Reda Seyam

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Reda Seyam (born 1959 or 1960), also known as Ghana Prakesh or Gnanavel (the one with two horns), was a German-Turkish Islamic militant and an official in the Islamic State (IS). He has been described as a 'veteran of jihad' and is the highest ranking German member of the Islamic State.

Contents

Background

Reda Seyam was born in 1959 or 1960 in Egypt. He joined the Bosnian mujahideen in 1994, fighting in the Bosnian War (1992–95). He later moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1998.

Seyam is suspected of playing a role in financing the 2002 Bali bombings. He was arrested in Indonesia and interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency at a black site before being extradited to Germany in 2003, where he became an influential figure in the Salafi movement. [1] [2]

Islamic State

On August 19, 2013, it was reported that Seyam was active in Syria. Presently he is said to be the "emir for education" in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq, where he is responsible for "education reform" in the region. He has appeared in a video titled "Education in the Shade of the Caliphate" and in pictures taken inside Mosul University. [3] [4]

According to a study by Jean-Charles Brisard and Kevin Jacksom, he was at one point deputy to the Islamic State governor in Aleppo province in Syria. [5]

Family

Seyam first married in 1988. His first wife left him and was placed in witness protection by the German government. He later remarried. Seyam has a son named Jihad. The Berlin Interior Minister, Ehrhart Körting made a complaint against him naming his son Jihad but on September 2, 2009 the Court of Appeal ruled that this was a common name in the Arab world and was, therefore, permissible. [6] [7]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jihadism</span> Islamist movements for jihad

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<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.

Saraqib is a city in northwestern Syria, administratively belonging to the Idlib Governorate, located east of Idlib. During the course of the Syrian Civil War, the city fell into rebel forces in 2012 and was recaptured by the Syrian Army in 2020.

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Bosnian mujahideen, also called El Mudžahid, were foreign Muslim volunteers who fought on the Bosnian Muslim side during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. They first arrived in central Bosnia in the latter half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim co-religionists in fights against Serb and Croat forces. Initially they mainly came from Arab countries, later from other Muslim-majority countries. Estimates of their numbers vary from 500 to 6,000.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salafi jihadism</span> Transnational Sunni Islamist religious-political ideology

Salafi jihadism, also known as revolutionary Salafism or jihadist Salafism, is a religious-political Sunni Islamist ideology that seeks to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy of "physical" (military) jihadist attacks on non-Muslim targets. The Salafist interpretation of sacred Islamic texts is "in their most literal, traditional sense", which adherents claim will bring about the return to "true Islam".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahrar al-Sham</span> Syrian Islamist military and political organization

Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition of multiple Islamist units that coalesced into a single brigade and later a division in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Ahrar al-Sham was led by Hassan Aboud until his death in 2014. In July 2013, Ahrar al-Sham had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, which at the time made it the second most powerful unit fighting against al-Assad, after the Free Syrian Army. It was the principal organization operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Islamic Front and was a major component of the Islamic Front. With an estimated 20,000 fighters in 2015, Ahrar al-Sham became the largest rebel group in Syria after the Free Syrian Army became less powerful. Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam are the main rebel groups supported by Turkey. On 18 February 2018, Ahrar al-Sham merged with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to form the Syrian Liberation Front.

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Khalid Mustafa Khalifa al-Aruri, known as Abu al-Qassam, was a Palestinian-Jordanian Islamic militant and a member of al-Qaeda who was the leader of the Guardians of Religion Organization.

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The Multikulturhaus in Neu-Ulm was a cultural centre run by the Multikulturhaus e. V., a registered association. On 28 December 2005 it was shut down by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior. The land, the building and monetary funds were confiscated by authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war</span>

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Seyam is a surname.

References

  1. "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
  2. "IS-Fanatiker-aus-Berlin-soll-am-Leben-sein". Die Welt. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
  3. Flade, Florian. "The Islamic State Threat to Germany Evidence from the Investigations". Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  4. "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
  5. Jean-Charles Brisard and Kévin Jackson. "Islamic State's External Operations and the French-Belgian Nexus" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-11. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  6. "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
  7. "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2016-07-27.