Fighting Vanguard

The Fighting Vanguard of the Mujahidin (Arabic: الطليعة المقاتلة للمجاهدين, romanized: al-Ṭāliʿa al-Muqātila lil-Mujāhidīn), also known as the Fighting Vanguard of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria (Arabic: الطليعة المقاتلة للإخوان المسلمين في سوريا), was a Syrian militant organization and offshoot of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood that took part in violent actions against the regime of Hafez al-Assad during the Islamist uprising in Syria, mainly between 1979 and 1982.

History

Marwan Hadid, who came from a wealthy Sunni Muslim family from Hama, Syria, studied in Egypt and became influenced by the hardline cleric Sayyid Qutb. His calls for jihad against the ruling Baath Party in Syria were rejected by the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, dominated by moderates and afraid of the consequences of a violent confrontation with the regime, although some Brotherhood members such as Adnan Saad al-Din and Saʽid Ḥawwa tacitly supported him. Hadid came to prominence for his role in the 1964 Hama riot. He and his followers obtained training from Palestinian militants encamped in Lebanon and especially Jordan. After the Black September events in 1970, they returned to Syria determined to put into practice what they had learned against Baath leaders.

Hadid and his followers gained influence with the Brotherhood after the Syrian Constitution of 1973, which was deemed too secular by Islamists. He was able to recruit more followers and organize them into cells to carry out assassinations of representatives of the regime. The ultimate goal was to entice the government into a crackdown severe enough to draw the Brotherhood's leadership into supporting armed struggle. Hadid went into hiding in Damascus but the Baath security apparatus prioritized hunting him down and he was arrested in June 1975 and died in prison the next year.