(Redirected from Ayman al Zawahiri)
'Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri' () or closer to the original Arabic pronunciation 'al-Zawahri' (born
June 19,
1951) is an extremist Muslim leader and prominent member of
al-Qaeda, and was the second and last "
emir" of
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded 'Abbud al-Zummar in the latter role when al-Zummar was jailed for life in Egypt. Al-Zawahiri is a qualified surgeon, and is an author of works including numerous al-Qaeda statements. He speaks
Arabic,
French, and
English. Al-Zawahiri is under worldwide embargo by the
UN 1267 Committee as a member or affiliate of
al-Qaeda.
[UN list of affiliates of al-Qaeda and the Taliban]
He uses many
aliases, including: Abu Muhammad (Abu Mohammed), Abu Fatima, Muhammad Ibrahim, Abu Abdallah, Abu al-Mu'iz, The Doctor, The Teacher, Nur, Ustaz, Abu Mohammed Nur al-Deen, Abdel Muaz (Abdel Moez, Abdel Muez).
In 1998 he formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad into
al-Qaeda. According to reports by a former al-Qaeda member, he has worked in the al-Qaeda organization since its inception and was a senior member of the group's ''
shura'' council. He is often described as a "lieutenant" to the head of al-Qaeda,
Osama bin Laden.
History
Childhood
Ayman al-Zawahiri was born to a prominent but not wealthy middle class family in
Maadi,
Egypt, a suburb of
Cairo, and was reportedly a studious youth. His father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, was a
pharmacologist and a
professor coming from a large family of doctors and scholars, while his mother, Umayma Azzam came from a wealthy and politised clan. A bit of a bookworm, he excelled in school, loved poetry and had a deep affection to his mother.
[1]
He grew more religious than his "religious but not overly pious" family.
[2] and was influenced by his uncle Mahfouz Azzam, who had been a student and then lifelong follower of Islamist pioneer thinker
Sayyid Qutb.
[3]
By fourteen al-Zawahiri joined the
Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin)
Islamist group. The following year the Egyptian government executed Qutb for conspiracy, and al-Zawahiri, along with four other secondary school students, helped form an "underground cell devoted to overthrowing the government and establishing an Islamist state." It was at this early age that al-Zawahiri developed a mission in life, "to put Qutb's vision into action."
[4]
At
Cairo University, Al-Zawahiri studied behavior,
psychology and
pharmacology graduating in 1974 with ''
gayyid giddan'', and earning a Masters degree in
surgery in 1978.
[5] By
1979 he had moved on to the much more radical Islamic Jihad, where he eventually became one of its leading organizers and recruiters.
Zawahiri's hope was to recruit military officers and accumulate weapons, waiting for the right momement to launch "a complete overthrow of the existing order."
[6] Chief strategist of Al-Jihad was Aboud al-Zumar, a colonel in the military intelligence whose
plan was to kill the main leaders of the country, capture the headquarters of the army and State Security, the telephone exchange building, and of course the radio and television building, where news of the Islamic revolution would then be broadcast, unleashing - he expected - a popular uprising against secular authority all over the country." [7]
The plan was derailed when authorities were allerted to Al-Jihad's plan by the arrest of an operative carrying crucial information, in Febraruy 1981. President
Sadat ordered the roundup of more than 1500 people, including many Al-Jihad members, but missed a cell in the military led by Lieutenant Khaled Islambouli, who succeeded in assassinating Anwar Sadat during a military parade that October.
[8]
Imprisonment and torture
Al-Zawahiri was one of hundreds arrested following the assassination of
Anwar Sadat. Al-Zawahiri's lawyer
Montasser el-Zayat contends that Zawahiri was tortured in prison.
[9]
In his book, ''Al-Zawahiri as I Knew Him'', lawyer Muntasir Al-Zayyat maintains that under torture of the Egyptian police, following his arrest in connection with the murder of President Sadat in 1981, Al-Zawahiri revealed the hiding place of Essam al-Qamari, a key member of the Maadi cell of al-Jihad, which led to Al-Qamari's "arrest and eventual execution."
[10] (Essam Al-Qamari, was a decorated major in the Egyptian army who smuggled weapons and ammunition from army strongholds for al-Jihad.)
However, the Egyptian government was unable to prove any connection between al-Zawahiri and the assassination of Sadat. Al-Zawahiri was convicted of dealing in weapons and received a three-year sentence, which he completed in 1984 shortly after his conviction.
[11]
Leaving Egypt
In 1985, al-Zawahiri went to
Saudi Arabia on
Hajj and stayed to practice medicine in
Jeddah for a year.
[12] He then traveled to
Peshawar,
Pakistan to help the Afghan
Mujahideen in their fight against the
Soviet occupiers.
