Middle East

Julani – From Head Chopper to Head of State!

December 14, 2024

117

Abu Muhammad al Julani is the nom de guerre, the name that Julani has given himself and known to the world for approximately the last two decades

He was the leader of Jabatal Nusra (Nusra Front) and Al Qaeeda in Syria. Julani was also a leader of ISIS in Iraq and a disciple and compatriot of Abu Musab Az Zarqawi, the world’s most renowned head chopper who sowed sectarian bloodshed in Iraq and popularized head chopping as a means of political expression.

By Iqbal Suleman

When Imperialism and Zionism secretly meet in the darkness of night to copulate, it is a baby barbarian that is born. Al Qaeeda, Isis, Jabat al Nusrah and Hayat at Tahrir al Sham (HTS). These are the origins of these jihadist organizations and the ideological roots of Julani, the man who has been primed to take over the governance of Syria.

Abu Muhammad al Julani is the nom de guerre, the name that Julani has given himself and known to the world for approximately the last two decades. He was the leader of Jabatal Nusra (Nusra Front) and Al Qaeeda in Syria. Julani was also a leader of ISIS in Iraq and a disciple and compatriot of Abu Musab Az Zarqawi, the world’s most renowned head chopper who sowed sectarian bloodshed in Iraq and popularized head chopping as a means of political expression.

With his undeniable history in head chopping, bloodletting and sectarianism, Julani is now being presented to the world by the mainstream media including all leading cable networks from CNN, Sky, BBC an Al Jazeera as an Arab Mandela with CCN beaming its interview with him and presenting him as a “moderate”. The mainstream media knows the history of Syria, the dirty war that was created by western intelligence agencies who financed the jihadist groups in Syria together with other Arab governments. They are deliberately distorting this history and misleading the public mind to manufacture consent for regime change and the new regime. Today they are presenting Julani and his group as “The Syrian opposition or” Syrian rebels” not as terrorists. The T label has been deliberately extricated with passing references to his earlier involvement with “extremism “saying that he had a brief fling with Al Qaeeda? It was no brief fling unless one considers twenty years to be a fling. For two decades virtually all of his adult life, he led these Jihadist organizations that waged barbaric violence on Christians, Shias, Yazidis as well as Sunni’s who did not agree with his fascist interpretation of Islam. People were beheaded, churches were razed to the ground, priests and bishops were murdered, the throats of Shias were slit, and the mausoleums of saints who were affiliated to the family of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) were destroyed as were cultural and historical relics. Unmarried adults who engaged in consensual sex were executed. People who smoked cigarettes were whipped. Poor and working class Muslim women predominantly from Africa were sexually exploited by a system they called “jihad nikah” where they had to have sex with many of these jihadist soldiers. Yazidi women were taken as sex slaves. All this history is being whitewashed to serve the purpose of regime changes and pave the way for a Government in Syria that is pro-Western and pro-Israeli.

Consider Julanis political career. He was a member and leader of Al Qaeeda from 2003 to 2016. From 2004 to 2006, he led operations for Al Qaeeda in Iraq. From October 2006 to January 2012, he was a leader of the Islamic State in Iraq. From 2012 to 2016, he founded and led the Al Nusra Front in Syria. From 2016 till to date, he founded Tahrir Al Sham (HTS).

You only have to look up these organizations that he led and the atrocious massacres that were committed under his leadership documented by reputed human rights organizations like Amnesty International and others to know who this person is. Crucially in the year 2012 when Julani was the Al Qaeeda leader in Syria, the U.S government was undeniably financing and supporting Julani and Al Qaeeda. The Nusra Front was the Al Qaeeda branch in Syria and at this time on the 12th February 2012, Jake Sullivan, then U.S state department official sent an email to his boss Hillary Clinton which simply stated “(AQ) Al Qaeeda is on our side in Syria”. The U.S government financed these organizations to sow sectarian discord and bloodshed.

In October 2015 Julani called for attacks on Shia civilian areas and further called on former Soviet Muslims to attack Russian civilians. Julani described the Jihad as a war “between Muslims on one side and the Jews and the Crusaders on the other and finally the Shias and global superpowers on the other side” adding that this is a sectarian struggle. By his own words and actions, Julani’s ideology can be described as sectarianism on steroids.

The mainstream media knows the history of the dirty war in Syria and how the jihadists thugs from the world over were sent into Syria to create a sectarian bloodbath, militarize the popular nonviolent resistance to the government, and hijack the Syrian people’s genuine struggle for self-determination and democracy.

Bashaar al Asad was no doubt an illegitimate ruler, dictator and a despot who was responsible for war crimes against the Syrian people. He must be held to account and brought to justice and have his day at the International Criminal Court. But so must the groups like Isis, Al Nusra Front, Free Syrian Army, HTS and other military outfits who committed war crimes in Syria. Western Governments that pretend to champion democracy are not enthusiastic nor eager about elections and a democratic process in Syria, fearing that a genuine people’s government will come to power and elect a government that is hostile to Zionism and Imperialism. Julani’s HTS have recently indicated that elections will take place only after 18 months? Why wait almost two years for elections? Why not three months? Is it not because elections in three months will result in an elections that goes against Imperial interests as what occurred in Egypt with the election of Morsi? The Syrian people have a right to elect their own leaders and determine their own future as well as to be the owners of their natural resources and wealth. If there are free and fair elections without the military presence of foreign countries, the Syrian people are most likely to choose a governance of democratic socialism where all Syrians have equal rights and equal citizenship and where ethnicity, religious or tribal affiliation will not be a means of discrimination. However Israel and America have a different plan for Syria, a country to be divided along ethnic, tribal and religious lines. Wahabi Anan Wahabi, a colonel in the intelligence corps of the Israeli Defence Forces told the Times of Israel on the 9 December 2024 that “The modern nation state in the Middle East has failed, all the different communities in Syria could not live together in one national state”. He and Israel advocate for the division of Syria into confederations. According to Wahabi “This confederation would harness vested interests of foreign powers in Syria-including both Israel and Russia”. Regime change is not in pursuit of democracy or the Syrian people but rather in pursuit of the interests of the foreign governments (Israel, U.S. Turkey. Russia) occupying Syria. What the Israeli Intelligence General fails to comprehend that the failed states in the Middle East such as Libya and Iraq were directly as a result of Western military interventionism and its sectarian policy to divide and rule the Arabs.

