Omar Rifai Sorour: Terrorist mufti and source of takfiri ideas

Shaimaa Yahya

In the Egyptian drama series “El-Ekhteyar” (The Choice), Egyptian actor Ahmed El-Rafei features a calm personality, nice beard and hair, and a luxurious cloak as he portrays of the terrorist mufti Omar Rifai Sorour of the Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis group. Sorour, one of the most dangerous takfiri elements, was killed in an operation by the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the city of Derna.

Who was he?

Omar Rifai Sorour, also known as Abu Abdullah al-Masri, was brought up on the Sayyid Qutb ideology, as his father Rifai Sorour was the author of many books that serve as references for terrorist groups.

Omar first got involved with terrorist groups in 1992. He was charged in a terrorism-related case and sat in prison for three years. Then in 2009, he was sent to the New Valley Prison, until he escaped during the events that accompanied the January 25, 2011 revolution in Egypt.

His father Rifai Sorour died in 2012 after suffering from disease, and Omar then returned to the scene again to carry out his father’s will, which instructed him to “carry the integrity of the Quran, follow his path and defend the nation of Islam.”

Omar was closely associated with leaders of the Brotherhood, and he had supported Egyptian presidential election candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail at that time.

After the death of his father, Omar traveled to Sinai and joined Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which embraced a Salafi jihadist ideology similar to al-Qaeda.  He was trained in various types of weapons and was appointed by the group’s leader Tawfiq Freij as the group’s mufti, and he called himself Abu Abdullah al-Masri.

Sorour fled to Libya after the Brotherhood’s rule in Egypt collapsed in 2013 following the June 30^th revolution and after the death of Tawfiq Freij, leaving Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which pledged allegiance to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as he refused to pledge allegiance to ISIS and instead maintained loyalty to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, settling in Derna, northeastern Libya.

Upon Sorour’s arrival in Libya, he cooperated with the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade, led by Atiya al-Sha’ri. He was then appointed as mufti for the majority of the terrorist groups in Derna, including the Derna Shura Council, which he established with Egyptian terrorist Hesham Ashmawy, until he was accepted as the council’s main legal source.

Omar Sorour was the mufti and legal reference for Ashmawy’s terrorist operations carried out against Egypt, and he was mainly responsible for the formation of terrorist cells in the deserts of Upper Egypt, and he recruited new terrorists in Libya.

Sorour issued several takfiri fatwas against the Egyptian army and police, and he also issued fatwas describing the heads of state as “tyrants”.

Omar was the link between Ayman al-Zawahiri and the Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the former leader of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.

On June 11, 2018, Omar Sorour was killed in the Libyan city of Derna after the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces succeeded in wounding him. He had succeeded in escaping, but died as a result of his injuries.