Abdullah Yusuf Azzam () was a Palestinian-born Sunni Islamist scholar and Jihadist leader. He and his family fled from what had been the Jordanian-annexed West Bank after the 1967 Six-Day War and pursued higher education in Jordan and Egypt before relocating to Saudi Arabia. In 1979, Azzam issued a fatwa advocating for defensive jihad in light of the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War, and subsequently moved to Pakistan to support the Afghan mujahideen.
As a teacher and mentor to Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, he was one of the key figures who persuaded bin Laden to go to Afghanistan and personally oversee the mujahideen efforts in that country. In 1984, Azzam and bin Laden co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat, an Islamic advocacy organization that sought to raise funds for the mujahideen while also recruiting non-Afghan fighters for their cause. Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, he continued to promote jihadist militancy on behalf of other Muslims in other countries, which led him to become known as the "father of global jihad" in many jihadist circles. Months later, Azzam was killed by a car bomb detonated by unknown assailants in Peshawar, Pakistan.
His son Huthaifa Azzam, who assumes his father's legacy, says that al-Qaeda's methods of targeting civilians in the West or elsewhere would have been rebuked by Azzam, as would have been the use of kidnappings and beheadings.
Early life and citizenship Azzam was born on 14 November 1941 in Silat al-Harithiya, in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine, to a family of Palestinian Arabs. As part of the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Azzam was granted, alongside most Palestinians, Jordanian nationality. Azzam has been described by most of his biographers as being exceptionally intelligent as a child. He liked to read, excelled in class, and studied topics above his grade level."Biography of Shaheed Abdullah Azzam". In Azzam, Abdullah Yusuf. Defenceof the Muslim Lands: The First Obligation after Iman . Trans.
Education
Muslim Brotherhood In the mid-1950s, Azzam joined the Muslim Brotherhood after being influenced by Shafiq Asad 'Abd al-Hadi, an elderly local teacher who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Recognizing Azzam's sharp mind, Shafiq Asad gave Azzam a religious education and introduced him to many of the Muslim Brotherhood's leaders in Palestine. Azzam became more interested in Islamic studies and started a study group in his village. Shafiq Asad then introduced Azzam to Muhammad 'Abd ar-Rahman Khalifa, the Muraqib 'Am (General Supervisor) of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Khalifa met with Azzam during several visits that he made to Silat al-Harithiya. During this part of his life, Azzam began reading the works of Hasan al-Banna and other Muslim Brotherhood writings which greatly influenced his views. The teachings of prominent Muslim Brotherhood members such as Sayyid Qutb and its founder Hassan al-Banna greatly influenced the views of Azzam.
In the late 1950s, after he had completed his elementary and secondary education, Azzam left Silat al-Harithiya and enrolled in the agricultural Khaduri College in Tulkarm, about 30 kilometres southwest of his village. Though he was a year younger than his classmates, he received good grades. After graduation from the college, students were sent out to teach at local schools. Azzam was sent to the village of Adir, near the town of Kerak in central Jordan. According to one of his biographers, Azzam had wanted a position closer to home, but was sent to a distant school after an argument with his college's dean. After spending a year in Adir, Azzam returned to the West Bank, where he taught at a school in the village of Burqin, about four kilometers west of Jenin. His colleagues in Burqin remembered him as being noticeably more religious than them. During breaks, while others ate, Azzam would sit and read the Quran.
Islamic studies in Syria In 1963, Azzam enrolled in the Faculty of Sharia at the University of Damascus in Syria. While in Damascus, he met Islamic scholars and leaders including Shaykh Muhammad Adib Salih, Shaykh Sa`id Hawwa, Shaykh Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti, Mullah Ramadan al-Buti, and Shaykh Marwan Hadid. Azzam's mentor, Shafiq Asad `Abd al-Hadi died in 1964. This strengthened Azzam's determination in working for the cause of Islam. During the holidays, Azzam would return to his village, where he would teach and preach in the mosque. Azzam graduated with highest honors in 1966, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Sharia. Thereafter he returned to the West Bank, where he taught and preached in the region around his village.
1967 Arab–Israeli War and the Palestinian cause After the 1967 Six-Day War ended with the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, Azzam and his family left the West Bank and followed the Palestinian exodus to Jordan.
In Jordan, Azzam participated in paramilitary operations against the Israeli occupation, but became disillusioned with the secular and provincial nature of the Palestinian resistance coalition held together under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and led by Yasser Arafat.
