Ayman al-Zawahiri is the new leader of Al-Qaeda

Ayman al-Zawahiri is the new leader of Al-Qaeda following Osama bin Laden’s death, according to a message that appeared on several jihadist websites.

The decision to appoint al-Zawahiri leader was made out of respect to the “righteous martyrs” and to honor bin Laden’s legacy, the announcement said.

The message also said that the fight against “apostate invaders” will continue “until all invading armies leave the land of Islam.”

Al-Qaeda is known to disseminate information through its affiliate websites. Recently, news surfaced that Mi6 agents hacked an Al-Qaeda online magazine, which contained bomb-making instructions, but the network managed to reissue the magazine and later publish four more editions.

Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda’s longtime leader, was killed in a secret compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, in May. Even before the death of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri was considered the leader of Al-Qaeda, but the Thursday’s announcement on the jihadist websites makes that official.

[via CNN]

 Upbringing and education

Ayman al-Zawahiri was born to a prominent upper middle class family in Maadi, Egypt, a suburb of Cairo, and was reportedly a studious youth. His father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, came from a large family of doctors and scholars. Mohammed Rabie—a Muslim fanatic—became a surgeon, and a medical professor at Cairo University. Ayman al-Zawahiri's mother, Umayma Azzam, came from a wealthy, politically active clan. Ayman excelled in school, loved poetry, "hated violent sports"—which he thought were "inhumane"—and had a deep affection for his mother.

Ayman Zawahiri became both quite pious and political, under the influence of his uncle Mahfouz Azzam, and lecturer Mostafa Kamel Wasfi. Sayyid Qutb preached that to restore Islam and free Muslims, a vanguard of true Muslims modeling itself after the original Companions of the Prophet had to be developed.

By the age of 14, al-Zawahiri had joined the Muslim Brotherhood. The following year the Egyptian government executed Qutb for conspiracy, and al-Zawahiri, along with four other secondary school students, helped form an "underground cell devoted to overthrowing the government and establishing an Islamist state." It was at this early age that al-Zawahiri developed a mission in life, "to put Qutb's vision into action. His cell eventually merged with others to form al-Jihad or Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University in 1974 with gayyid giddan. Following that he served three years as a surgeon in the Egyptian Army after which he established a clinic near his parents. In 1978, he also earned a master's degree in surgery.

In 1993, Ayman al-Zawahiri sent his younger brother—Muhammad al-Zawahiri—to the Balkans to help run the mujaheddin fighters in Bosnia. Muhammed is known as a logistics expert and is said to be the military commander of Islamic Jihad. Muhammed worked in Bosnia, Croatia, and Albania under the cover of being an International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) official. While hiding in the United Arab Emirates, he was arrested in 2000, then extradited to Egypt where he was sentenced to death. He was held in Tora Prison in Cairo as a political detainee. Security officials said he was the head of the Special Action Committee of Islamic Jihad, which organized terrorist operations. However, after the Egyptian popular uprising in the spring of 2011, on March 17, 2011 he was released from prison by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the interim government of Egypt. His lawyer said he had been held to extract information about his brother Ayman. However, on Sunday March 20, 2011, he was re-arrested.



 
Marriage and family


In 1978 he married his wife Azza Ahmed Nowari, who was studying philosophy at Cairo University. Their wedding, at the Continental Hotel in Opera Square, was very pious, with separate areas for both men and women, and no music, photographs, or light-hearted humour. Many years later, when the United States attacked Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Azza denied ever knowing that Zawahiri had been a jihadi emir (commander) for the last decade, although at least one acquaintance is skeptical of her ignorance of this fact.

The couple had four daughters, Fatima (b. 1981), Umayma, Nabila (b. 1986) and Khadiga (b. 1987), and a son Mohammed, who was a "delicate, well-mannered boy" and "the pet of his older sisters," subject to teasing and bullying in a traditional all-male environment who preferred to "stay at home and help his mother. Ten years after the birth of Mohammed, Azza gave birth to Aisha, who had Down syndrome. In February 2004, Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded, and subsequently stated that Abu Turab Al-Urduni had married one of al-Zawahiri's daughters.

Zaynab Khadr recalled celebrating the engagement of Umayma at the family's house for an all-day party, and al-Zawahiri knocking softly at Umayma's door asking the two girls to please keep their singing and partying quiet as it was nighttime.

Azza and Aisha both died in November 2001, following 9/11. After American bombardment of a Taliban officials building at Gardez, Azza was pinned under debris of a guesthouse roof. Concerned for her modesty, she "refused to be excavated" because "men would see her face." Her four-year-old daughter Aisha had not been hurt by the bombing but died from exposure in the cold night while the rescuers tried to save Azza.

In the first half of 2005, another daughter was born, named Nawwar.