Umar Abd al-Rahman

1938 -

Religious Muslim leader sentenced to life in prison for his role in the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.

An Egyptian Muslim militant and spritual leader of al-Gamaʿa al-Islamiyya, also known as the Islamic Group, Umar Abd al-Rahman was born in the Dakahliyyah province, south of Cairo, in 1938. He was educated at al-Azhar University, where he earned a doctorate in Islamic theology in 1965 and later became a lecturer. Abd al-Rahman's agitating religious sermons in which he challenged the legitimacy of Egypt's rulers (Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak) provoked frequent arrest and imprisonment. He was critical of President Gamal Abdel Nasser and his ideology of Arab socialism. After Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Arab - Israel War, Abd alRahman became more bold in his attacks on Nasser and his socialist policies. Abd al-Rahman was briefly arrested in 1968 and dismissed from al-Azhar. He was arrested again after Nasser's death in 1970 but was released as part of the general amnesty President Anwar al-Sadat granted to a number of dissidents and opposition leaders.

Abd al-Rahman traveled and from 1971 to 1978 lived in Saudia Arabia, where he was able to work as a teacher of Islamic studies. He then returned to Egypt and became emphatically opposed to Sadat's signing of the 1978 Camp David Accords as well as his economic liberalization policies, which Abd alRahman viewed as moral and material corruption. After Sadat's assassination in October 1981, Abd alRahman was arrested and accused of issuing a fatwa for the assassination, but he was released due to insufficient evidence.

Shortly after his release, Abd al-Rahman published his book Kalimat Haqq (Word of truth), in which he openly attacked Sadat's successor, Husni Mubarak. Abd al-Rahman was arrested in 1984 and accused of instigating violence against the government, but was released, again for lack of direct and concrete evidence. He continued his antigovernment activities, including his demand that Egypt should be governed according to the shariʿa. From 1984 to 1989 Abd al-Rahman was actively involved in promoting militant Islam and traveled within Egypt, delivering speeches that inspired followers of several militant organizations. He was arrested and accused of ordering terrorist acts against Egyptian Copts and security forces, and he was prohibited from speaking in public. In response, he issued a fatwa instructing his followers to capture weapons from the police and the military and use them against Mubarak's regime.

In mid-1989 Abd al-Rahman fled Egypt to Sudan, where he was refused political asylum. He entered the United States in 1990 after he was erroneously issued a tourist visa by the American embassy in Sudan. In the United States, Abd alRahman was in charge of the operation of a mosque in Brooklyn that was frequently attended by Arab Muslim immigrants. In 1991 he was granted permanent residence status. He then moved to the adjoining state of New Jersey. Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in 1993, Abd al-Rahman was arrested and tried for inspiring the terrorists who committed the act. In 1996 he was sentenced to life in prison.

Bibliography

Beinin, Joel, and Stork, Joe. Political Islam: Essays from Middle East Report. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Monterey Institute of International Studies. "Special Section: Terrorist Attacks on America." Available from http://cns.miis.edu/research/wtc01/algamaa.htm.

Sagiv, David. Fundamentalism and Intellectuals in Egypt, 1973 - 1993. Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1995.

— AHMED H. IBRAHIM