Zahran Alloush (1971 – 25 December 2015) was a Syrian Islamist rebel leader active during the Syrian Civil War. He was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam, a major component of the Islamic Front, of which he was the military chief, and was described as one of the most powerful persons in rebel-held Syria. Alloush called for the cleansing of all Alawites and Shiites in Damascus, later telling Western journalists that these and similar statements had been caused by the pressure and "psychological stress" he was under from living through the Syrian Government's siege of Ghouta. He was reported killed in Syria on 25 December 2015 by a Russian airstrike.

Biography

Zahran Alloush (born 1971, Douma, Damascus) was married to three women. He was the son of Sheikh Abdullah Alloush, a Salafist preacher from Damascus who lives in Saudi Arabia.

He joined the faculty of law at Damascus University and studied for a master's degree, and completed a Master’s Degree in Shariah law at the Islamic University of Madinah. The Syrian Intelligence Palestine Branch arrested him in 2009 on charges of weapons possession. He was released from Sednaya Prison in 2011 as part of a general amnesty three months into the Syrian Uprising.

Following his release, he established a rebel group called the Battalion of Islam to fight the Assad Government. The group expanded and renamed itself the Brigade of Islam, and in 2013 it merged with other rebel factions to form the Army of Islam, still under Alloush's leadership. This became the most powerful rebel group operating in the Damascus area.

A number of Syrian opposition figures have accused Alloush of being responsible for the kidnapping of Syrian activist Razan Zeitouneh and her companions in Douma on 9 December 2013. Alloush denied the allegations.

Alloush gave a speech on the merits of Hajj in 2013 and praised Usama bin Laden, addressing him by the honorific "Sheikh" and the honorific "rahimahu Allah" for making Hajj around 91 or 92 when Alloush was at the Islamic University of Medina. Alloush addressed the Al-Qaeda organization Jabhat al-Nusra as "our brothers", saying that "The summary of this issue is that we in Jaish Al-Islam praise our brothers of the Nusrah Front and we don't consider them Khawarij as is propagated against us, We fight alongside them and they fight alongside us".

Alloush gave a speech during Ramadan of 2013 attacking Shia whom he called "Rafidis" and Alawites, whom he called "Nusayris" and the "Majus" (Zoroastrians), saying "the Mujahideen of Shaam will cleanse Shaam of the Filth of Rafidis & Rafidism, they will cleanse it for ever in sha Allah, till they will cleanse the land of Shaam of the filth of the Majoos (Fireworshippers) who fought the Religion of Allah the Almighty","the Shia are still despicable & pitiful though history", "And I give you the news, oh Filthy Rafidis: Just as Banu Umayya crushed your heads in the Past, the people of Ghouta & Shaam will crush them soon, They will make you taste a painful torment in this world, before Allah makes you taste it in the Hereafter, Oh you unclean Rafidis! You will collide into what you've never expected of Power from the Mujahideen of Islam".

Alloush has called Shia, Alawites, and Iranians by the names "Rafidi", "Nusayri", and "Majusi" (Magi, a term in Arabic referring to Zoroastrians).

Alloush said that Alawites are "more infidel than Jews and Christians." (أكفر من اليهود والنصارى), addressing the Alawites as "Nusayri" (النصيرية). which was originally from a fatwa about Alawites issued by Ibn Taymiyyah.

Alloush claimed that "Our nation has a great thirst for an Islamic state" and attacked democracy after an interviewer asked Alloush "Can you accept a civil, democratic, and pluralistic state".

Zahran Alloush claimed that "The one who looks in the modern time sees that since the Jihad was established in the Islamic world from Afghanistan to Chechnya, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Africa, Iraq, Somalia and now Syria, the West deals with the Jihad with a double standard. First they want to use the Jihad to spread extremism then import the sons of the Islamic world to unite them under an ideology that makes the general Muslims hate the Religion". Alloush also railed against social media.

The former official twitter account of Zahran Alloush zahran1970 which was suspended by twitter, sent out multiple direct messages calling people "soldier of the Nusayri Electronic Army" and "follower of the Jew ibn Saba'", and "enemy of Allah", along with the last portion of Quran verse 3:119 (قل موتوا بغيظكم إن الله عليم بذات الصدور) which tells people to die in rage and that Allah knows what is in their breasts.

Alloush's Jaysh al-Islam released a video glorifying the Ummayads and the conquest of the Levant by the Muslims.

Zahran Alloush gave a speech exhorting his fighters to fight against "the Magi and Rafidi enemies" whom he accused of trying to establish a "Magi state", and a "Persian state".

In April 2015, Zahran Alloush suddenly appeared in the Turkish city of Istanbul. A spokesperson from the Army of Islam declared that Alloush would meet rebel groups leaders in Istanbul in order to discuss how to lift the siege in Ghouta. He has been criticized by the public. In the media many wondered how he could travel to Turkey and come back when the city is under siege.

On April 9, 2015 Alloush's official English language twitter account zahranalloush retweeted his 2013 Ramadan speech calling for the extermination of Shia and Alawites from the Levant.

Alloush has denounced democracy and called for an Islamic state to succeed Assad, however in a May 2015 interview with McClatchy journalists, Alloush used moderate rhetoric, claiming that Syrians should decide what sort of state they wanted to live under and that Alawites were “part of the Syrian people” and only those with blood on their hands should be held accountable. His spokesman went on to claim that the sectarian and Islamist rhetoric Alloush had previously made was only intended for internal consumption and to rally his fighters.

In July 2015 Alloush accused "international forces" of waging a media war of jihadists such as his own Jaysh al-Islam.

Zahran Alloush denounced the PKK and claimed "This Kurdistan Labor Party embraces Hegel's philosophy as its ideology .... Hegel is a communist."

Zahran Alloush's official facebook handle is zhran1970 and his twitter handles are zahranalloush and zahran1970 (suspended).

Captain Islam Allouche, a cousin of Zahran Alloush, serves as the spokesman of Jaysh al Islam and runs the twitter account islamallousheng, and the Arabic account islamdamas1980. Islam Alloush announced Jaysh al-Islam's support to Turkey's anti PKK offensive.

War crimes

On 1 November 2015 it was reported Jaysh al-Islam forces paraded captured Alawite civilians in cages in Eastern Ghouta to ward off Russian airstrikes.

It has been alleged that Jaish Al-Islam participated in the Adra massacre committed by the Islamic Front (of which it is a member).