Al Jazeera Interview with al-Nusra Leader Abu Muhammed al-Joulani

On May 27, Al Jazeera conducted an interview with Abu Muhammed al-Joulani, the head of Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate operating in Syria.

Throughout the interview, Joulani talked extensively about the goals of al-Nusra and its treatment of non-Sunni communities. According to Joulani, the organization will not kill members of the Alawite sect (to which President Bashar Assad belongs), Druze, or Christians if they renounce their faith and do not fight al-Nusra, because it does not consider itself at war with those who are not attacking it. Joulani stated that al-Nusra does not receive much international support or any state-sponsorship, because it prefers to remain autonomous, although it does receive backing from some private international supporters. Despite circulating rumors, he said that it will not be ending its relationship with Al Qaeda. Lastly, Joulani denied the US allegations of the existence of the Khorasan group, a secret terrorist cell with reported plans to conduct attacks outside of Syria. He explicitly stated that al-Nusra is currently under orders to not attack the US or Europe, but that may change if they continue to support Assad’s government.

Not every claim that Joulani made in the interview is true. He argues that al-Nusra only attacks those people with whom it is at war, which mainly includes pro-Assad and Hezbollah fighters. However, it has a history of both suicide bomb attacks that kill civilians and civilian kidnappings. Nevertheless, Al-Nusra does enjoy popular support throughout much of Syria. Although it enforces Sharia law, it does not claim to have a monopoly on the understanding of Sharia, and is willing to engage in discussions about differences in Sharia interpretation with other Islamist groups. It therefore creates the appearance of being more moderate than the Islamic State, which forcibly implements its own understanding of Sharia on those under its rule.

Much of al-Nusra’s support comes from its portrayal as a local group with a local cause, making it attractive to the Syrian population. The group’s links to Al Qaeda provide evidence to the contrary, because Al Qaeda is an international organization that has the goal of implementing Sharia law throughout the entire world. Despite this, Al-Nusra actually enjoys enough support locally that when it was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department, many civilian supporters in Syria protested. It also has a complex network of alliances and relationships with many other rebel militias operating inside the country, both secular and Islamist, and other fighters often defect to al-Nusra due to its high level of capability. Jaysh al-Fath, a coalition of Syrian terrorist groups that includes al-Nusra, has recently captured strategic regions along supply roads and Al-Nusra is looking to advance toward Damascus to ultimately destroy the government and take over power.

Joulani claimed that al-Nusra receives little international support and funding, but the organization actually formed as a Syrian branch of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and AQI reportedly gave the group half of its own funding when they first formed. The two only split when AQI unilaterally declared that they were merging to create ISIS, and Joulani declared al-Nusra’s allegiance to Al Qaeda’s central leadership instead. Additionally, many members of al-Nusra are foreign fighters who have travelled to Syria to join the group; most come from the Middle East and Europe, while some also come from Australia and the United States.

Joulani used the interview as a propaganda tool, trying to portray al-Nusra in a good light to combat its designation internationally as a terrorist group, and Al Jazeera has a record of sympathizing with terrorists and providing a safe outlet for them to get their messages out to the world. The television station’s Arabic branch promotes Islamist terrorist organizations and anti-American rhetoric, further emphasizing the point that this interview is pure propaganda, rather than fact. Joulani used it to claim that Al Nusra is primarily defensive and locally-focused organization, but people should not forget that it formed as an offshoot of AQI and maintains direct links to Al Qaeda today. He attempted to convince the world that al-Nusra, while caring about the implementation of Sharia law, is tolerant of other communities, while in actuality the organization has been known to forcefully implement Sharia and wants to create an Islamic state. While the interview allowed the world to more deeply understand al-Nusra and its motives, it must be understood first as a means to convince people to raise explicit and implicit support internationally. The US must take care to ensure that the interview’s good portrayal of al-Nusra does not increase the number of US-born foreign fighters traveling to Syria to join its fight.