Born: 1974;

Place of Birth: Casablanca, Morocco;

Gender: Male;

Nationality: Moroccan;

General Info:
Mohamed Abdelwahhab al-Rafiki, also known as Abu Hafs, was born in 1974 in Casablanca. He is the Friday preacher in Fez. He is recognized as being a Kharijist. He was ideological leader of the terrorist group Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. Al-Rafiki was responsible for organising Moroccan fighters in Afghanistan.

He knows the Koran by heart from the age of 9. He completed his secondary studies in Fez, at the public school. After obtaining a scientific bachellorete, he studied for one year at the Faculty of Science, then left for Saudi Arabia where he obtained a Sharia license at the Islamic University of Medina which has been the center of opposition Salafi since 1970 to the Saudi monarchy. He joined the jihad in Afghanistan in 1990, at the age of 16.

His father, male nurse by profession, is the same generation as Mohamed Fizazi and he participated in the Afghan jihad from 1989 to 1994. They are both great admirers of Osama bin Laden. As Abdessalam Yassine reminds us: “You sold your honor and your manhood in exchange for a bit of the world here.”

Hassan al-Kettani recognized him as an ulama despite the fact that he told the press that he should have asked the opinion of the ulama before preaching. His notoriety dates from a fiery sermon delivered in the Burkan district of Fez for which he was imprisoned in 2002.