In a letter made public in September 2009, the Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wadoud, had asked the Jordan-based salafi jihadi cleric Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi if he would be willing to rule on shari'a matters for the organization. The letter was written largely in order to thank Al-Maqdisi for publicly denying a report that appeared in the Algerian press according to which Al-Maqdisi had supposedly denounced the organization. The request that Al-Maqdisi take on a role in providing guidance to AQIM came at the end of the letter: "... we ask that this be the start of a direct connection between us and you, and that you permit us, if there be no harm or jeopardy in this for you, to write to you to convey some current matters to you, that you may clarify for us the laws regarding them and remove all ambiguity from us regarding them..." In early April 2010, Al-Maqdisi's reply to the letter was posted......
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