Abu Basir al-Tartusi is the assumed name of Abd-al Mun'em Mustafa Halima, a Syrian cleric and jihadist theoretician. He has been described as one of the "primary Salafi opinion-makers guiding the jihadi movement." Abu Basir was born in the Syrian city of Tartus, but was forced to flee Syria during the 1979–82 Islamist uprising against Hafez al-Assad and emigrated to London. In September 2005 the cleric as well as Saudi Arabia's senior cleric, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, criticized the tactic of sectarian war in Iraq as called for by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.