Mohammed Omar

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Mullah  Mohammed Omar ملا محمد عمر
One of few existing images of Mohammed Omar.
Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan
In office 27 September 1996 – 13 November 2001
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir (Acting)
Preceded by	Burhanuddin Rabbani (President of Afghanistan)
Succeeded by	Burhanuddin Rabbani (President of Afghanistan)
Born	1959 (1959) Nodeh, Afghanistan
Political party	Islamic and National Revolution Movement of Afghanistan Taliban
Religion	Sunni Islam
Military service
Battles/wars	Soviet-Afghan War Civil war in Afghanistan War in North-West Pakistan

Mohammed Omar (Pashto: ملا محمد عمر) (born c. 1959, Nodeh, near Kandahar^[1]) often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban of Afghanistan and was Afghanistan's de facto head of state, and was recognized by three states, from 1996 to 2001, under the official title of Head of the Supreme Council. He held the title Commander of the Faithful from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He is wanted by U.S. authorities for defending Afghanistan from a NATO invasion. He is believed to be directing the Taliban in their war against occupational forces and Hamid Karzai's Government in Afghanistan from Pakistan.^[2]

Despite his political rank, and his high status on NATOs terrorism wanted lists,^[3] not much is publicly known about this man. Few photos, none of them official, exist of him and a picture used in 2002 by many media, has since been established as representing another Taliban official. The authenticity of the existing images is debated.^[4] Apart from the fact that he is missing one eye, accounts of his physical appearance are contradictory: some people who have met him describe him as a tall man,^[5][6] while others describe him as small and frail.^[4] He has been described as shy and untalkative with foreigners.^[4][7]

During his tenure as Emir of Afghanistan, Omar seldom left Kandahar and rarely met with outsiders,^[5] instead relying on Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil for the majority of diplomatic necessities.

[edit] Childhood

Omar is an ethnic Pashtun, a member of the Hotak tribe, of the Ghilzai branch of the Pashtun.^[1] He is thought to have been born around 1959 to a family of "poor, landless peasants," growing up in mud huts around the village of Sangisar Maiwand district in Kandahar province, (or, by some reports, Nodeh), near Kandahar. His father is said to have died before he was born and the responsibility of fending for his family fell to him as he grew older.^[8]

[edit] Soviet invasion and radicalization

Omar fought as a guerilla with the Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami faction of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen under the command of Nek Mohammad, and fought against the Najibullah regime between 1989 and 1992.^[8] It was reported that he was thin, but tall and strongly built, and "a crack marksman who had destroyed many Soviet tanks during the Afghan War."^[9]

Omar was wounded four times, and lost an eye either in 1986^[10] or in the 1989 Battle of Jalalabad, which also marred his cheek and forehead.^[11] Taliban lore has it that, upon being wounded by a piece of shrapnel, Omar removed his own eye and sewed the eyelid shut. However, reports from a Red Cross facility near the Pakistan border indicate that Omar was treated there for the injury, where his eye was surgically removed.

After he was disabled, Omar may have studied and taught in a madrasah, or Islamic seminary, in the Pakistani border city of Quetta. He was reportedly a mullah at a village madrasah near the Afghan city of Kandahar.

Unlike many Afghan mujahideen, Omar speaks Arabic.^[12] He was devoted to the lectures of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam,^[13] and took a job teaching in a madrassa in Quetta. He later moved to Binoori Mosque in Karachi, where he led prayers, and later met with Osama bin Laden for the first time.^[5]

[edit] Forming the Taliban

Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the collapse of the Communist regime in Kabul in 1992, the country fell into chaos as various mujahideen factions fought for control. Mullah Omar started his movement with less than 50 armed madrassah students, known simply as the Taliban, (Students). His recruits came from madrassahs in Afghanistan and Pakistan and from the Afghan refugee camps across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption that had emerged in the civil war period and were initially welcomed by Afghans weary of warlord rule.

