Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1941-24 November 1989) was the founder of Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the mentor of Osama bin Laden. He preached for both defensive and offensive jihad, and persuaded many foreign fighters (including Bin Laden) to come to Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War. The Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah (GID) of Jordan and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States killed him in 1989.
Biography[]
Azzam was born in Jenin, Mandatory Palestine in 1941, and he was an exceptionally smart child. In the 1950s, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, and, in Jordan, he participated in guerrilla warfare against Israel. However, while the PLO argued for Marxism, he argued for Islamism. While lecturing at King Abdul Aziz University in the Saudi Arabia city of Jeddah between 1976 and 1981, he met the wealthy Osama bin Laden and made contact with him, and the two became close friends. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Azzam convinced Bin Laden to fight alongside him for the Mujahideen.
Azzam fought as the third-in-command of the Mujahideen under Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Haq, and founded Al-Qaeda in 1988 along with Bin Laden. He stated that Bosnia, the Philippines (where Muslims were a minority), Kashmir, Somalia, Eritrea, and formerly-Muslim Spain were to be liberated by the group, and became known as the "Father of Global Jihad".
Death[]
In 1989, the CIA (United States intelligence) and Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah (Jordanian intelligence) conspired to kill Azzam, who was threatening global peace. While Azzam was driving his father and son to prayers in Peshawar, Pakistan, a bomb hidden under the road in the sewage system was detonated by a CIA attacker. Azzam, his father, and his son were all killed in the blast.