The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

After offering condolences for Sheikh Al-Afyoni’s death | Turkish-backed military police arrest Imam of mosque in Azaz

Reliable sources have told SOHR that the Turkish-backed military police arrested an “Imam and preacher” of “Abu Bakr Al-Seddiq” mosque in Azaz city in northern Aleppo for “publishing a post on social media, offering his condolences on the death of Sheikh ‘Mohammed Adnan Al-Afyoni’ the Mufti of Damascus and Rif Dimashq”.

 

It is worth noting that the Mufti of Damascus and its Rif Damascus died yesterday, succumbing to his wounds sustained in an IED explosion near “al-Sahaba mosque” in Qudsaya city in Rif Dimashq.

 

The Mufti had very close ties with the head of the Syrian regime and its security services, and had become a high-profile figure in striking most of the reconciliation deals of Rif Dimashq with the regime.

 

Observatory activists had monitored an explosion in Qudsaya city in Rif Dimashq, caused by the detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED) near “al-Sahaba mosque” in the city, which injured the head of the reconciliation committee in Qudsaya city and the Mufti of Rif Dimashq.

 

The Mufti of Damascus and Rif Dimashq, under the guidance of the head of the regime Bashar al-Assad, assumed his duties in May 2019 and took over the management of the “Al-Sham’s Islamic Center for countering Terrorism and Extremism” in the capital, Damascus.

 

The center includes departments for training Imams and preachers, Islamic sciences, monitoring and processing of extremist ideas, a section for countering extremist ideology and another one for scientific research.