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1979 – 1989 – a new Islamic century.The Afghan Jihad against Russia:'Who is stronger? Allah (God) or Russia?'- Abdullah Azzam inspiring the Muslim fighters in Afghanistan.1979 was the first year of the 15th century of Islam. According toa saying of God's Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) God would revive the religion through individuals (arabic:Mujaddid) after every century."Allah shall raise for this Ummah (nation) at the head of every century aman who shall renew (or revive) for it its religion." – saying of ProphetMuhammad. (peace be upon him)—Sunan Abu Dawood, Book 37: Kitab al-Malahim [Battles], Hâdith Number 4278.With the Islamic Ottoman Caliphate having collapsed in 1924, Islam was in need of arevival. The Communist Russian war against Afghanistan would be the cause of thisrevival through two main men – Abdullah Azzam and Osama bin Laden.Abdullah Azzam:Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was described as 'the reviver of Jihad in the 20th century' in the TimesMagazine. Born in Palestine, he knew how it felt to live under occupation. He was a serious anddedicated boy from a young age, participating in the Jihad against the Israeli occupation ofPalestine in the 1960s from Jordan. But things there weren't to his liking, since most of thePalestinian resistance during that period consisted of nationalists who never took the religionseriously, playing cards and listening to music instead of praying to Allah (God) for victory. Oneday he rhetorically asked one of the 'Mujahideen' (fighters) what the religion behind thePalestinian revolution was, to which the man replied, quite clearly and bluntly, "This revolutionhas no religion behind it." This was the last straw, Abdullah Azzam left Palestine, and went toSaudi Arabia to teach in the universities there.10

When he heard of the Jihad in Afghanistan, he rushed to it and dedicated his entire life to callingthe Muslim world to its aid. He himself promised never to leave it, hoping to establish an IslamicCaliphate there - according to God's command, or die there in the process. He would work withOsama to provide services to the fighters (called: the Bait ul Ansar [House for the Helpers].) Hetravelled all over the world, calling on Muslims to rally to the defence of their religion and lands.He wrote a number of books on Jihad, such as Join the Caravan and Defence of Muslim Lands.Moreover, he himself participated bodily in the Afghan Jihad, despite the fact that he was in hisforties. He traversed Afghanistan, from north to south, east to west, in snow, through themountains, in heat and in cold, riding donkeys and on foot. Young men with him used to tirefrom such exertions, but not Abdullah Azzam.Abdullah Azzam made Jihad in every possible way, responding to the call of Allah: "Go forth,light and heavy, and strive with your selves and your wealth in the path of Allah. That is betterfor you, if only you knew." [Quran, 9:41]He reared his family also, in the same spirit, so that his wife, for example, engaged in orphancare and other humanitarian work in Afghanistan. He refused teaching positions at a number ofuniversities, declaring that he would not quit Jihad until he was either martyred or assassinated.He used to reiterate that his ultimate goal was still to liberate Palestine.He would always say: "Muslims cannot be defeated by others. We Muslims are not defeated byour enemies, but instead, we are defeated by our ownselves."When Osama bin Laden went to Afghanistan, he met with Abdullah Azzam and worked withhim.Osama’s first visit to Afghanistan:.During his late teens, Osama heard of the Russiansinvading Afghanistan in a war which would killmore than a million Afghans. Like many otherMuslim Arabs, he collected donations and travelledthere to support the Jihad (resistance struggle). Hemet Abdullah Azzam there, with Azzam providingthe services for the Arab fighters and Osamagetting funds from the Saudi kingdom. AbdullahAzzam wanted to protect the Muslims ofAfghanistan, and had plans to make Afghanistaninto an Islamic state through which a true Islamicrevival could begin. The tyrant puppet regimes in the Muslim world had prevented this since1924, and although Saudi Arabia had implemented some Islamic laws, it was still subservient toWestern powers. This would later (in the year of 2000 and beyond) be a key point in al Qa'idah's(AQ) strategy to remove all Western influence before establishing a full Islamic state.11

