Bahrain Mirror: The name of Bahraini figure, Turki Al-Binali, has been mentioned in a great deal of news reports and news coverage of the advances made by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Now, he is considered one of the most prominent Muftis in the terrorist group which declared the establishment of a “caliphate”, and one of the most influential Jihadists of the new generation. He is accused of recruiting dozens of Bahraini youth and sending them to frontlines outside the country. Some of the stages of his life are as follows:

-          His name is Turki Bin Mubarak Al-Binali, nicknamed Abu Sufyan Al-Silmi (born in 1984). He lived in Al-Bousaiteen area in Al-Muharraq city. He goes with many aliases which he used on various occasions. He have revealed some of them himself, such as: Abu Sufyan Al-Silmi, Abu Hammam Al-Athri, Abu Huthayfa Mohammed Bin Abedulrahman Al-Bahraini, Abu Hazm Al-Salafi, Abulhasan Al-Azdi, Hatem Al-Moqbel, Abu Al-Fidaa, Abu Dergham and other names. He has spoken of this in his book entitled “The Filth of Sects and Cults” (Zubalat Al-Melal Wal-Nihal): “Let it be known that the use of nicknames and aliases to conceal oneself from the tyrants and oppressors is a permissible action according to Sharia (…) Thus, I used to pun when someone asked me about my real name, and say: “I am Turki Bin Mubarak Al-Binali, and my nickname is Abu Sufyan Al-Silmi,” and the truth is as I said: for this is the name my parents gave me, and this is the nickname I chose for myself.” It is noteworthy to say here that when I used these nicknames and aliases, I never had referred my origin to anyone but my father, God forbid! Once I said: “Son of Abdulrahman (Bin Abdulrahman)” and another time I said: “Son of Abdulaziz (Bin Abdulaziz)”; and all people are the servants of Allah willingly or unwillingly. Once I said: “The Bahraini (Al-Bahraini); I was indeed born and raised in Bahrain. Another time I said: “The Athri (Al-Athri)”; I follow the religious school of Al-Athar, which follows the tracks (Athar) of the companions and their followers. Other times I said: “Hatem Al-Moqbel;” Moqbel is my great grandfather, and he is one of the highborn branches of the Al-Binali clan.”

-          He attended classes that taught revising the Quran in his hometown Al-Muharraq in Bahrain and then he learned the recitation of Quran from one of the Sheikhs of Sultan Bin Salama Mosque and then attended the class of another Sheikh from Al-Janoubi Mosque in Al-Bousaiteen and Sheikh Abu Zaid as well.

-          He studied both the elementary and middle stages at Al-Iman school, which is a private religious school, and then he studied in the literary section at Al-Hidaya Highschool.

-          He moved to Dubai for higher education of Islamic and Arabic studies and lived there for a year and a half. The UAE government; however, raided his house in Sharjah, arrested him, and then deported him back to Bahrain. So he was compelled to study at Imam Al-Ouza’i School in Beirut until graduation. He also studied at the Bahrain Institute for Religious Studies until graduation.

-          He was taught at the hands of a number of Sheikhs, namely Sheikh Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jebreen, Sheikh Abu Mohammed Al-Maqdesi, Sheikh Safaa Al-Dawi Al-Adawi, Sheikh Amer Sabri Al-Tamimi and Sheikh Omar Bin Masoud Al-Hadoushi.

-          Some of his publications, which are brief booklets, include: “Booklet about some characteristics of Aisha”, “Reproaching those who do not speak according to the Book”, “Beauty of growing beards”, “Water of Salsabeel fill the cups of followers of the way”, Words of Guidance to martyrdom operations”, “Key of undermining Taqlid”, “Journey of prominent prisoners”, “ “A Catalogue of Life”, “Raise your hands to pledge allegiance to Al-Baghdadi”,  “Obligations of joining the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”,  “The permissibility of declaring the caliphate before the achievement of full political capability”,  “Wording of Al-Adnani interpretation: The Islamic State catapult”,  “Demonstrating the arguments showing the difference between the men of the Islamic State and the Kharijites”,  “Brief statement on requesting the emirate rule”, and others.

-          He worked as an instructor at Omar Bin Abdulaziz School in the city of Al-Hala. He was; however, fired after he traveled to Yemen and met with Al-Qaeda affiliates in Abyan. He was the Imam of a mosque in Al-Muharraq Souq and the Imam of Al-Ommal Mosque, but then he was dismissed, because of the Fatwa of Sheikh Ahmad Shaker about those who advocate the infidels against the believers; which Al-Binali hung in the Fatwa section of the mosque since he was its Imam.

