was invited to give spiritual lectures to mujahideen at Afghan training camps. Some time in late 2000 or early 2001, bin Laden was videotaped reciting al-Walid's poem "Thoughts Over al-Aqsa Intifadah".

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