During this time, America was in support of the Jihad, and so was Saudi Arabia. It was America'swish to remove the only superpower competing with them by any means possible, even if itmeant giving expertise training and weapons to poor Afghans. As a result, Afghans were trainedin techniques of guerilla warfare, bomb making, acts of sabotage, and weapons training.The American's didn't know, but this would be a cause for their downfall in the future.*Russia loses:Many battles took place against the Russians, commanders like Jalaluddin Haqqani toldmany stories of miracles and how they only had 3 British rifles from (the Afghans hadwon as spoils of war against the British colonialists during the 1800s), and how theywould shoot a bullet and it would explode an entire Russian tank miraculously. Thiscaused many Afghan communists (working for the Russians) to surrender, and thegroup got more modern Russian weapons as a result.The Afghan communists were not always happy with being ruled by Russians, andJalaluddin narrated another event where a firefight occurred between JalaluddinHaqqani's fighters and the Afghan communists. Suddenly an Afghan communist shotand killed his own commander, freeing the rest of the Afghan communists from hiscontrol, they then joined Haqqani's battalion and their influence expanded from there.12

It was narrated that;This would later be known as the Haqqani network, which would soon become thestrongest Afghan guerilla force in the early 21st century.Jalaluddin had a close friendship with Abdullah Azzam during the Russian Jihad, andcontinued to have influence over the Haqqani network in the 90s and 2000 years.Jalaluddin Haqqani later retired due to old age and has -since the American-ledinvasion- now passed on the command to his experienced and battle hardened sonSirajuddin Haqqani.13

The early Taliban:Young men like Omar (later to be known as Mullah Omar) also participated in the Jihadagainst the Russians, during a battle - one of his eyes had been shot out, but that didnot lower his morale in the least.These young men were from religious families who were taught that it is necessary tofight an invading enemy, even if he takes a hand span of Muslim land.These men were warriors by blood, chivalrous, brave, never submitting to any ideologyafter accepting Islam from over 1000years ago, a characteristic they shared with theirArab brothers. Afghanistan was known as the 'Graveyard of Empires.' The next 30 yearsof continuous war against world superpowers would put this title to the test.Russia is defeated:Russians had alot of air firepower which devastated the Afghans, entire towns would bedestroyed by violentbombardment. The Russians wanted to overpower the resistance of the Afghans so theirCommunism could dominate through Central Asia (Arabic: Khurasan) and expand forworld domination, a race they wew having with the Americans.The Afghans were able to seek protection in the mountaineous terrain of the HinduKush (a natural protection against air bombardment). But they were still unable tocounter the air attacks of the Russians.America provided the Afghans with Stinger missiles, advanced surface to air weaponrywhich could shoot down aircraft. This would be the pivotal weapon to defeat theRussians main source of air strength.Abdullah Azzam and Osama bin Laden continued to provide services to the Arab andAfghan fighters, they themselves participated in many battles. The Afghans felthonoured that the Arab 'sons of the Sahaaba' (helpers of Prophet Muhammad) wereaiding them in this struggle against a world superpower.14

Many miracles happened during these battles, with birds hovering over missiles toinform the Muslim fighters of the missiles direction, other times tanks ran over men andbullets were shot at them, yet they survived without injury. Their killed smelled ofperfume out of this world (which the Arab and Afghans said was a smell from Paradisewhere their souls now resided), while the killed of the communists smelled rotten andwas often abandoned, their corpses eaten by dogs. (More miracles can be read inAbdullah Azzam's book: Signs of al-Rahmaan [the Most Merciful (God)] in the Jihad ofAfghan.)Block the Supply Routes Strategy:The Arab-Afghan Islamic resistance against the Russian's learnt a new technique todefeat the superpower. They knew the communists within Afghanistan depended uponthe supply line of weapons and fuel which entered into Afghanistan from neighboringcountries from Central Asia (now under USSR control), they would target this supply linecontinuously so that the communist forces within Afghanistan would run out ofsupplies, which would be the cause of their defeat. They did exactly this, in addition tomany Afghans turning against their communist commanders and shooting them in theirbacks.Now with the destruction of Russia's air power through Stinger missiles, the ambushingof Communist supply lines, and the murder of Communist commanders withinAfghanistan - the Russian superpower lost its power, morale and financial capability,being drained of a billion dollars through the hands of the poorest people in theworld. This would soon be the end of the Russian Communist movement (known as theUSSR) and the Red army.The USSR never fully recovered after this war, millions of Afghan warriors and innocentshad been killed, and Afghanistan had after 10 years of violence been freed from externaldomination. It would be this same strategy which would defeat occupying Westernforces in Afghanistan, 20 years later.15