[13] There he met
Osama bin Laden, who was running a base for ''mujahideen'' called
Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK); founded by the
Palestinian Sheikh
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. It is also there that al-Zawahiri is thought to have become radicalized by other Al-Jihad members, abandoning his old strategy of a swift coup d'etat that would change society from above, and embracing the idea of
takfir.
[14] This put him and the other militants of Al-Jihad at odds with Sheikh Azzam, with whom they competed for the generosity of Osama bin Laden.
[15]
Egypt and Sudan
In 1990, al-Zawahiri returned to Egypt, where he continued to influence Islamic Jihad in more radical directions, employing knowledge and tactics learned in Afghanistan.
In 1996, he was considered a terrorist who could strike against the USA. A warning issued at the time specified suicide bombing as the likely form of attack. In late 1996 he was detained in
Russia for six months by the
FSB after he apparently tried to recruit jihadists in
Chechnya. According to the FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, "He had four passports, in four different names and nationalities. We checked him out in every country, but they could not confirm him. We could not keep him forever, so we took him to the Azerbaijani border and let him go." In
1997 he was held responsible for the massacre of 62 foreign tourists in the Egyptian town of
Luxor (
November 1997 Luxor massacre), for which he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1999 by an Egyptian military tribunal.
Fatwa with Osama bin Laden
On
February 23,
1998, he issued a joint
fatwa with Osama bin Laden under the title "World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders", an important step in broadening their conflicts to a global scale.
On
October 10,
2001, al-Zawahiri appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22
Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by
President Bush.
In December 2001, he published the book ''Knights Under the Prophet's Banner'' outlining al-Qaeda ideology.
[16] English translations of this book were published; excerpts are available online.
[17]
He is also currently working on another book.
Following the
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri's whereabouts are unknown, but he is generally thought to be in tribal Pakistan. Although he releases videos of himself frequently, al-Zawahiri has not appeared alongside Osama bin Laden in any of them since 2002.
On December 3, 2001, airstrikes were launched on a complex of caves near
Jalalabad. Zawahiri's wife, Azza, and their three children were reportedly killed in the attack.
On
January 13, 2006, the
CIA launched an
airstrike on Damadola, a Pakistani village near the Afghan border, where they believed al-Zawahiri was located. The airstrike was supposed to have killed al-Zawahiri and was thus reported in international news the following days. Many victims were buried without being identified. Anonymous U.S. government officials claimed that some
terrorists were killed and the Bajaur tribal area government confirmed that at least four
terrorists were among the dead. Anti-American protests broke out around the country and Pakistan's government condemned the U.S. attack and the loss of innocent life. On January 30th a new video was released showing al-Zawahiri unhurt. The video did discuss the airstrike, but did not reveal if al-Zawahiri was present in the village at that time.
Pakistani intelligence sources
[18] confirmed that al-Zawahiri was the target of a Predator missile strike October 30, 2006 on a
madrassa in Pakistan.
Al-Zawahiri supplied direction for the
Lal Masjid siege in July, 2007.
Pakistani Army troops taking control of the
Red Mosque in
Islamabad found letters from al-Zawahiri directing
Islamic militants Abdul Rashid Ghazi and
Abdul Aziz who ran the
mosque and adjacent
madrasah. This conflict resulted in 100 deaths.
[19]
Video messages
★
May 2003 - Tape was broadcast by
al-Jazeera and included the directives (interpreted) "Raze/Singe the floor out from under their feet... the political and corporate interests of the United States... and Norway." which caused a global lockdown and extensive confusion for the country of
Norway. A short while later, the
SS Norway, flagship of
Norweigan Cruise Lines, experienced a freak "Boiler Explosion" while docking in the
Port of Miami.
★ Early
September 2003 - A video showing al-Zawahiri and bin Laden walking together, as well as an audiotape, is released to the
al-Jazeera network.
★
September 9,
2004 - Another video is released announcing more assaults.
★
August 4,
2005 - He issues a televised statement blaming
Tony Blair and his government's foreign policy for the
July 2005 London bombings.
[20]
★
September 1,
2005 - al-Jazeera broadcasts a video message from
Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of bombers of the London metro. His message is followed by another message from al-Zawahiri, blaming again Blair for the bombings.
[21]
★
19 September 2005 - He claims responsibility for the London bombings.
[22]
★
December 7,
2005 - The full 40 minute interview from September is posted on the Internet with previously unseen video footage. See below for links.
★
January 6,
2006 - al-Zawahiri says U.S. President Bush's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq means Washington had been defeated in Iraq. al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying, "Bush, you must confess that you have been defeated in Iraq and in Afghanistan and you will be in Palestine soon." al-Zawahiri also conveys his condolences to the people of
Pakistan struck by the catastrophic
2005 Kashmir Earthquake.
★
January 30,
2006 - In a video broadcast by al-Jazeera, he mocks Bush and brands him the "Butcher of Washington." The video also proves that he was not killed in a recent Pakistan airstrike. al-Zawahiri promises that the next terrorist attack would be on U.S. soil.
