Al-Masri is a former professor at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
In October 2001, right after 9/11, the New York Times called Al-Azhar “the revered mosque, the distinguished university, the leading voice of the Sunni Muslim establishment.” It quoted a Muslim cleric: “Al Azhar is the only institution in the world that has learned the moderate Islam and taught it in a moderate way without fanaticism, and without abiding by the teachings of a school that promotes rigidity or violence.”
In June 2009 at al-Azhar, Barack Obama said: “For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement.”
“Cleric suspected in Russian plane crash,” by J.J. Green, WTOP, November 11, 2015:
WASHINGTON — A full 10 days after the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 in Egypt’s Sinai, which killed 224 people, Egyptian and Russian investigators may be ready to admit it was blown out of the sky by an ambitious terrorist.
In a tweet Monday night Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev delivered the first substantive hint that Russian investigators believe a bomb might have brought down the Russian-bound plane.
“The Russian plane crash in Egypt may have been the result of a terrorist attack, so all flights to Egypt has (sic) been suspended since Friday,” said Medvedev in his tweet.
This came days after President Barack Obama said in a radio interview, “I think there’s a possibility that there was a bomb on board.”…
Abu Usama al-Masri, a shadowy, Egyptian cleric and leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, branch in the Sinai Peninsula, known as Wilayat Sinai or Sinai Province, is believed to the mastermind.
He claimed responsibility in an audio message on Nov. 1, 2015.
“We are the ones who downed it [Metrojet Flight 9268] by the grace of Allah, and we are not compelled to announce the method that brought it down,” he said in the message.
The crash took place on the one-year anniversary of the date that his terrorist group, formerly known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, pledged allegiance to ISIL.
Since that time, U.S. and Middle Eastern intelligence sources believe al-Masri, a former professor at Al-Azhat [sic] University in Cairo, had been seeking an opportunity to impress ISIL’s leadership.
A former agent with Israel’s Shin Beit security force believes al-Masri is perhaps the most influential terrorist in the region; and if the theory of a bomb on the plane holds together, he’s the person that most likely orchestrated it.
“He’s the one who leads this group right now in Sinai and he’s the one who took the responsibility,” said Offer Baruch….

PRCS says
Al-Azhar Muslim cleric
Any other kind of cleric there?
mortimer says
Abu Usama al-Masri is evil. Muslims who FAIL to DENOUNCE him are COMPLICIT in evil. They also are evil in a banal, nice-Muslim-next-door way…the banality of evil.
Ernie says
Spetsnaz will operate in Sinai . No merci !
Ernie says
Well , at least that’s what I’m hoping for .
Jura says
What about the demilitarization of Sinai according to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_Peace_Treaty
Ernie says
Dear Jura , reality is different . However , Israel , Egypt , Jordan and Saoudi Arabia are working together in pushing back Daesh . The Sinai is a very big area , where it’s very easy to hide . It won’t be easy , but it must be done , the cleansing . Cooperation of all involved states is paramount . They must team up and DO IT .
Ernie says
Dear Jura , reality is different . However , Israel , Egypt , Jordan and Saoudi Arabia are working together in pushing back Daesh . The Sinai is a very big area , where it’s very easy to hide . It won’t be easy , but it must be done , the cleansing . Cooperation of all involved states is paramount . They must team up and DO IT . And , that’s my opinion , Russia must be invited . For obvous reasons .
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
I’m not so sure the commie Vlad will punish the Moslems for their mass murder, and not because the mass murder was and is legal by the law of Islam. Russia had a major problem with Moslem infection long before even the USSR came into being. Since, thanks largely to Vlad, they’ve been let to migrate into the major cities. If he gives the Moslems in the Levant what they deserve, he must be ready for strong police and military response back up in St Petersburg and Moscow, where millions of hairy believers are likely to bring Islamic activism (i.e., mass murder) to the Infidels there.