-          He was arrested in 2007 with a group of his companions over Takfiri (statements) made by what was known as “Al-Saqifa Cell”, referring to Saqifat of Bani Sa’eda. He was released after a series of debates, arranged by prison officials, with Salafi Sheikhs close to the Saudi religious institution, like the extremist preacher Sheikh Adnan Al-Aroor, who visited him many times during his detention and held debates with him.

-          He was banned from entering some Arab countries in previous years, such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Qatar, and others. Nonetheless, he still traveled freely from and to Bahrain until the beginning of this year 2014. He has traveled to Libya as well following the fall of Gadhafi’s regime. Many videos uploaded to YouTube shows his meetings with Jihadists in the city of Sert, where he delivered a series of lectures.  He also flew to Morocco in order to preach and to Abyan in Yemen when Al-Qaeda militants gained control over some of its regions.  He traveled to Syria at least twice since the launch of battles at the end of August 2013. His published messages in the first months of 2013, which he uses to finish with the phrase “The blessed land of the Levant.” He returned to Bahrain before announcing his final travel to the “State of the caliphate” in February 2014.

-          The jihadi ideologue Asem Al-Barqawi, known as “Abu Mohammed Al-Maqdesi”, and currently detained by Jordanian authorities, appointed him as Mufti in “The Tawhid and Jihad Platform”, which is a pro-Qaeda website, and as his successor in the “Fatwa Committee”, as he claims.

-          Al-Binali’s works reveal his extreme arrogance and excessive narcissism. According to a Jihadist in Al-Qaeda, someone going by the name Abu Obaida Al-Salafi Al-Morani used to be asked about Abu Hammam Al-Athari, who he’d praise and recommend his works. It was revealed; however, that Abu Hammam Al-Athari is Turki Al-Binali himself. He spoke of himself by saying that “One of the blessings that Allah granted me is that sometimes he is able to correct statements made by dictators and instructors, so someone said to me in this respect: “Envy is not shown in two cases. A teacher could not envy his student and a father could not envy his son.”” He also said “I narrate the Hadiths of the Messenger of Allah by more than 300 ways, thanks to Allah for this. Our Sheikh Omar Al-Hadoushi (May Allah end his detention) has talked about me by saying: If Al-Boukhari was alive, he would have him be one of his men, of the highest ranks. He also added that “One of the humorous statements made is that as I report from humans, I also report from Jinn! That is what Sheikh Diyaa Al-Hussein said when he was narrating a Hadith reported by the king of Jinn from the Prophet, and said that Al-Binali is familiar with this.” Al-Binali also said in this respect: “I granted a number of Sheikhs and students from various parts of the world all my writings, recordings, readings and books and my Sheikhs considered me to be a prominent narrator of Hadith. He also says that “the enemies of this doctrine have forbidden me to do many things; like discharging me from the service of Imama, and forbidden me to give lessons in mosques. Yet this is my voice which has crossed continents reaching different societies and being translated to other languages, despite the envy of every cruel person!” He also said that “during his childhood, he used to resort to a Sheikh, who I liked visiting in his office and asked him about what concerns me, until I reached puberty and asked him about Jihad and its leaders. His answer this time astonished me, for he said: “These people’s thought is like the Kharijites’.” Hearing about this term since I was very young made me think about the topic more and research about similar subjects until I claimed that I reached a high level of knowledge.”

-          He has made many contributions on online forums, through writing by means of dozens of memberships. In July this year, Twitter shut down his account @turky_albinali which he was using to promote for ISIS and recruit young men. He currently faces charges of luring children and young men and planning how to take them to battlefields in Iraq and Syria during his activities in Al-Bousaiteen area.

-          One of his Fatwas, published on the “Platform of Tawhid and Jihad” in response to a question of whether it is permissible for Jihadists to take the women of infidels as captives in this era, states: “There is no doubt that taking the women of disbelievers at war-whether followers of a biblical religion or paganism-is permissible- (…) The indications of the permissibility of taking the women of the infidels as captives are too many to mention here, but they could be divided into two categories: general indications and specific indications. The general indications are those that show that the women of believers are immune from this, opposed to the women of disbelievers who are not unless they repent or ask for refuge. The specific indications are; however, numerous.