[23]
★
April 27,
2006 - al-Zawahiri says in a video that the terror network's branch in Iraq has succeeded in "breaking the back" of the U.S. military with hundreds of suicide bombings.
[24]
★
June 9,
2006 - In a video broadcast by al-Jazeera, he praises the work of the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by two 500lbs. bombs in an isolated safehouse in
Baquba,
Iraq. In the following statements, al-Qaeda still proposes to carry out imminent terrorist attacks including
New York and
London.
★
June 22,
2006 - al-Zawahiri urged Afghans to fight foreign soldiers in
Afghanistan[25]
★
July 7,
2006 - One year after the train bombings in London Ayman al-Zawahiri reveals that two of the suicide bombers were trained by al-Qaeda in
Pakistan.
★
July 27,
2006 - al-Zawahiri shows his support for the insurgents in
Gaza and South-
Lebanon.
[26]
★
August 5,
2006 - al-Zawahiri appears in a video in which
Muhammad Khalil al-Hukaymah claims that al-Qaeda has joined forces with the long-quiet Egyptian militant group
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, and says that the two groups will form "one line, facing its enemies."
[27]
★
September 10,
2006 - A video-interview with al-Zawahiri of over an hour length is published on several internet sites. He makes reference to the situations in
Gaza,
Lebanon,
Somalia and to the historic figure
Dr. Brydon.
[28] On the fifth anniversary of his terror network's most infamous attacks, al-Zawahiri appears in a video carried by al-Jazeera. The video follows others appearing in the weeks before, but makes specific reference to recent events in Lebanon and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by militants. Ayman al-Zawahiri warns of new attacks in the
Persian Gulf and
Israel.
[29][30]
★
September 29,
2006 - al-Zawahiri commented in a videomessage on the recent
Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy. He called the pope a charlatan, but didn't call for any action.
★
December 20,
2006 - al-Zawahiri speaks out against early elections for the
Palestinian Authority.
[31]
★
January 5,
2007 - al-Zawahiri showed his support for the
Islamic Courts Union after the intervention of
Ethiopia in
Somalia.
★
January 22,
2007 - al-Zawahiri ridicules Bush's plan to send 20,000 more US Troops into Iraq.
[32]
★
March 11,
2007 - al-Zawahiri criticized
Hamas for its compromise with
Fatah to form a coalition government for the
Palestinian Authority.
★
May 5,
2007 - al-Zawahiri speaks out against the funding bill passed by the
US congress and later vetoed by
President Bush that would have set dates for
troop withdrawals, saying, "This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap."
[33]
★
July 5,
2007 - al Jazeera shows a new video from al-Zawahiri.
[34]
★
July 10,
2007 - A video in which al-Zawahiri condemns the actions of the
UK for giving
Salman Rushdie a knighthood. He states that
al-Qaeda will give a "very precise response" and he also warns
Gordon Brown, the new
Prime Minister, that he must "learn" from the mistakes of his predecessor
Tony Blair or they will be ready to repeat the attacks (reference to
7/7).
[35]
Wanted in the USA and Egypt
★ For their leading role in anti-Egyptian terrorism in the 1990s, Ayman al-Zawahiri and his brother Muhammad al-Zawahiri were sentenced to death in the 1999 Egyptian case of the
Returnees from Albania.
★ Ayman al-Zawahiri is under indictment
[36] in the United States for this role in the
1998 U.S. embassy bombings in
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, and
Nairobi,
Kenya. The
Rewards for Justice Program of the
U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to
US$25 million for information about his location.
[37][38]
In popular culture
★ On April 12, 2006, al-Zawahiri was depicted in an episode of the American TV comedy ''
South Park'',
Cartoon Wars Part II.
Trivia
★ In all of the Al Qaeda video messages that feature Zawahiri, a skin abrasion is clearly visible on his forehead. This is most likely attributable to the intensity of Zawahiri's prayer; most Muslims bow their heads toward the ground many times during their daily prayers, marks on the forehead are common among people who pray on hard surfaces. On the other hand, his "prayer burn" might be nothing more than a self-inflicted scar for propaganda purposes. He did not have this scar from birth.
[39]
References
1.
The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright, , , Knopf, 2006, ISBN 9-375-41486-X
2.
Wright, (2006), p.34
3.
[begins at 16:27 —] "To Qutb, this force of Jahiliyya had now gone so deep into the minds of Muslims that a dramatic way had to be found to free them. In a series of books he wrote secretly in prison, which were then smuggled out, Qutb called upon a revolutionary vanguard to rise up and overthrow the leaders who had allowed Jahiliyya to infect their country.