My guess is that he’ll do what’s necessary to to maintain his image as a bold leader, but minimize it to what he figures is the threshold trigger for thousands dying up north. And remember, there’s still a lot of uncertainty about what happened to all those SS-21 warheads when the USSR went broke, and the handling of nuclear materials by the Red Army and domestic nuclear power industry in Russia and the former soviet republicans is at once both breathtaking and laughable. After the 1989 crash, whole SS-21 teams were left in the field for months or longer, forced to beg for food from sympathetic locals to avert starvation. Many of those crews got aggressive, robbing local farmers and shopkeepers at gunpoint, so it’s not a stretch that they’d make an device sale or two. Where are those devices now? Vlad doesn’t know, it was chaos back then.
wildjew says
Too bad the Israelis did not keep the Sinai and here Jewish communities there.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
On the bright side, we no longer hear any liberal suicidal claptrap from Tel Aviv about ceding the Golan back to the Syrians as a gesture to make peace with them. That one was a real knee-slapper guffaw machine of a national joke that had blood and Jew entrails written all over it. But political discourse in Israel can be every bit as surreal as that in the West, especially here in America, and the political decisions every bit as bad. Carolyn Glick is right: the Palestinian problem must be solved by finally getting rid of the PA altogether. You can only coexist for so long with those intent on murdering you.
Ringgo1 says
Very true.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Al-Azhar is the Harvard of Moslem cleric training, guys taught there know their Holy Ko-Ran and Sharia codes stone cold. If an alum of such an esteemed hall of higher learning blew up an airplane filled with Infidels, then could it be at least remotely possible that there is at least a small linkage between Islam and mass murder? Maybe somebody should check the texts of the scriptures and the Sharia codes. Maybe, just maybe, there’s content in their that is causing the bloodbath troubles we have going on all over the place now. It’s possible.
mortimer says
Caliph Ibrahim al-Baghdadi, PhD, is one of the best informed and best read scholars of Islamic studies.
Such people cannot be ‘mistaken’ about Islam…they are preaching and PRACTICING authentic, canonical Islam WITHOUT COMPROMISE.
mortimer says
President Barack Obama said in a radio interview, “I think there’s a possibility that there was a bomb on board.”…
Yes, there’s a possibility the timing device was a digital clock cleverly concealed in a pencil case…constructed by a Muslim high school student.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
… for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement.
Egypt’s what? This is a country that has been on the verge of mass starvation for a few years now, avoiding that only because of cash infusions from Qatar, the famous hydrocarbon jihad mass murder terror operation funding country that bought that failed TV channel from big Al Gore, the famed scientist best known for his fake fluid dynamics work in the field of climatology.
… there’s a possibility the timing device was a digital clock cleverly concealed in a pencil case…constructed by a Muslim high school student.
No way. The kid likes the camera way too much, being a victim can be kinda fun, and besides his dad’s got a big mouth. Security.
Angemon says
I’m sure that if it had been an American plane he’d have some filmmaker arrested by now.
Godwin says
ISIL is like a huge monster. When u attack one part of it, fangs from the other part will bite u in revenge.
Wellington says
There’s something oxymoronic about the term, “Islamic university.”
gravenimage says
Al-Azhar Muslim cleric suspected in Russian plane crash
……………………,
Gee–a learned Muslim cleric involved in violent Jihad against the filthy Kuffar? Who woulda thunk it?
Glenn says
Young Kenyan graduates Harvard Law and becomes President of the United States and sets the world on fire.
Who woulda thunk it?
Lucretius says
“In October 2001, right after 9/11, the New York Times called Al-Azhar ‘the revered mosque, the distinguished university, the leading voice of the Sunni Muslim establishment.’ It quoted a Muslim cleric: ‘Al Azhar is the ONLY [emphasis added] institution in the world that has learned the moderate Islam and taught it in a moderate way without fanaticism, and without abiding by the teachings of a school that promotes rigidity or violence.'”
Leave it to the dhimwits of the New York Times not to notice the implication that this Muslim cleric is asserting that ALL OTHER Islamic educational institutions besides Al-Azhar have NOT learned the “moderate Islam,” and teach this immoderate type immoderately, with fanaticism, while abiding by teachings that promote rigidity and violence. But hey, it sounded so soothing when he said it.
Das Karl says
As with every other terror attack since Barak Oblivion became President, federal authorities and the ‘free press’ ran to tell us what this attack was NOT.
It wasn’t terror – because they hadn’t told us yet that the Sinai Peninsula was up for grabs.
Then, it wasn’t ISIS – because President Oblivion, in his madness, had of course demoted them to mere posers.
We know of course what they will tell us now – this has nothing to do with Islam, or if it was, it was of course a ‘wrong’ interpretation of the religion of peace.