Part 2 - (1989-2000) – the Foundation of the Movement.The Founding (Qa'idah) of AQ (Al Qa’idah) & The Afghan Civil War.After the Russians had left Afghanistan, there was chaos everywhere. All the differenttribes and groups which had collectively fought against the Russians now competed fortheir own power. Corruption became widespread, checkpoints spread everywhere to taxtravellers for their money. Travelling one mile would lead you to a checkpoint where youhad to give money to a warlord, another mile later another checkpoint owned byanother warlord would stop you and interrogate you for your money. If you never hadmen, guns and trucks, you could do nothing except pray for safety. Within this chaos,the religious groups who had formed during the Jihad were still scattered, and the tribalgroups who only wanted power were extremely dangerous, doing mass murder, rapeand plunder everywhere.During the Russian Jihad, Abdullah Azzam had discussions with Osama and the Arabs asto their organisations Foundation (arabic: Qaa'idah) and how they should deal with thedistinct gap between the Arabs and Afghans.Azzam had the opinion that the Arabs should merge with the Afghans long term, andwork together to establish an Islamic Caliphate (Khilafah) in Afghanistan. Osama slightlydiffered in his opinion and said the Arabs should be trained as an elite force who willspread their guerilla tactics and ideology of a global Islamic resistance to other Muslimlands. He felt that a Caliphate couldn't be guaranteed long term unless the strengths ofthe Muslims globally were united first. This difference between them remained and noreal conclusion was reached. In 1989, Abdullah Azzam was killed by a bomb in his car onhis way to Friday prayer with his two sons (many blame it on the communists who stillhad a presence in Afghanistan.)Osama and the Afghani-Arabs:Many Arab fighters decided to stay in Afghanistan out of fear of returning to their homecountries, which were ruled by dictator Arab governments who were puppets forWestern colonialist powers.The Arabs who did return to their home countries were tortured in dungeons as theywere a 'threat' to the tyrant regimes. The Arabs who stayed in Afghanistan married into16

the Afghan and Pakistani populations, which was a rarity since Afghans do not usuallymarry outside their own race. These Arabs would be known as Afghani-Arabs.Another group of Arabs had a different agenda, they were known as the Egyptian Arabs.Of them included the likes of Ayman al Zawahiri (the leader of AQ today [2012]), Saif alAdly, and other Egyptians who had some military experience, being inspired by SyedQutb's teachings of a revolution to topple the tyrant Arab regimes who were enemies ofIslam and puppets for Western interests.These men thought of ways on how this new land could be a launching pad tooverthrow these regimes and replace them with an Islamic governance. These regimeshad tortured them severely in the dungeons of Egypt before the Afghanistan war duringthe coup of Anwar Sadat who had signed a humiliating peace treaty with Israel, but nowthey had the freedom in this land to plan ahead for the years to come.1990-1996:-Osama's return to Saudi Arabia:Osama returned to Saudi Arabia, and since he belonged to a respected family, he wasable to settle back comfortably into his old lifestyle. But after experiencing the successesof the Afghan war, he felt that the Muslim world could become freed from externalinfluences and the glory of Islam could return if the Muslims put the effort into it. Hewasn't satisfied to return to his old lifestyle, he wanted to make a change.Saddam Hussein was in Iraq and was threatening to invade countries surrounding him.Although an Arab nationalist, he allowed people to learn about Islam in Iraq (whichwould effect the future American-led Iraq war of 2002). Saddam threatened to invadeKuwait, and Osama was aware that next to be invaded would be Saudi Arabia.Osama told the king of Saudi Arabia (King Fahad) that they should resist SaddamHussein's invading forces, and with the king's permission - Osama would provide SaudiArabia with 100,000 veterans from Afghanistan and Muslim lands. Osama respected thekings' of Saudi Arabia during this time, calling them Wali al Amr (protectors andcommanders [who should be obeyed].) The king did not take him seriously, and insteadallowed the USA American forces to enter into Saudi Arabia. This shocked Osama andmade him angry; 'How can he allow the disbelievers to enter into the land of the twoHoly Mosques (Haramain)?' (of Makkah and Madinah) he thought.'Expel the polytheists out of the Arabian Peninsula' was a saying of Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him), with the righteous 2nd Caliph Umar taking the Jews and Christians17