The implication was that these leaders could justifiably be killed, because they had become so corrupted they were no longer Muslims, even though they said they were. Based on this, Nasser decided to crush Qutb and his ideas. And in 1966, Qutb was put on trial for treason.
This is the only known film of Qutb, as he awaits sentence. The verdict was a foregone conclusion, and on August the 29th, 1966, Qutb was executed.
But his ideas lived on. The day after his execution, a young schoolboy set up a secret group. He hoped that it would one day become the vanguard that Qutb had called for. His name was Ayman Zawahiri, and Zawahiri was to become the mentor to Usama bin Ladin."
4. Wright, (2006), p.37
5.
The Osama bin Laden I Know, Bergen, Peter L., , , Free Press, 2006, ISBN 9780743278911
6. Wright, (2006), 49
7. Wright, (2006), p.49
8. Wright, (2006), p.50
9. ''"Dr Zawahiri had been imprisoned and, according to friends, beaten frequently after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981."''
Torture trail to September 11: A two-part investigation into state brutality opens with a look at how the violent interrogation of Islamist extremists hardened their views, helped to create al-Qaida and now, more than ever, is fuelling fundamentalist hatred.
10.
Ayman Muhammad Rabi' Al-Zawahiri: The Making of an Arch Terrorist, , Nimrod, Raphaeli, Terrorism and Political Violence, 2002
Cited in
Ayman Muhammad Rabi' Al-Zawahiri
11. Wright, 2006, p.57-8
12. Wright, 2006, p.60
13. Wright, 2006, p.122
14. Interview with Usama Rushdi. Wright, 2006, p.124-5
15. Wright, 2006, p.103
16.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri's Knights under the Prophet's Banner: the al-Qaeda Manifesto, , Youssef H., Aboul-Enein, Military Review, 2005
17.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Publishes Extracts from Al-Jihad Leader Al-Zawahiri's
New Book
18. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/zawahiri_was_ta.html Blog
19. Bin Laden’s deputy behind the Red Mosque bloodbath, Dean Nelson, Islamabad and Ghulam Hasnain, TIMESONLINE, 15 July 2007
20. Blair Has Brought Destruction to the Center of London and He Will Have More of It
21. Al-Zawahiri Defends the London Bombings: Even Those Who Did Not Vote for Bush and Blair Accept Them As Legitimate Rulers
22. Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri Claims Responsibility for the London Bombings, Discusses Elections in Afghanistan and States: "Reform Can Only Take Place through Jihad"
23. CNN Transcript 30 Jan 2006
24. Ayman al-Zawahiri "A Message to the People of Pakistan" (2006) As-Sahab media at internet archive
25. Profile: Ayman al-Zawahiri al-Jazeera
26. al-Zawahiri urges attacks on Israel al-Jazeera 2006-07-27
27. al-Zawahiri: Egyptian militant group joins al Qaeda CNN
28. CNN report10 September 2006
29. Al-Qaeda issues 9/11 anniversary warning al-Jazeera 2006-09-11
30. New al-Qaeda warning marks 9/11 BBC 2006-09-11
31. Al Qaeda's No. 2 speaks out against elections CNN 2006-12-20
32. Al Qaeda deputy to U.S.: If we are killed, you will be killed CNN 2007-01-22
33. Qaeda's Zawahri says Iraq bill shows U.S. defeat Reuters 2007-05-05
34. Dutch language ANP 2007-07-05
35. Qaeda's Zawahri condemns UK BBC News 2007-07-10
36. Copy of indictment USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
37. Wanted poster on al-Zawahiri, Rewards for Justice Program, US Department of State
38. Wanted poster on al-Zawahiri, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice
39. Between the Ballot and the Bullet: Egypt's War against Terrorism, World Press Review, 15 November 2001
See also
★
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman
★ The Al Qaeda Reader
Video
★
Al-Zawahiri Calls on Muslims to Give Aid to Earthquake Victims in Pakistan
External links
★
New Yorker story about al-Zawahiri, by Lawrence Wright
★
Fatwa from World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders - Statement with bin Laden,
23 February 1998
★ Nimrod Raphaeli's
Biography of al-Zawahiri from ''Terrorism and Political Violence'' 14:4 (Winter 2002) 1-22.
★
Al-Zawahiri: US faces Afghan, Iraq defeat (Aljazeera, 09 September 2004)
★
Excerpts and video footage released December 1, 2005 from the September 2005 interview
★
CNN's report on the January 2006 al-Zarqawi video tape
★
Letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi, copy at GlobalSecurity.org
★
Extracts from ''Knights Under the Prophet's Banner''
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