He showed increasing signs of radicalization over the years, which was further aggravated by his father's death in 2010. Accusations of spreading extremist thought and of incitement against the Egyptian Armed Forces led to his eventual dismissal from the military in 2011 under circumstances that remain unclear. He embraced al-Qaeda and went on to join Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in 2012, but eventually defected from the group in 2015, following its declaration of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.