Sheikh Ali Al-Khudair

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Also known as Sheikh Ali bin Al-Khudair, or Ali bin al-Khudayr

Sheikh Ali Al-Khudair (Arabic: شيخ علي الخُضير‎) is a well-known and influential Saudi Arabian cleric and scholar. He was arrested in 2003.

[edit] Before his 2003 arrest

According to Michael Scott Doran in Foreign Affairs [1] Sheikh Ali Al-Khudair "is known as a leader of the takfiri-jihadi stream of Islamic radicalism -- that is, as someone quick to engage in takfir, the practice of proclaiming fellow Sunnis guilty of apostasy (a crime punishable by death)."

Sheikh Ali Al-Khudair had issued fatwas against several Saudi-Arabian thinkers, among them Turki al-Hamad, Mansour Al-Naqeedan and Abdullah Abusamh declaring them as infidel. [2]

His taped sermons and religious decrees are reported to have influenced many young people in Saudi-Arabia. [3]

[edit] Arrest, 2003, and afterwards

He was arrested in 2003 in Madinah, Saudi-Arabia for supporting terrorist attacks.

Days after his arrest, an Islamist Web site posted a message from Osama bin Laden warning the Saudi government not to harm the cleric. Bin Laden described al-Khudair as "our most prominent supporter" and cautioned that if he was hurt, al-Qaida's response would be "as great as the sheik's high standing with us", this according to Mohamad Bazzi [4]

In an interview with Saudi television Sheikh Al-Khudair withdrew the fatwas he had issued declaring Turki al-Hamad, Mansour Al-Naqeedan and Abdullah Abusamh as infidel, this according to Ain-Al-Yaqeen in 2003,