Reportedly, in early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two girls who had been kidnapped and raped by local commanders.^[14] His movement gained momentum through the year, and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools. By November 1994, Omar's movement managed to capture the province of Kandahar and then captured Herat in September 1995.^[15]

[edit] Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Photo thought to represent Mohammed Omar.^[16]

In April 1996, supporters of Mullah Omar bestowed on him the title Amir al-Mu'minin (أمير المؤمنين, "Commander of the Faithful"),^[17] after he donned a cloak alleged to be that of Muhammad out of a series of chests it was locked in, held in a shrine in Kandahar. Legend decreed that whoever could retrieve the cloak from the chests would be the great Leader of the Muslims, or "Amir al-Mu'minin".^[18] In September that year, Kabul fell to Mullah Omar and his followers.

Under Omar's rule, Sharia was enforced causing crime to diminish. The civil war continued. His Afghanistan was named Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in October 1997.

A "reclusive, pious and frugal" leader,^[5] Omar visited Kabul twice between 1996 to 2001.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2001, following 9/11 and the American invasion of Afghanistan, Omar called for the destruction of America.^{[citation needed]}

Omar stated: "All Taliban are moderate. There are two things: extremism ["ifraat", or doing something to excess] and conservatism ["tafreet", or doing something insufficiently]. So in that sense, we are all moderates – taking the middle path.^{[19][citation needed]}

[edit] In hiding

This photo was thought at some point to represent Mohammed Omar : it was used on wanted posters and in the media and was for a time one of Omar's most notable "portraits". It has since been established that the picture actually represented former Taliban protocol officer Mulvi Hafizullah.^[20].

After the United States invasion of Afghanistan began in 2001, Omar went into hiding and is still at large. He is thought to be in the Pashtun regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to his capture.^[3]

Claiming that the Americans had circulated 'propaganda' that Mullah Omar had gone into hiding, Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil stated that he would like to "propose that Mssrs Blair and Bush take Kalashnikovs and come to a specified place where Omar will also appear to see who will run and who not". He stated that Omar was (merely) changing locations due to security reasons.^[21]

In the opening weeks of October 2001, Omar's house in Kandahar was bombed, killing his stepfather and his 10-year old son.^[22]

Omar is believed to have played a significant role in the ending of the Waziristan War between Waziri Pashtuns and the government of Pakistan in September, 2006. He continues to have the allegiance of prominent pro-Taliban military leaders in the region, including Jalaluddin Haqqani. Former foe Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction has also reportedly allied with Omar and the Taliban.

In April 2004 Omar, with Mohammad Shehzad had a telephone interview.^[23]During the interview, Omar claimed that Osama Bin Laden was alive and well, and that his last contact with Bin Laden was months before the interview. Omar declared that the Taliban were "hunting Americans like pigs".

A captured Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, told Afghan authorities in January 2007, that Omar was being protected by the Inter-Services Intelligence in Quetta, Pakistan.^[24] This matches an allegation made by the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, in 2006, though it is denied by officials in Pakistan.

Numerous statements have been released identified as coming from Omar. In June 2006 a statement regarding the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq was released hailing al-Zarqawi as a martyr and claimed that the resistance movements in Afghanistan and Iraq "will not be weakened".^[25] Then in December 2006 Omar reportedly issued a statement expressing confidence that foreign forces will be driven out of Afghanistan.^[26]

In January 2007, it was reported that Omar made his 'first exchange with a journalist since going into hiding' in 2001, with Muhammad Hanif via email and courier. In it he promised 'more Afghan War', and said the 100+ suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan in the last year had been carried out by bombers acting on religious orders from the Taliban – “the mujahedeen do not take any action without a fatwa.”^[27] In April 2007, Omar issued another statement through an intermediary encouraging more suicide attacks.^[28]

In Ayman al-Zawahiri's frequent appearances in as-Sahab videos, he regularly refers to Mullah Omar as "Commander of the Faithful," Amir al-Mu'minin.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Rashid, Ahmad (2001). Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords. Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-49221-7. 
• Goodson, Larry P. (2001). Afghanistan's Endless War: State failure, Regional politics and the rise of the Taliban. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98111-3. 

[edit] Further reading

• Coll, Steve (2004). Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Penguin Press. ISBN 1-594-20007-6. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mohammed Omar

Wikinews has related news: Mullah Omar says his jihad to continue

• BBC interview with Mullah Omar
• BBC biography of Mullah Omar
• BBC biographical information from Omar
• Mullah Omar - in his own words, The Guardian
• Jihad Unspun article about Muhammad Omar
• US says Mullah Omar 'in Pakistan'

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