He was martyred under torture... 19 years after the kidnapping of Sheikh Muhammad Mashouq al-Khaznawi
ARK News… On this day 19 years ago, Sheikh Muhammad Mashouq Al-Khaznawi was kidnapped in Damascus by the Syrian regime, martyred under torture, and his body was dumped in Deir Ezzor Governorate.
Sheikh Muhammad Mashouq al-Khaznawi
He is Muhammad Mashouq, son of Sheikh Ezaddin al-Khaznawi, one of the most senior clerics in the region.
He was born in the village of Tal Ma’rouf in the city of Qamishlo in Syrian Kurdistan in 1958, a Kurdish national religious figure opposed to Baath rule in Syria, who left a tangible impact on Kurdish and Syrian society.
Educational attainment
Al-Khaznawi obtained his high school diploma in 1977, then headed to Damascus to study at an institute for Sharia sciences. He obtained a degree in Islamic sciences from Saudi Arabia and obtained a master’s degree in Islamic studies in 2001.
The 2004 uprising... Sheikh Mashouq opposed repressive policies After the March 2004 uprising in Syrian Kurdistan, Sheikh Muhammad Mashouq took upon himself the responsibility of awakening the Kurds through the sermons he delivered in mosques, in addition to seminars and lectures against the repressive policy that the Baathist regime was practicing against the Kurds.
Among the most powerful speeches delivered by the martyr sheikh were those delivered on Nowruz, and his fiery speech on the anniversary of the martyr of the uprising, Farhad Muhammad Ali, on April 8, 2005.
He knew that the Syrian regime was hatching a plot to assassinate him, and he would not give up or back down in demanding the rights of the Kurds.
Details of kidnapping and martyrdom
Because of his opposition to the Baathist regime, his demand for the rights of the Kurds, and his participation in the 2004 uprising that spread across the cities of Syrian Kurdistan, Sheikh Mashouq was kidnapped on May 10, 2005, by the Syrian regime’s intelligence services. According to several sources, while he was in prison, Maher al-Assad, the brother of Bashar al-Assad, head of the Syrian regime, supervised his torture.
His beard and eyebrows were plucked, his body was mutilated, and his body was cut into three parts.
His martyrdom was announced on June 1 of the same year, twenty days after his kidnapping, and when his family received his body, traces of brutal torture were clear.
When the news of the martyrdom of Sheikh Muhammad Mashouq al-Khaznawi spread, the Kurdish people responded to the call and more than a million Kurds gathered in the city of Qamishlo, where the martyr was buried in the Qaddour Bag cemetery and buried there.
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