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Jordanian authorities have released the leading jihadist theoretician. The release will only help Jordan so far.

Jordanian authorities released leading jihadist theoretician Isam Mohammed Taher al-Barqawi, more popularly known by the nom de guerre Abu-Mohammed Asem al-Maqdisi, on March 12. No explanation for the release has been offered.

Amman would not have released al-Maqdisi unless it thought his release was to Jordan’s advantage. Given his public disagreement with al Qaeda over the targeting of civilians, al-Maqdisi could help the Jordanians combat militant attacks. But while he may oppose using violence against noncombatants, he probably has not renounced his radical ideology altogether, meaning there is limit to his utility.

Al-Maqdisi, who has been in prison for most of the time since the mid-1990s, is among the world’s most influential Salafist-Jihadist ideologues. He has authored a number of treatises, most notably “Democracy: A Religion!,” in which he argues that democracy is un-Islamic. Al-Maqdisi gained prominence as the mentor of the founder of the jihadist movement in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 2006 U.S. airstrike.

The two reportedly met in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, and later were held in the same prison from 1994-99. They had a falling out in 2004-05, however, when al-Maqdisi publicly condemned al-Zarqawi’s tactics of targeting Shiite noncombatants and their religious facilities in Iraq, which had caused thousands of deaths. Al-Zarqawi responded that his former mentor had strayed from the jihadist cause.