Abdul Rasul Sayyaf

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf عبدالرسول سیاف
Sayyaf in 1984
Born	1946 (age 77–78) Afghan Jihad Opposition to the Taliban[1]

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf

Compared to other Afghan mujahideen leaders, Sayyaf was closely tied with international mujahideen from the Arab world.^[3] During the Soviet-Afghan War he had close relations with Saudi Arabia and helped mobilize Arab jihadist volunteers for the mujahideen forces.^[4]

Internally, Sayyaf was allied with the

Being imprisoned by the Communist

Despite his growing wealth, he continued to live a spartan life, avoiding modern conveniences like mattresses and air conditioning; although he enjoyed a nightly game of tennis.^[15]

During the post-war period, Sayyaf retained his training camps, using them for militarily training and indoctrinating new recruits to fight in Islamic-backed conflicts such as Chechnya, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the Southern Philippines, his name and example inspired the early leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group, who took the name Abu Sayyaf as a nom de guerre.^[16] Also, in these camps, Sayyaf trained and mentored the soon-to-be-infamous, Kuwaiti-born, future Al-Qaeda operative and senior commander,

Battle of Kabul

After the

Sayyaf claimed and claims he is a vituperative opponent of the Taliban movement, which is the reason he officially joined the Northern Alliance, despite his religious and ideological affinities with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Sayyaf was initially the only Pashtun leader in the Northern Alliance fighting against the Taliban.^[19] Sayyaf is rumored to have helped Arab suicide assassins to kill the Northern Alliance leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud. He is also rumored to have helped during their preparations, raising suspicion he was involved in killing Massoud.^[10] Sayyaf's forces participated in the Northern Alliance's capture of Kabul during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.^[18]

Since 2001

2003 Constitutional Loya Jirga

In 2003, Sayyaf was elected as one of the 502 representatives at the Constitutional

Abdul Sayyaf's influence in the convention was felt further when his ally Fazal Hadi Shinwari was appointed by Hamid Karzai as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in violation of the constitution, as Fazal was over the age limit and trained only in religious, not secular, law. Shinwari packed the Supreme Court with sympathetic mullahs, called for Taliban-style punishments and renewed the Taliban-era Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was renamed the Ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs.^{[citation needed]}

Member of parliament

He launched his newly converted Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan party in 2005 and was elected as a member of parliament that same year in parliamentary elections.^[20] Later in 2005 he was running for Speaker of the Lower House, where he surprisingly gained the support of Muhammad Mohaqiq, an ethnic Hazara and former member of the Hazara militia that fought against Sayyaf's militia in west Kabul in the 1990s.^[21] Although Sayyaf lost the Speaker election to Yunus Qanuni, Mohaqiq's support helped to fix the relationship between Sayyaf and Hazaras.^[22][23]

During his years as MP and in the 2010s, Sayyaf has become an influential elderly lawmaker, presenting himself as a "voice of wisdom".^[24] He was noted as being having the "greatest authority" to speak on religious matters.^[25] Sayyaf was a loyal supporter of the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai.^[26] However he controversially supported a bill granting amnesty for former mujahideen warlords accused of crimes in the past.^[1][27][28]

On the first anniversary of Burhanuddin Rabbani's assassination, Sayyaf spoke at a gathering saying that the actions of suicide bombers are against Islam and unforgivable by God.^[29]

Sayyaf announced himself as a candidate for the President of Afghanistan in the 2014 election, campaigning in fighting against corruption and in favor of women's rights.^[30] He received 7.04% of the vote in the first round,^[31] as the candidate for the aforementioned Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan, and winning Kandahar Province.

In 2015, Sayyaf strongly criticized the Taliban in a speech, calling their actions "un-Islamic" and called the group "slaves of Pakistan" – his remarks were widely hailed by different Afghan social segments.^[32] On proposed peace talks with the Taliban in 2018, Sayyaf commented that peace is the "order of Allah".^[33]

In April 2019, Sayyaf was chosen by President Ghani to chair the four-day