It was formed on the April 14, 2003, four days after the U.S.-led invasion demolished the Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein, by a group of scholars who aimed to represent Sunnis in Iraq.

[3] Prominent members include Harith Sulayman al-Dhari (chairman), Muthanna Harith al-Dhari (chairman's son and spokesman, secretary-general as of 2018),[4] Abdel-Salam al-Kubaisi, Abdel-Sattar Abdel-Jabbar (founder, and senior official),[5] Dr. Muhammad Bashar al-Faithi, Abdel Hamid Al-Ani, Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, Mahdi Ibrahim, Abu Bashir al-Tarousi, and Umar Raghib.

[9] However, they have consistently condemned all indiscriminate attacks on civilians, distinguishing between 'terrorism' and 'honorable resistance'[10] and have negotiated for the release of Western hostages, as well as helping to arrange aid convoys to the city of Falluja when it was under siege.

[3] When Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called for "a full-scale war on Shiites," at least one member of the association, Abu Bashir al-Tarousi, objected, pointing out that "although sectarian war in Iraq may have been provoked and sparked by the Shia ... killing according to sectarian affiliation is not justified by Islamic law," and Muslims should not take "justice into their own hands."

He also expressed concern that the attacks would cause the "legitimate Iraqi resistance" to lose its credibility in the eyes of the Islamic world"[11] In 2018, the AMS reaffirmed its opposition to foreign forces in Iraq, while maintaining its denial of organizational links to al-Qaeda despite Chairman Harith al-Dhari's inclusion on a terrorism list released by the Dawa Party-led government in Iraq.