Muhammad Zahab

Last updated
Muhammad Zahab
Died2018
Daesh
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)mathematics teacher, jihadi fighter
Known forRose to a leadership role in Daesh

Muhammad Zahab (died 2018) was an Australian math teacher who recruited many of his relatives, friends and acquaintances to join him in Daesh occupied Syria. [1] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation public affairs show Four Corners reported he recruited his wife, parents, his two brothers, his sister, three cousins, four in-laws, and their children. [2]

Four Corners reported that Zahab rose to a leadership role in Daesh. [2] Australian security officials considered him the most senior member of the Daesh leadership from Australia. [3]

Zahab married his first wife Mariam Raad, in Australia. [2] He married a second wife, Zahra Ahmad, after he arrived in Syria. [4] Ahmad, came from another family which traveled to Daesh territory.

He was killed by an Iraqi air strike in 2018. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State</span> Salafi jihadist militant Islamist group

The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and a former unrecognised quasi-state. Its origins were in the Jai'sh al-Taifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, which fought alongside al-Qaeda during the Iraqi insurgency. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. By the end of 2015, it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi</span> Amir al-Muminin of the Islamic State from 2013 to 2019

Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, commonly known by his nom de guerreAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant who was the first caliph of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 until his death in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Khansaa Brigade</span> All-female police unit in Islamic State (2014-2017)

The Al-Khansaa Brigade was an all-women police or religious enforcement unit of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), operating in its de facto capital of Raqqa and Mosul.

The ideology of the Islamic State, sometimes called Islamic Statism, has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, the Islamic State defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Bayan (radio station)</span> Radio station

Al-Bayan was the Islamic State's official radio station, based in Iraq, owned and operated by the Islamic State, which broadcast at 92.5 on the FM dial. The station aired a news-talk format and broadcasts in the Arabic, Kurdish, English, French, and Russian languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State – Khorasan Province</span> Islamic State branch in Central and South Asia

The Islamic State – Khorasan Province is a regional branch of the Salafi jihadist group Islamic State (IS) active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan and Pakistan. ISIS–K seeks to destabilize and replace current governments within historic Khorasan region with the goal of establishing a caliphate across South and Central Asia, governed under a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, which they plan to expand beyond the region.

The name of the Islamic State has been contentious since 2013. In Arabic, the group called itself al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-`Irāq wa al-Shām, which it adopted in April 2013. The literal translation of its previous name resulted in confusion, resulting in both ISIS and ISIL, two acronyms based on different literal translations of the name into English. Apart from these, an Arabic-derived acronym, "Daesh", Da'ish or Dā`iš (داعش), which is also the common name for the group beyond the Arabic-speaking parts of the world. Finally, the group's current name caused controversy due to its English translation as Islamic State and as a result, both the previous acronyms are still widely used, or a qualifier is often added to the IS name, such as "Islamic State militant group", "Islamic State extremist group", "Islamic State terrorist group", "self-styled Islamic State" or "so-called Islamic State".

Khaled Sharrouf was a Jihadist who in 2013 travelled to Syrian territory to fight in the Syrian Civil War on the side of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Born in Sydney, Australia, in 2017 he was the first Australian dual-national to have his Australian citizenship revoked under anti-terror legislation passed in 2015. In 2014, he posted an image to the Internet showing his seven-year-old son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier, an act that was widely condemned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Syria insurgency</span> Armed insurgency

The Eastern Syria insurgency is an armed insurgency being waged by remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and both pro and anti-Syrian government Arab nationalist insurgents, against the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), its military, and their allies in the US-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) coalition.

Beginning in 2012, dozens of girls and women traveled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State (IS), becoming brides of Islamic State fighters. While some traveled willingly, others were brought to Iraq and Syria as minors by their parents or family or forcefully.

Zehra Duman is an Australian-born Turkish woman who travelled to Daesh territory where she married a jihadi fighter. Born in Melbourne, Duman is reported to have been a friend of Tara Nettleton and Khaled Sharrouf, who travelled from Australia to Daesh territory, with their five children, in 2014. Duman's online recruiting activities have been the subject of scholarly attention.