We MUST all realize that the ‘religion of peace’ garbage is a Technicolor Hollywood fantasy that NEVER existed, not in 700 AD and not in 2015 AD.
underbed cat says
Just heard a retired General (I will not name) almost say if I am not mistaken, in referring to isis motivation, “this is not a religious war”, but a ” geographical-strategic force”….. “they may look like terrorists” they are a “misguided group”?….They may look like a terrorist and act like terrorists(beheading people) ,spreading out capturing land (a caliphate perhaps) they may do suicide stuff (martyr) but no they are just misguided? Well that is the fog of war…..and political correctness and misdirection all bundled up. So I guess we can proceed again and hope they figure it out before another 10 years, unless you bump into someone who has studied the doctrine. They will tell you a story you won’t believe,about deception, tacqyya, jihad, enmity, mb, oic martyrs, hijra, sharia law, and loyalty to the ummah and who was the best of all deceivers. What this person will not tell you, is that Osama did not know these terms. …unless they want to deceive you.
Louis says
There is no such thing as moderate islam.
If you follow the koran as a way of life then you accept the good and bad parts.
Its all or nothing and if nothing then you are an apostate.
And it is lawful as per the koran to deceive all infidels.
I hope putin does his job and gets rid of them as the Polish army did at the gates of Vienna in 1683.
Pity western leaders are so far up muslim arses to see the light.
underbed cat says
Louis says; “There is no such thing as moderate islam. If you follow the koran as a way of life then you accept the good and bad parts.”
That is exactly the problem,it is the doctrine that is calls for the violence of those who hear the “call”. The directives to kill the infidels (non believers) after invasion to bring such terror as those who fight them, submit. Any they are very good at deception which includes dramatic acting in times of peace to be the victims. Dramatic acting to prevent the unsuspecting to know they kill their own to promote islam. Trained to deceive from early childhood and to harden against doubt they carry out the commands. The educated scholars piously, without any emotion continue outreach to convince the unknowing they have harmless motives and only speak about “peace and justice”, knowing full well no one will suspect they speak to two audiences, one call is to kill, the other is peace. So it slips by the minds of the targets. So they can call the informed “haters”. Watch out for those words, they do not mean what you think…but they are powerful to close down knowledge.
CernyPes says
Here’s the problem. Islam is a dualistic religion filled with inconsistencies and contradictions. Bill Warner (please google “Bill Warner Islam”) summed it up best at the end of his book “The Hadith: The Sunna of Mohammed”) when he said, and I quote: “What is the real Islam? Radical Islam? Moderate Islam? Meccan Islam? Medinan Islam?” There is only one Islam. Islam is like a rainbow, a full-spectrum political system. Those who argue that the real Islam is moderate, or the real Islam is fundamentalist are like those who would say the rainbow is red or green. The rainbow is not red or green. No, the rainbow is all the colors. Islam is not peaceful, not violent. Islam is peaceful and violent. You can no more remove the aggression than you can remove the red from the rainbow. The only true view is to take the whole of Islam. The Islamic political doctrine always has two choices, and both choices are true. Political Islam is profoundly dualistic. The dualism cannot be removed. Dualism is at the core of the Trilogy (Koran, Hadith, Sira). The Trilogy is perfect, permanent and universal. It cannot be changed. A Muslim may reform but Islam cannot.” – Bill Warner.
underbed cat says
The media is talking about “Jihadi john”, who beheaded some,(in mass executions) including journalists..I hope that all journalists who take to reporting in the middle east, first take some time to read the writings of the people who they think are “haters”, islamaphobes” and get some information to protect themselves. You don’t have to tell your fellow peaceful journalists, so you will not be attacked by being called a “hater”, but at least you will give the same tolerance to information about the doctrine which calls for deception. Journalists have heard the peaceful verses recited and some concluded it sounds peaceful, other verses are spoken discretely, that are not peaceful, those “radicals who hijacked a peaceful religion” know that the later non peaceful verses, have been given more weight and are used to spread islam by the sword, the peaceful earlier verses are used to confuse the target and deceive. You may try to convince the “radical”,he does not follow his religious commands, and is misguided…but he will open his book and follow his law. The results are the same, their war continues.
steve says
I hope one day to see the LAST living Muslim in a zoo……….
Jerry says
Moderate Islam is practised by Islamic Jihadist only after he is killed and buried in ground fertilised by pig manure and is enjoying intimate knowledge of seventy two thousand virgin earthworms.