A jihadist’s journey

How a young Saudi transformed into a religious soldier ready for martyrdom on the streets of Fallujah

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT

November 29, 2004

Saudi security forces investigate a possible siege by millitants of a house in the city of Jeddah earlier this month. Young men from that nation have been drawn to Iraq's insurgency. (Getty Images)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The caller roused Abu Khaled from his slumber shortly after dawn prayers one day in mid-April. "Your son has been martyred," a crackling voice said. "God willing, he is in paradise."

The caller hung up; there was nothing more to say.

Fahd's death did not come as a surprise to his family. In October 2003, he had called to tell his parents that he had left his religious school in Riyadh and made his way to Iraq to join the jihad against U.S. forces. "There was resolve in his voice," his father recalled. "He knew that his fate was already written."

The 24- year-old son of a Saudi middle-class family, with no history of violence, attained his dream of martyrdom in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on April 11. According to two Islamist Web sites that published accounts of his death, Fahd was killed as he evacuated women and children from Fallujah, and helped repel a U.S. Marine assault on the city.

There is no way to verify the accounts of his death, but that does not really matter to his family. To them and to many other Saudis, he is a martyr.

After the Web sites posted the news, his father received more than 30 calls of condolence. "I told all of them that I was not accepting condolences," said Abu Khaled, who spoke on the condition neither he nor his son be identified by their full names. "My son died a martyr and I was only accepting congratulations."

A movement's symbol

In the grand course of the Iraqi insurgency, Fahd's personal journey and military exploits are insignificant. But his transformation - from a quiet seminary student to a jihadist willing to die in a country he had never even visited - highlights how Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic militants and the long-term consequences this could have for the entire region.

The Bush administration said it invaded Iraq in March 2003 partly to spread democracy throughout the Middle East, a region ruled by kings and despots. But as the insurgency has grown and the country has descended further into chaos, Iraq has failed to become a beacon for fledgling democracy movements in neighboring countries. Instead, young Muslim men are looking to Iraq as a proving ground for their militant ideology. Like the U.S.-backed jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the chaos in Iraq is nurturing a new generation of Islamic militants.

"We cannot be separated from Iraq. The victory of religious extremism in Iraq would mean the victory of extremism in Saudi Arabia," said Abdulaziz al-Qasim, a former Saudi religious judge who is now one of the kingdom's leading moderate Islamic activists. "The victory of democracy in Iraq would mean the victory of democracy in Saudi Arabia."

The Iraqi insurgency has found special resonance throughout the Persian Gulf, home to the vast majority of the world's oil supply. "The entrenchment of militant Islamic groups in Iraq is a great danger to all countries in the Gulf," al-Qasim said. "It is a powder keg that can explode at any moment."

Numbers unknown

There is no reliable number of how many foreign fighters like Fahd have slipped into Iraq since the U.S. invasion. Estimates by the U.S. military and Iraqi officials have ranged from several hundred to several thousand. Hundreds of Arab militants were believed to be holed up in Fallujah as it became the center of the Iraqi insurgency in April. But after the U.S. military recaptured the city this month, officials acknowledged they had killed and arrested far fewer Arab fighters than expected.

Most young jihadists live in closed, repressive societies where they face severe unemployment and feel adrift. They see a constant stream of images on Arab satellite television of Iraqi civilians dying in U.S. military operations. They also become enthralled by militant clerics who preach about "infidels" - primarily the 135,000 U.S. troops - occupying a storied Islamic land.

Through Islamist Web sites and a propaganda industry, young men like Fahd achieve a rock star's mythic status. Their photos are posted on the Web; their exploits are embellished; relatives and strangers write poems about their heroics. This creates a cycle of martyrdom in which other restless young men read their stories and find inspiration and purpose. They, too, decide to volunteer to die in Iraq.

"Everyone knows that Saudis are going to fight in Iraq," said Mohsen al-Awajy, a lawyer who has negotiated between the Saudi government and Islamic militants. "This is a very fertile area to breed mujahideen and send them all over the world. Saudis go to the areas of jihad."

The journey begins

Fahd's journey into jihad began in a dusty neighborhood on the forgotten edges of Riyadh, a recruiting ground for al-Qaida and other militant groups.

He was born in Hael, a conservative, hardscrabble city in northern Saudi Arabia. In high school, he was a good student but not exceptional. He was devout, but not an extremist. He was tall and lanky, and he wore round glasses that made him look more fit to be a scholar than a fighter.

In mid-2000, at the age of 20, Fahd decided to go to Saudi Arabia's leading religious school: the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, which trains official clerics. He left his hometown for Riyadh, the Saudi capital. It was the beginning of Fahd's transformation from a soft-spoken religious student into a militant, according to his father and a childhood friend who spent time with him in Riyadh.