Kimberly Gwen Polman is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, who travelled to ISIS occupied territory in 2015, and married an Islamic militant she had befriended online. In 2019, after she surrendered to forces allied to the United States, Polman told reporters she deeply regretted her actions.

Sharmeena Begum is a jihadi bride who left the United Kingdom to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December 2014. Two months later, in February 2015, her school friends Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, and Kadiza Sultana joined her in occupied Syria. Begum is one of the youngest British teenagers to join ISIL.

Lisa Smith is a former Irish soldier who converted to Islam and later travelled to Syria during the Syrian Civil War to join the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) during the Syrian Civil War. Born in Dundalk, she was a member of the Irish Army before transferring to the Irish Air Corps in 2011, but quit following her conversion to Islam. In 2015, following the breakdown of her marriage, she travelled to Syria to join ISIS. In 2019, she was captured and detained by the US forces in northern Syria. She was sentenced at the Irish Special Criminal Court on 22 July 2022 to 15 months in prison following her conviction on 30 May of membership of Daesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Hawl refugee camp</span> Refugee camp in Syria

The al-Hawl refugee camp is a refugee camp on the southern outskirts of the town of al-Hawl in northern Syria, close to the Syria-Iraq border, which holds individuals displaced from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The camp is nominally controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but according to the U.S. Government, much of the camp is run by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant who use the camp for indoctrination and recruitment purposes.

Celso Rodrigues Da Costa was born in Portugal, and travelled to the United Kingdom, where he was converted to a militant form of Islam, and travelled to Daesh occupied Syria to volunteer to be a jihadi fighter.

Mariam Dabboussy is an Australian woman who lived in Daesh controlled Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazimism</span> Salafi-Jihadist trend supporting the doctrine of Takfir al-adhir

Hazimism, also referred to as the Hazimi movement or known as the hazimiyyah or Hazimi current, was an extremist current within the Ideology of Islamic State. The movement was based on the doctrines of the Saudi-born Muslim scholar Ahmad ibn Umar al-Hazimi, which was adopted by many Tunisian recruits in IS. Hazimis believe that those who do not unconditionally excommunicate (takfir) unbelievers are themselves unbelievers, which opponents argue leads to an unending chain of takfir." Its spread within ISIS triggered prolonged ideological conflict within the group, pitting its followers against the moderate faction led by Turki al-Binali. The movement was eventually branded as extremist by ISIS, who initiated a crackdown on its followers.

Suzanne Dredge is an Australian Walkley Award-winning journalist.

References

  1. Livia Albeck-Ripka (2019-10-21). "Desperate Pleas to Free Women and Children From ISIS Camps in Syria". The New York Times . p. A8. Retrieved 2020-07-22. While many women from around the world joined the terrorist group of their own accord, the families of all the Australian women in Al-Hol say they were coerced by husbands and other family members. Many say they are related by blood or marriage to Muhammad Zahab, a Sydney teacher turned Islamic State fighter, who they say delivered them to Syria.
  2. 1 2 3 Dylan Welch; Suzanne Dredge; Naomi Selvaratnam (2019-09-30). "Married to Islamic State: The untold stories of the women Australia doesn't want back". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 2020-07-22. Mariam Dabboussy is risking her safety to reveal how her brother-in-law Muhammad Zahab delivered her and her baby into the grip of the Islamic State (IS) group.
  3. Giovanni Torre (2020-02-29). "'They told me she was coerced': says Australian dad fighting to bring his daughter home from ISIS". The National (Abu Dhabi) . Retrieved 2020-07-23. Today, Mariam is one of 19 Australian women and 47 children being held in Al Hol camp in northern Syria. Eleven of them are believed to be related to Muhammad Zahab by blood or marriage.
  4. 1 2 Nino Bucci; Suzanne Dredge (2019-10-19). "How 12 Australian family members ended up detained in Syria after the fall of Islamic State". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 2020-07-23. Among these men is notorious Islamic State recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who took the couple's eldest daughter Zahra as a second wife.