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By Root 998 0

was a man of high intellect. He was born in Egypt in 1951 into a well-to-do family. His father was a respected professor and pharmacologist, while his mother came from a very wealthy family. My father told me that the young Ayman had a rare gift for learning. As a young man he was a bit of a dreamer, loving poetry and hating fighting and bloodshed. Few would have believed that such a peaceful young student would embrace militant Islam, but he was influenced by an uncle who was a follower of the most radical Islamic beliefs. Cooperating with other students to form underground cells calling for the establishment of an Islamic state, Zawahari found his purpose in life, the struggle against secular authority.

Egyptian students were in the midst of a restless period, and various forbidden cells merged with others, forming a larger group known as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, or al-Jihad. Zawahari was a member, although his studies continued even as he plotted the overthrow of the Egyptian government. Despite his political activities, he excelled in his lessons, graduating as a medical doctor, specializing in surgery.

Zawahari married a woman equally pious and supportive of her husband’s ideals. Her name was Azza Nowari.

Zawahari was so deeply entrenched in the Islamic movement that when President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in October 1981, he was arrested. Tried and convicted, Zawahari was given a prison sentence of three years. After his release in 1984, he traveled to Jeddah, remaining there for a year. Sensing that an important Islamic movement was being established in Pakistan, he traveled on to Peshawar. Using his medical degree, he worked in one of the many Red Crescent medical centers, treating wounded Afghan refugees.

During this time, he reconnected with other Egyptian Islamic Jihad members, increasing his revolutionary fervor. Soon he was the proclaimed leader. While in Peshawar, he allied with my father’s friend and mentor, the Palestinian activist Abdullah Azzam. Through Abdullah Azzam, he met my father.

I believe that it was during this time that Zawahari began plotting to tap into my father’s wealth. In fact, I have heard that he became Azzam’s competitor for my father’s financial contributions to the cause of Islam.

At the end of the war, when my father returned to Saudi Arabia, Zawahari went back to Egypt. However, he was unable to stay out of trouble, almost immediately renewing his efforts to overthrow the Egyptian government led by President Hosni Mubarak. There were several failed attempts by Zawahari’s group against various government officials, but their plans backfired when a number of innocent Egyptian civilians were killed in the assassination attempts. That’s when the Egyptian populace turned against the once popular Islamic radicals.

No longer welcome in Egypt, Zawahari traveled to the United States, where he became one of the many radical Muslims on a popular speaking circuit, all attempting to raise money for their organizations. Some said that Zawahari falsely claimed that the money raised would go to wounded Afghan children. But there were so many radical Muslims appealing for money that Zawahari did not collect the large sums he had envisioned. That’s when he heard that my father had fled Saudi Arabia, and was living in Sudan, a country with an Islamic government friendly to radical groups.

I was sorry that Zawahari tracked my father to Sudan, and once again linked himself and his organization to my father and to al-Qaeda. I felt that nothing good could come from the association.

Lastly, there was the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya group, led by Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Egyptian cleric. Since his imprisonment in the United States, his son had become the local organizer in Khartoum. But the old man’s spirit still encouraged his followers.

I heard all about him. Abdel Rahman was born in 1938 in Egypt. Afflicted with childhood diabetes, he lost his sight when a young child. He was given a Braille version of the Koran and developed a keen interest in Islamic teachings. Despite his blindness, he