The Mufti of Barrel Bombs...

Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, the former Grand Mufti of Syria under Bashar al-Assad’s regime, was arrested at Damascus International Airport on Tuesday, March 25, while attempting to leave for Jordan with his family. Hassoun, who held the position of Grand Mufti from 2005 to 2021, had largely disappeared from public view after the fall of the Ba’ath regime in late 2024. After spending some time in hiding in Damascus, he relocated to his hometown of Aleppo, only to resurface in controversy when Syrian youths raided his home on February 17, demanding his prosecution. Protesters had previously gathered outside his residence, calling for his trial.

According to details shared on social media, Hassoun had obtained official permission from Syrian authorities to travel to Amman for medical treatment. However, as he waited in the VIP lounge for his flight, armed security personnel stormed in and arrested him. While prosecutors served the arrest warrant, his wife and children were allowed to proceed without interference.

Hassoun’s life story—marked by betrayal, opportunism, and complicity in atrocities—holds critical lessons, particularly for scholars and intellectuals:

Born in Aleppo in 1949, Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun was the son of Sheikh Muhammad Adib Hassoun (1913–2008), a prominent Naqshbandi Sufi scholar and one of the city’s leading religious figures. Raised in an environment of Islamic scholarship, Hassoun’s early years were shaped by his father’s close ties to Sheikh Muhammad Nabhan (1900–1974), founder of the Kiltawiyya Madrasa, a revered classical Islamic school in Aleppo. However, when the Ba’ath Party seized power in a 1963 military coup, the young Hassoun quickly adapted to the regime’s culture of surveillance and betrayal. It later emerged that he had informed on numerous classmates and even fellow scholars, leading to their persecution by the Ba’athist authorities.

His loyalty was rewarded under Hafez al-Assad’s rule, when he served as a member of parliament from 1990 to 1998. Shortly after Bashar al-Assad assumed power in 2000, Hassoun was appointed Mufti of Aleppo. When Syria’s Grand Mufti, Ahmed Kuftaro (who had held the position for 40 years), died in 2004, Hassoun was the natural successor. Officially appointed in 2005, he remained the highest religious authority in Syria until the abolition of the Grand Mufti’s office in 2021. Throughout this period, he also maintained his inherited role as a Naqshbandi sheikh.

After the 2011 uprising, Hassoun became one of the most vocal defenders of the regime’s brutal crackdown. In televised appearances and interviews, he demonized opposition figures and fervently justified the bombing of civilian areas, even enthusiastically endorsing the use of barrel bombs—a stance that earned him the nickname "the Barrel Bomb Mufti." He lavished praise on Iranian and Hezbollah militias responsible for massacring Syrian civilians and openly admired Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander notorious for orchestrating the forced displacement and slaughter of Sunni Muslims in Aleppo, where he was dubbed "the Butcher of Aleppo."

One of Hassoun’s most egregious crimes was issuing a written fatwa in 2017 authorizing the execution of civilian detainees in Saydnaya Prison, a facility infamous for its horrific torture methods. With the fall of the Ba’ath regime, evidence emerged implicating him in numerous atrocities, where he played a direct role.

Yet perhaps Hassoun’s greatest moral failure was his utter degradation of religious and scholarly institutions. Instead of upholding dignity and integrity, he chose to serve as a willing tool of the regime, whitewashing its crimes with theological justifications. For a man of his position, this was not just a betrayal of his people—it was a betrayal of knowledge itself.

The tragic story of Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun—a man who consciously sided with tyrants and earned his people’s hatred—serves as a stark warning. For those who reflect, there are profound lessons in his downfall.