Israeli media reports that Israel is maintaining direct communications with several Syrian rebel groups including HTS. On the day after Damascus fell, Julani addressed a crowd in the Ummayid Mosque in Syria and threatened only the Islamic Government in Iran. Iran was allied to Assad’s Syria primarily to support the resistance movements in Palestine in Lebanon. Iran used Syria as a conduit to send weapons to the resistance groups as well as its military advisors to support the resistance against the Occupation. Julani threatened Iran “This new triumph my brothers marks a new chapter in the history of the region, a history fraught with dangers that left Syria as a playground for Iranian ambitions spreading sectarianism, stirring corruption”. Julani makes it plainly clear that he is in sync with Netanyahu’s plan to change the face of the region. Julani has one enemy and one enemy only, Iran. Just like his ideological daddy Bibi Netanyahu.

Iran today does not occupy any portion of Syrian territory. Turkey, who finances HTS and Julani, does occupy Syrian Territory. Israel occupies the Golan Heights that was stolen from Syria and has further occupied more Syrian territory after the Assad Regime fell. The United States occupies Syrian territory where its vast oil reserves are located and usurped by the U.S government. Russia has military bases in Syria and occupies Syrian territory. But Julani has not said anything about the countries occupying Syrian territory and usurping the natural wealth and land. Nor is he asking Turkey, Russia, Israel or the United States to leave Syria and to respect Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. None of these occupying forces have a mandate from the Syrian people to be there. They should leave immediately as should the hundreds of thousands of jihadist mercenaries who are not Syrian citizens. But as Professor Jeffery Sachs commented on the regime change in Syria “ “This is a US, Israel, Turkey operation. It is part of Netanyahu’s long term game plan that goes on for 30 years to overthrow governments throughout the Middle East that back the Palestinian cause”. The plan is clearly to balkanize Syria and have perpetual bloodshed among the different religious, ethnic and sectarian sects. The danger is that Syria could go the way of Libya and Iraq after regime change in these countries.

The day after Damascus fell, Benjamin Netanyahu could not contain his joy nor restrain himself, and he smiled gleefully at the cameras and took credit for the fall of the Assad government. ‘This collapse is the direct result of our (Israel’s) forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran”. He said that he looked forward to friendly relations with the new rulers of Syria (Julani and his band of head choppers) and promptly directed the IDF to occupy and steal more Syrian territory. Some clownish religious zealots and celebrity muftis are presenting Julani and the HTS as the emerging liberators of Palestine who are going to save the people of Gaza. Just two days after the Syrian Regime change, Israel destroyed 80 percent of Syria’s military infrastructure and has occupied more Syrian territory in violation of international law. Julani has turned a blind eye to all of this Israeli violence on Syria and the Syrian people. It is a cold concrete fact that Julani and these jihadist groups since their inception and during more than four hundred and thirty days of genocide in Gaza have not fired a single bullet towards the Israeli Defence Forces nor hurt a single Israeli soldier, nor have they sent a single bullet to support the resistance in Gaza or Lebanon. This is also true of Turkey, the prime financier and supporter of HTS. Erdogan is a great speaker and verbalizes his support for Palestinians but has not sent a single bullet to the Resistance in Gaza. Instead, Turkey sends oil from Buka to Israel every day and has a military relationship with the Israelis.

It is insightful to have regard to the lived experience of Syrian civilians under Julani’s leadership in Idlib. Issa, a 24 year old, told Amnesty International about life under the jihadist governance:” you either agree with their social rules and policies or you disappear”. Bassel, a human rights lawyer living in Idlib under Jolani was poignant in his words to Amnesty International ‘I was happy to be free from the Syrian Government’s unjust rule but now the situation is worse. I publicly criticized Jahbat al Nusra on facebook and the next morning Jahbat al Nusra forces took me from my home”. Bassel was kept in unlawful detention for ten days and forced by Julani’s group to give up his occupation as a human rights lawyer or else have his family killed. Most Syrian civilians like Bassel, seemingly want to be liberated from both the barbarism of Assad as well as the barbarism of foreign funded jihadists like HTS and other military outfits. They want a democratic and representative civilian government.

Julani has also been given a physical makeover. He has abandoned the mantle and the robe and for the last year has adorned a shirt and a coat. He has also lost the wild beard and now has a manicured beard to maintain his external expression of piety. The words of Sixto Rodriguez come to mind: “And you try to impress with your manner of dress but a monkey in silk is a monkey no less”. Like the three-piece suit, yankee accent and expensive perfume cannot hide the stench of the genocidal blood of slaughtered babies from Netanyahu, Julani’s manicured beard and the collar cannot mask his war crimes. Julani is no doubt the man of Empire, well-groomed and nicely softly spoken with a cadenced tongue to be the regime change leader of Syria. Julani is no democrat, he is rather a baby Bibi who, if all goes according to plan is going to serve the interests of his masters, mother America and father Israel. But then again with the tendency of barbarian bastards who turn on their parents, you can never talk about future blowback and whether Julani will end up as a mother!