Nizar Rayan
| Nizar Rayan | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
6 March 1959 Jabalia |
| Died | 1 January 2009 (aged 49) |
| Cause of death | Air force attack |
| Known for | Hamas leadership |
Nizar Rayan (Arabic: نزار ريان, Nɩzár Rɑȋán; also transliterated Rayyan) (6 March 1959–1 January 2009) was a top Hamas leader who served as a liaison between the Palestinian organization's political leadership and its military wing. Also a professor of Islamic law, he became a top clerical authority within Hamas after the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004. Rayan was a strong advocate between 1994 and 2004 or 2005 of suicide attacks on Israel, and his son killed himself on one such mission. Rayan and most of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the Gaza War.
Rayan was born in Jabalia, Gaza Strip on 6 March 1959. In 1982, he received a bachelor of arts degree in religious principles from Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. While there he was influenced by Wahhabism. He then attended the University of Jordan in Amman and in 1990 received a master's degree with honors. In 1994, Rayan completed his PhD in Islamic studies at the Omdurman Islamic University in Omdurman, Sudan. His dissertation has the title of Future of Islam: Objective Analysis.
After his studies, Rayan returned to Gaza and was employed as a preacher at several local mosques, Jabalia's Imad Aqil Mosque (also known as the "Mosque of martyrs") among them. He later became a professor of Islamic law at the Islamic University of Gaza. Rayan was a leading authority on Hadith (sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), and he amassed a 5,000-book library in his home. An Israeli intelligence source describes Rayan as a strong opponent of Shia Islam, who opposed allowing the Shia branch of Islam to establish a foothold in Palestinian territories.
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