Profile: Ahd Allah Islamic Movement

Name: Harakat Ahd Allah al-Islamiya (HAAI), Ahd Allah Islamic Movement. (This profile was last updated on March 19, 2023).

Type of movement: Social organization. Nonkinetic social and cultural operations, domestic counter-political/social moderate operations, domestic and foreign counter-U.S. operations.

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History and objectives:

• HAAI was established on November 3, 2020, by Hashem al-Haidari, an influential muqawama (resistance) ideologue. He was secretary-general of Kataib Hezbollah (KH) between 2016 and 2018. HAAI “believes in velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurists)” and “that Imam Khomeini revived Islam.”
• HAAI’s activities revolve around Haidari’s beliefs as expressed through his speeches, which propagate: 
  • velayat-e faqih
  • the ideologies of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei
  • anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli sentiments
  • the idea of taking up arms against the United States and Israel to prepare for the advent of Imam Mahdi
• HAAI mainly targets the younger generations, exposing them to Islamist ideologies via passionate speeches and other methods. It uses both traditional Shia mediums (e.g., muharam speeches in mosques) and social media.
• HAAI is a continuation of past projects by Haidari that targeted the younger generation in cultural camps.
• HAAI announced that it will also take up some charitable activities to help people in need, but so far no evidence of this has emerged.
• HAAI runs Shabakat al-Rashad (The Rashad Network), which mainly consists of a few like-minded young Shia clerics working under the leadership of Haidari. The network's primary target audience is the younger generation; hence, its members heavily use social media to disseminate their message, which revolves around political Islam and the promotion of the Islamic Republic and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Chain of command:

• Clear and convincing evidence shows that HAAI is controlled and operated by the Office of Preservation and Publication, part of Supreme Leader Khamenei's office in Iran. Haidari is often present at events held by Khamenei in Iran, in the second- or third-tier seating.

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Affiliate relationships:

• Haidari seems to be the only Iraqi muqawama leader who has been interviewed by the official website of Iran's Supreme Leader. He was reportedly close with Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of Lebanese Hezbollah.

Subordinate elements:

• HAAI has social media channels on Telegram and YouTube as well as a Facebook page.
• A few social media platforms under the name "Jeem" (which stands for the first letter in the world "jihad") act as the unofficial outlets for HAAI. Jeem has Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and SoundCloud channels.
• Haidari uses social media accounts under his name exclusively to disseminate HAAI content. He also has Telegram and YouTube channels. 
• HAAI runs the aforementioned Shabakat al-Rashad (The Rashad Network), a network of clerics.