Oriental Rugs the O'Connell Notes

People in the SW-Asia Model - O

Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar, AKA Abu Qatada, AKA Abou Qatada is a fundamentalist Muslim cleric at the Regent's Park mosque in central London. He recruited many of his students for al-Qaeda including Djamel Beghal and Nizar Trabelsi. he was tried in absentia in Jordan for a number of bombings but he was protected by the English Government. Lives in the London suburbs in a small home with his wife and 4 children. Recently the Brits froze his bank account when they discovered $270,000 even though Qatada was on welfare.

Mulah Omar is head of Taliban and had his headquarters in Kandahar.
Mullah Omar lived in Jalalabad in the province of Nangahar and served under Mujahedin Commander Mullah Yunus Khalis in the Hezb-i-Islami during the Russian war.
Omar is from the province of Oruzgan.
Omar is said to have shrapnel pressing on his brain from an explosion a few years ago. This affects his judgement and accounts for his visions.
Omar claimed the title of emir of Afghanistan, Amir-ul Momineen (leader of the faithful) and Calif (the spiritual and political leader of all Islam). He was born the son of a tenant farmer in a mud hovel near Kandahar in 1959. His family is of the Hotak tribe who are Ghilzai Pashtuns. Omar fought as a Mujaheddin against the Russians in the 1980s under Mullah Yunus Khalis. Prone to injuries he lost his right eye. He later caught shrapnel in his head that has been pressuring his brain and causing visions.
With intensive Pakistani and Saudi backing Omar attempted to create a pure Islamic state. The problem is that he never really understood true Islam. He adopted a bastardized form of Sunni Islam called Deobandi Islam and is deeply influenced by heterodox Wahabbi Islam and Pashtunwali (Pashtun social custom).