Instead of pursuing the PLO's Marxist-oriented national liberation struggle supported by the Soviet Union, Azzam envisioned a pan-Islamic trans-national movement that would transcend the political map of the Middle East drawn by European colonial powers.Defence of the Muslim Lands; The First Obligation After Iman; Biography of Abdullah Azzam and Introduction , by Abdullah Azzam (Shaheed), English translation work done by Brothers in Ribatt.| religioscope.com
Islamic studies in Egypt In Egypt, Azzam continued his studies at the prestigious Al-Azhar University, getting a PhD in Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence in 1973, while being acquainted during his stay with the ideas of Sayyid Qutb.Andrew McGregor, ""Jihad and the Rifle Alone": 'Abdullah 'Azzam and the Islamist Revolution" in Journal of Conflict Studies, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 Fall 2003 He completed his 600-page doctoral thesis in around 16 months.Tam Hussein (12 February 2020), "The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad" , al-Araby. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
Some researchers believe he had a role as an ideologist in founding the Islamist Hamas movement in Palestine.
Professor in Saudi Arabia Azzam took a position as lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he remained until 1979. Osama bin Laden was enrolled as a student in the university between 1976 and 1981 and probably first met Azzam during that time.Letter From Jedda, Young Osama, How he learned radicalism, and may have seen America , by Steve Coll, The New Yorker Fact, Issue of 2005-12-12, Posted 5 December 2005
Involvement in the Soviet–Afghan War When the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan on request of the Khalqist government in 1979, Azzam issued a fatwa, Defence of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation after Faith, declaring that both the Afghan and Palestinian struggles were jihads and that all able-bodied Muslims had a duty to fight against foreign occupations of Islamic countries. The edict was supported by Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Abd al-Aziz Bin Baz.
Activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan Azzam began to teach at International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan in 1981. Soon thereafter, he moved to Peshawar, closer to the Afghan border, where he established Maktab al-Khadamat (Services Office) to organize guest houses in Peshawar and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international recruits for the Afghan war front. An estimated 16,000 to 35,000 Muslim volunteers from around the world came to fight in Afghanistan.Rashid, Ahmed, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, 2000), p. 129. Thousands more Muslims attended "frontier schools teeming with former and future fighters."
From there, Azzam was able to organize resistance directly on the Afghan frontier. Peshawar is only 15 km east of the Khyber Pass, through the Safed Koh mountains, connected to the southeastern edge of the Hindu Kush range. This route became the major avenue for inserting foreign fighters and material support into eastern Afghanistan for the resistance against the Soviets and their DRA allies.
After bin Laden graduated from the university in Jeddah in 1981, he also lived for a time in Peshawar; Azzam convinced bin Laden to help personally finance the training of recruits.Rahimullah Yusufzai, executive editor of the English-language daily The News International , in a statement to Reuters in Peshawar on 29 December 2001. Yusufzai met bin Laden twice in Afghanistan in 1998. Some have suggested that Mohammed Atef was responsible for convincing Azzam to abandon his academic pursuits to devote himself solely to preaching jihad.Raman, B. South Asia Analysis Group, USA's Afghan Ops , 20 November 2001
Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's fortune paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. To keep al-Khadamat running, bin Laden set up a network of couriers travelling between Afghanistan and Peshawar, which continued to remain active after 2001, according to Rahimullah Yusufzai, executive editor of The News International.
After orientation and training, Muslim recruits volunteered for service with various Afghan militias tied to Azzam. In 1984, Osama bin Laden founded Bait ul-Ansar (House of Helpers) in Peshawar to expand Azzam's ability to support "Afghan Arab" jihad volunteers and, later, to create his own independent militia.
In 1988, Azzam convinced Ahmed Khadr to raise funds for an alleged new charity named al-Tahaddi, based in Peshawar. He granted Khadr a letter of commendation to take back to Canadian mosques, calling for donations. However, the pair had a sensationalist showdown when Khadr insisted that he had a right to know how the money would be spent, and Azzam's supporters labelled Khadr a Western spy. A Sharia court was convened in bin Laden's compound, and Azzam was found guilty of spreading allegations against Khadr, though no sentence was imposed.Michelle Shephard, "Guantanamo's Child", 2008.
Employing tactics of asymmetric warfare, the Afghan resistance movement was able to fend off the militarily superior Soviet Armed Forces throughout most of the war, although the lightly armed Afghan mujahideen suffered enormous casualties. The Saudi Arabian government and the CIA gradually increased financial and military assistance to the Afghan mujahideen forces throughout the 1980s in an effort to stem Soviet expansionism and to destabilize the Soviet Union.
Azzam frequently joined Afghan militias and international Muslim units as they battled the Soviet Union's forces in Afghanistan. He became an inspirational figure among the Afghan resistance and freedom-fighting Muslims worldwide for his passionate attachment to jihad against foreign occupation.