out of Arabia too. So why did the American disbelievers army, including womenveterans need to protect the holiest land of the Muslims? Couldn't Muslim men do thiseasily enough for their own religion!?All these thoughts passed through Osama's mind, it made him extremely bitter againstthe king of that time. He needed to do something to counter the new Americanoccupation of the most holy land of Islam - Arabia itself.The Move to Sudan.In the mid 1990s, the ruler (Hassan al Turabi) of Sudan was offering citizenship to anyMuslim who wanted refuge in his country. Many Afghani-Arabs moved to Sudan due tothe intense civil war in Afghanistan.Osama left Arabia and travelled to Sudan and started investment projects there. Hismain focus was in business, farming and to live a normal Islamic lifestyle of going toprayers daily. He was also a constructor like his father, andbuilt high roads, construction projects, investing into the country in the millions ofdollars. He hadn't forgot about the Western, American-led occupation of Muslim lands.He was thinking of ways to defeat them, and he would soon find a solution.War Begins:‘Black Hawk Down’A small battle in Somalia occured against the Americans, and the Afghani-Arabs withOsama (now unofficially known as al-Qa'idah al Jihad [the Foundation of the [global]Jihad [struggle]]) helped the Somali people. The US came with helicopters, and AQlearnt a new tchnique - shoot the tail of the helicopter with a RPG (Rocket PrepelledGrenade) and it will down the helicopter. It was a difficult trick and it worked, and wouldbe later known as a unique AQ tactic (the famous movie 'Black Hawk Down' was inspiredby this.) The US helicopters retreated.Osama realised that the US was like a 'paper tiger' (scarey only in looks but their soldiersare usually afraid/weak as paper). This made him more daring and confident in hisagenda of removing western occupation from Muslim lands.18

He tried to buy nuclear weapons, since they are the best weapon as a deterrant againstother nations. After spending a few million dollars of his own money, and being trickeda few times, that still didn't deter him from his agenda of getting deterrent weapons,and although he wasn't successful, it increased his experience in weapon trading. In thefuture he would even sell American bombs which didn't explode on his men ontointernational buyers (like the Chinese) sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars.Long term Goals:Osama's next long term plan was to target sensitive areas of US interests. He targetedthe US embassy in Kenya and a year before September 11th 2001, he targeted theAmerican Cole ship on the sea of Yemen, where his men travelled on a small boat filledwith explosives, and detonated right through the entire ship, killing many US Armycadets.Osama was enticing America, he expected US forces to invade another Muslim countryto cause another Jihad revival amongst the Muslims (similar to what happened inAfghanistan.) But nothing happened.He had tried to seduce America into wars in Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, but nothinghappened in retaliation from the Americans. America was aware that a man calledOsama bin Laden had declared war on America publicly, but why weren't theyresponding with war?Saudi Arabia revokes Osama’s citizenship:Saudi Arabia was also aware that a citizen from their country was threatening America,and so they sent people who were close to him to tell him to stop. Osama was about tosay something which might have changed history, when one of his Egyptian AQbrothers whispered something in his ear, which made Osama firm on his decision of warwith America. This is why many Saudi officials blame Osama's Egyptian brothers for hislong term committment to the war cause.Saudi Arabia finally decided to revoke his Saudi citizenship, and took his passport awayfrom him. This made him even more bitter against the Saudi regime, who he felt werenow proving themselves to be even more pro-American, when they had already givenAmerica permission to economically and physically occupy the most holy of Muslimlands.19

Whilst in Sudan, there were many attempts by some groups to assassinate Osama, oncea man shot inside the mosque where Osama usually prayed. Osama was ill that day andwasn’t in the mosque. Some would call this luck, while others would say it is God’s plan.Emergency evacuation from SudanThe Leader of Sudan told Osama you have to leave Sudan suddenly (possibly because ofUS threats to the Sudanese government to expel him).The millions he had invested into that country had gone to waste, he had to quickly sellwhat he had at extremely poor prices (with no profit) and left Sudan in a low classairplane provided by the Sudanese.He emigrated back to Afghanistan, with hardly any money in his possession. He feltdisappointed that the people around him who he had supported had all betrayed him.Returning to Afghanistan:Yunus Khalis was a l

Jewish Scripture describing the war and men of war against Zion – p70 The army described – p71 . woke me up few minutes before the morning prayer and told me, ‘Dear father, I want to tell you about a dream that I had.’ I thought he must have . Osama to go out of t