Omar Abdel Rahman
| Omar Abdel-Rahman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
3 May 1938 Al Gammaliyyah, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt |
| Other names | The Blind Sheikh |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment plus 15 years |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated at FMC Butner Medical Center |
| Spouse(s) | Aisha Hassan Gouda A. Zohdi |
| Children | 10 |
| Conviction(s) | Seditious conspiracy, Terrorism |
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (Arabic: عمر عبد الرحمن, ‘Umar ‘Abd ar-Raḥman; born 3 May 1938), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", is a blind Egyptian Muslim leader who is currently serving a life sentence at the Butner Medical Center which is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy, which requires only that a crime be planned, not that it necessarily be attempted. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the World Trade Center 1993 bombings.
Abdel-Rahman was accused of being the leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (also known as "The Islamic Group"), a militant Islamist movement in Egypt that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Egyptian governments. The group is responsible for many acts of violence, including the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed.
Abdel-Rahman was born in the city of al-Gamalia, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt, on May 3, 1938. He lost his eyesight when he was 10 months old, probably due to childhood diabetes. He studied a Braille version of the Qur'an as a child, had it memorized by age 11 and was sent to an Islamic boarding school. He developed an interest in the works of the Islamic purists Ibn Taymiyah and Sayyid Qutb. He studied at Cairo University's School of Theology and later earned a Doctorate in Tafsir from the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Soon after leaving university, Abdel-Rahman began preaching against the secular regime of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Abdel-Rahman became one of the most prominent and outspoken Muslim clerics to denounce Egypt’s secularism.
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