Golani’s Ambitions Shatter Against the Rock of Companions on the Path and Western Ignorance

Mohamed Yousri

For the past three years, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the leader of what is known as “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), has been taking steps towards radical ideological transformations within his splinter faction from al-Qaeda. His aim was to present his group as a political party controlling vast areas in northern Syria. His latest step was announcing complete separation from al-Qaeda and taking measures to dismantle all factions that had been partners in his faction’s revolution, aiming to seize sole power. This move has sparked anger among both his comrades in jihadi organizations and other revolutionary factions.

Inspired by the Taliban Model

For some time, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has been inspired by the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, and its activities in this direction increased after the Taliban came to power in mid-August 2021. Its operations within its sphere of influence were limited to fighting other factions, whether they shared the ideological allegiance with al-Qaeda or others like ISIS.

The discourse of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, has transformed into a speech resembling that of politicians, in order to deceive those around him into believing that his group is on its way to adopting a new image that allows it to engage with the world as a political partner, with the hope of one day sitting at the table of international negotiations, just as the Taliban did in the Doha talks before seizing power in August 2021.

Al-Julani and his group have made many concessions that go against the principles on which “al-Nusra” was established as an armed faction in order to reach this point, including tolerating the observance of Christian rituals.

Early Disputes

Al-Julani’s steps in this direction were not hidden from many leaders within the movement from an early stage. Abdullah al-Muhaysini and Musleh al-Alyan, judges in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, announced their resignations in early April 2017 due to their sense of the transformations within the group. Al-Muhaysini issued a statement at the time on his Telegram account, along with his comrade Al-Alyan, confirming that the main reasons for their resignation were leaked audio recordings that described the group’s legal scholars in derogatory terms and contained explicit insults to the Sharia campaign by some leaders in the group, which required them to take action to rectify the situation through a package of measures, according to the statement.

Escalation against al-Julani

Abu Mohammed al-Julani’s recent revealed political ambitions and practices, in which he seeks to go beyond being just a group leader to becoming a head of state, as well as his actions against his opponents in the countryside of Idlib and northern Aleppo, which have led to extensive arrest campaigns targeting women and children, have sparked daily popular protests against “al-Julani” since mid-May. The protesters condemned the invasion of the movement’s security apparatus into homes. They raised slogans calling for the downfall of al-Julani, such as “O Julani, you vile person, we will follow you until you fall.”

Amidst the chaos in areas under the control of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, leaders in jihadi groups have begun to flee the country, including Abu Abdullah al-Muhaysini, the former legal judge in the group, who local Syrian media reported had fled to Turkey weeks ago, fearing being targeted by assassination bullets due to the escalating disputes between him and al-Julani.

Fierce Opposition

Several revolutionary leaders in the countryside of Idlib and northern Aleppo have published a series of tweets on social media condemning the project of Abu Mohammed al-Julani, accusing him of betraying the Syrian revolution and seeking to seize power at the expense of his comrades, even from within.

Abu Al-Az Ariha (Alaa Al-Fahham), the commander of the Afrin Operations Room in the Third Corps, posted a series of tweets calling on all factions to confront al-Julani’s project and his objectives. He emphasized that al-Julani is trying to deceive people by portraying his efforts as being on the path to implementation through various means:

Firstly, he seeks to deceive people with external arrangements and regional acceptance, promoting this through media outlets. Secondly, he spends vast amounts of money on media personnel and Western centers to improve al-Julani’s image. Thirdly, he works to conceal Western reports that target the liberation of Sham.

This situation reveals the strong opposition that the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and its leader face internally, even among those who were once comrades during the jihadist phase but were betrayed by al-Julani. This turn of events poses a threat to his aspirations, especially in the absence of a strong echo of his transformations abroad.