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Omar Abdel-Rahman

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Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman (Arabic: عمر عبد الرحمن) (b. May 3, 1938) is a blind Egyptian Muslim cleric who is currently serving a life sentence at the Federal Administrative Maximum Penitentiary hospital in Florence, Colorado, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of "Seditious Conspiracy," which requires only that a crime be planned, not that it necessarily be attempted. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Rahman is the leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (also known as The Islamic Group), a militant Islamist movement in Egypt that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Egyptian governments. The group is responsible for many acts of violence, including the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed.

Contents

Youth

Abdel-Rahman was born in Egypt in 1938 and lost his eyesight at a young age due to childhood diabetes. He studied a Braille version of the Qur'an as a child and developed an interest in the works of the Islamic purists Ibn Taymiyah and Sayyid Qutb. After graduating in Qur'anic studies from a Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Rahman became one of the most prominent and outspoken Muslim clerics to denounce Egypt’s secularism.

Prison in Egypt

During the 1970s, Abdel-Rahman developed close ties with two of Egypt’s most militant organizations, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group). By the 1980s, he had emerged as the leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, although he was still revered by followers of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which at the time was being led by future Al Qaeda principal Ayman al-Zawahiri. Rahman spent three years in Egyptian jails where he was severely tortured as he awaited trial on charges of issuing a fatwa resulting in the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat by Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Afghan Mujaheddin

Although Abdel-Rahman was not convicted of conspiracy in the Sadat assassination, he was expelled from Egypt following his acquittal. He made his way to Afghanistan in the mid-1980s where he contacted his former professor, Abdullah Azzam, co-founder of Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) along with Osama bin Laden. Rahman built a strong rapport with bin Laden during the Afghan war against the Soviets and following Azzam’s murder in 1989, Rahman assumed control of the international jihadists arm of MAK/Al Qaeda.

Rahman also was closely tied to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and was heavily involved with and clandestine CIA and ISI efforts to defeat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Rahman travelled all over the world for five years recruiting new mujaheddin for the Afghan war.

In July 1990, Rahman was sent to New York City to gain control of MAK’s financial and organisational infrastructure in the United States.

Move to the US

Abdel-Rahman was issued a tourist visa to visit the US by CIA agents in Sudan in appreciation for his assistance in defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan, despite his name being listed on a US State Department terrorist watch list. Rahman entered the United States, in July 1990, via Saudi Arabia, Peshawar, and Sudan. An FBI agent stated in 1993, "It was no accident that the sheikh got a visa and that he's still in the country. He's here under the banner of national security, the State Department, the NSA, and the CIA.” [link] President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said, "the Americans harboured Abdel Rahman because he helped them in the face of the Soviet invasion." Mubarak added that he warned the Americans of trusting such a person and noted that he expected that Abdel-Rahman would make the Americans pay a "costly price" for hosting him. [link]

Activities in the US

Preaching at three mosques in the New York area, Abdel-Rahman was immediately surrounded by a core group of devoted followers that included persons responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One of Rahman's followers was linked to the shooting death of Meir Kahane. An Egyptian, El Sayyid Nosair, assassinated Kahane in 1990 after Kahane delivered a speech at a New York City hotel. Nosair also was associated with the cell that carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The cell is also suspected in the murder of MAK’s New York manager Mustafa Shalabi.

After the first World Trading Center bombing in 1993, the FBI began to investigate Rahman and his followers more closely. With the assistance of an Egyptian informant wearing a listening device, the FBI managed to record Rahman issuing a fatwa encouraging acts of violence against US military targets. The most startling plan, the government charged, was to set off five bombs in 10 minutes, blowing up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI. Government prosecutors showed videotapes of defendants mixing bomb ingredients in a garage before their arrest in 1993. Rahman was arrested in 1993 along with nine of his followers. In October 1995 he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and was sentenced to life in prison.

A Continuing Influence

Abdel-Rahman’s imprisonment has become a rallying point for Islamic militants around the world, including Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. In 1997, members of his terror group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya conducted two attacks against European visitors to Egypt, including the massacre of 58 tourists at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor. In addition to killing women and children, the attackers mutilated a number of bodies and distributed leaflets throughout the scene demanding Rahman’s release.

In 2005, members of Rahman’s legal team, including attorney Lynne Stewart, were convicted of facilitating communication between the imprisoned Sheikh and members of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in Egypt.

See also

References

External links

 

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