Who is Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the Leader of Syrian Rebels?

When Abu Muhammad al-Julani announced the liberation of his country from five decades of Assad family rule in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, one of the oldest places of worship in the world and a symbol of Syria's ancient heritage, a new chapter in the country's history began. Al-Julani was able to form and lead a coalition of groups opposing Bashar al-Assad in a recent military operation, which ultimately overthrew the Assad regime in a lightning strike towards Damascus. However, the past of this charismatic fighter casts a shadow over his future. Al-Julani, who after entering Damascus abandoned his jihadist name and now calls himself by his birth name, Ahmad Hussein al-Shara, is recognized by the United States as a wanted terrorist. Al-Julani and his rebels, the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, struggled for years to consolidate their power but were pushed back by the Assad regime with the support of Iran and Russia in the northwestern province of Idlib. Nevertheless, al-Julani maneuvered among extremist organizations, eliminating rivals and former allies one by one. He sought to polish his image to attract the attention of international governments and Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, presenting the governance of Idlib as a model for the country's salvation. Throughout this process, he discarded his traditional Islamic clothing as an Islamist guerrilla, wearing suits for press interviews and speaking about building state institutions and ethnic diversity in Syria. Analysts say he now faces a significant test: can he unite the Syrians? What will be the fate of Syria after Bashar al-Assad? There is disagreement about the year of Abu Muhammad al-Julani's birth; the U.S. Department of Justice estimates it to be between 1975 and 1979. However, he stated in an interview with CBS that he was born in 1982 in Riyadh. His father was an oil engineer working in Saudi oil companies. The al-Shara family returned to Syria in 1989, and he entered university to study medicine. But two years later, in 2003, he dropped out and went to Iraq to fight alongside Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al-Qaeda insurgents against American forces. After al-Zarqawi was killed in 2006, al-Julani went to Lebanon to oversee the training of members of the 'Jund al-Sham' group, affiliated with al-Qaeda. However, when he returned to Iraq, he was arrested and imprisoned in a U.S. facility until 2008. When the popular uprising in Syria against Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in 2011, leading to a full-scale war in the country due to the government's brutal crackdown, al-Julani was sent to Syria by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time called himself the 'leader of the Islamic State of Iraq,' to establish the al-Nusra Front. Three years later, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi founded the 'Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),' al-Julani rejected Baghdadi's requests to dissolve the al-Nusra Front and merge it with ISIS. Instead, he pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, and the al-Nusra Front became a branch of al-Qaeda, fighting against ISIS during the Syrian civil war. The harsh face of a jihadist, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, in his first interview in 2016 while covering his face, told an Al Jazeera reporter that his goal is to govern Syria under Islamic laws and clarified that there is no place for Alawite, Shia, Druze, and Christian minorities in Syria. Shortly after, he appeared on television again, revealing his face to the public for the first time. In this video message, wearing military attire and a turban, he announced that his group had separated from al-Qaeda and changed its name to 'Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.' This move paved the way for al-Julani to dominate various militia groups. A year later, a coalition led by him was formed with several other groups, named 'Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham,' meaning the Syrian Liberation Organization, solidifying al-Julani's power in Idlib province. With al-Julani's consolidation of power in Idlib, his image transformation project also began. He soon replaced military clothing with shirts and trousers and began calling for religious tolerance and national pluralism. Al-Julani also extended a hand of friendship to the Druze religious minority in Syria and met with the family of Kurds killed by Turkey-backed militias. In 2021, in his first interview with an American journalist, dressed in a suit and with gel in his short hair, he told PBS that 'his group poses no threat to the West' and that the sanctions imposed on them are 'unjust.' Jerome Dron, a senior analyst on jihadist groups and modern conflicts at the International Crisis Group, who has met with al-Julani several times over the past few years, compared the situation that the leader of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham faces to that of Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, who gained more fame during the war. Dron said, 'This is his Zelensky moment.' Zelensky also faced significant criticism before the Russian invasion of Ukraine but then transformed into a powerful leader. The question is whether al-Julani can take the same path of transformation. The future will tell.