The Looming Tower (63 page)

Umm Ali:
Osama’s wife from the Gilaini family in Mecca. She bore him three children. She asked for a divorce in 1996 and now lives in Saudi Arabia.

Umm Hamza:
Married Osama in 1982 and bore him one child. She is from a distinguished family in Jeddah and has a Ph.D. in child psychology. She is thought to be with Osama.

Umm Khaled:
From the Sharif family in Medina, she holds a Ph.D. in Arabic grammar and taught at the city’s Education College. She and Osama have three daughters and a son. She is thought to be with Osama.

Dr. Ahmed el-Wed:
Takfiri Algerian doctor who worked in the Kuwaiti Red Crescent hospital in Peshawar with Zawahiri and Dr. Fadl; went back to Algeria after the jihad to become one of the founders of GIA.

Mary Jo White:
Former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Ramzi Yousef:
Mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The nephew of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef was born in Kuwait in
1968;
studied electrical engineering in Wales. Created elaborate plots to assassinate Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton and to blow up eleven American airliners simultaneously. Finally captured in Pakistan in
1995,
he is in an American prison serving a life sentence plus 240 years.

Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri:
Leader of al-Jihad and the ideological leader of al-Qaeda. Born in Cairo on June
19, 1951,
Zawahiri started a cell to overthrow the Egyptian government when he was fifteen years old. Imprisoned after Sadat’s assassination in 1981 and convicted of dealing in weapons, he was released three years later. He fled to Saudi Arabia in
1985,
and the following year moved to Peshawar, where he and Dr. Fadl rebuilt al-Jihad. After the end of the war against the Soviet occupation, Zawahiri relocated his movement to Sudan, where he waged a campaign against the Egyptian government, resulting in the near total destruction of his organization. In 1996 he moved to Afghanistan and engineered a merger of al-Jihad with al-Qaeda. He is the author of several books, notably
Bitter Harvest
and
Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner.
His whereabouts are unknown.

Hussein al-Zawahiri:
Ayman’s youngest brother, an architect, was rendered by the CIA and the FBI to Egypt, where he was questioned and eventually released in August 2000. He now lives in Cairo.

Mohammed al-Zawahiri:
Ayman’s younger brother, who became deputy emir of al-Jihad. An architect by training, he set up the al-Jihad cell in Albania. He resigned from the organization in 1998. He was reputedly captured by Egyptian authorities in Dubai in 2000 and later executed in prison.

Dr. Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri:
Ayman al-Zawahiri’s father, a professor of pharmacology at Ain Shams University, who died in 1995.

Montassir al-Zayyat:
Islamist lawyer in Cairo who was imprisoned with Zawahiri. He eventually wrote a biography of Zawahiri,
The Road to al-Qaeda.

NOTES

Where there are attributed quotes in the text that are not cited in the notes, they derive from personal interviews.

1. The Martyr

7
Sayyid Qutb:
I am especially indebted to Mohammed Qutb for his generous recollections of his brother. My views of Qutb’s life have also been shaped by communications with John Calvert and Gilles Kepel.

“Should I go”:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: min al-milad,
194.

Powerful and sympathetic friends:
interview with Mohammed Qutb. Qutb names in particular Mahmud Fahmi Nugrashi Pasha, the Egyptian prime minister.

8
not even a very religious man:
Shepard,
Sayyid Qutb,
xv. Mohammed Qutb told me, “For a while, he became more secular.”

he had memorized the Quran:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication.

He had read:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: min al-milad,
139.

9
“I hate those Westerners”:
Qutb, “Al-dhamir al-amrikani.”

“dishonorable” women:
John Calvert, “‘Undutiful Boy,’” 98.

The dearest relationship:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication.

“I have decided”:
al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
27.

10
“half-naked”:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: min al-milad,
195. Later Qutb would claim that the woman was an agent of the American Central Intelligence Agency, sent to seduce him.

the most prosperous holiday:
McCullough,
Truman,
621.

Half of the world’s:
Johnson,
Modern Times,
441.

11
Fully a fourth:
White,
Here Is New York,
46.

never met one:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication.

English was rudimentary:
interview with Mohammed Qutb.

“Here in this strange place”:
Sayyid Qutb, letter to Anwar el-Maadawi, in al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-adib,
157–58.

12
“black elevator operator”:
Ibid., 195–96.

Kinsey researcher:
Manchester,
The Glory and the Dream,
479.

Qutb was familiar:
Qutb,
Shade of the Qur’an,
6:143. The Kinsey Report is rendered “McKenzie” in this translation.

12
“a reckless”:
Qutb,
Majallat al-kitab,
666–69.

“Every time a husband”:
al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
185–86.

13
“Communism is creeping”:
Frady,
Billy Graham,
236.

one of every
1,814
people:
Oshinsky,
A Conspiracy So Immense,
96.

“They are everywhere”:
ibid., 97.

“Either Communism must die”:
Frady,
Billy Graham,
237.

“Either we shall walk”:
Shepard,
Sayyid Qutb,
354.

14
he saw in the party of Lenin:
interview with Gamal al-Banna.

“like a vision”:
ibid., 34.

“a complete system”:
ibid., 51.

“The city”:
White,
Here Is New York,
54.

Qutb moved to Washington:
Calvert, “‘Undutiful Boy,’” 93.

“Life in Washington”:
ibid., 94.

15
“a primitiveness”:
Qutb, “Amrika allati ra’ayt” (b).

“I’m here at a restaurant”:
Sayyid Qutb, letter to Tewfiq al-Hakeem, in al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
154.

“Whenever I go”:
Qutb, “Amrika allati ra’ayt” (c).

“who knows full well”:
Qutb, “Amrika allati ra’ayt” (b).

“Today the enemy”:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication. Qutb attributes the quote to “the doctors themselves” and says, “We, the members of the family, heard it from my brother personally.”

16
“Sheikh Hasan’s followers”:
Albion Ross, “Moslem Brotherhood Leader Slain as He Enters Taxi in Cairo Street,”
New York Times,
February 13, 1949.

a profound shock:
interview with Mohammed Qutb.

they had never met:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication.

“If the Brothers succeed”:
Azzam, “Martyr Sayyid Qutb.”

pay him a fee:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-adib,
149.

“I decided to enter”:
Azzam, “Martyr Sayyid Qutb.” Qutb himself writes, however, that he didn’t formally join the Brotherhood until 1953. Qutb,
Limadah
‘
azdamunee.

17
Summer courses:
interview with Michael Welsh, who is the source of much of the information on the history of Greeley; interviews with Peggy A. Ford, Janet Waters, Ken McConnellogue, Jaime McClendon, Ibrahim Insari, and Frank and Donna Lee Lakin.

greatest civilizations:
Peggy A. Ford, personal communication.

highly publicized:
Larson,
Shaping Educational Change,
5.

mandatory virtues:
ibid.

18
James Michener:
Peggy A. Ford, personal communication.

“small city”:
Qutb, “Hamaim fi New York,” 666.

Garden City:
interview with Michael Welsh.

“They were kicking”:
al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
181.

19
Meeker:
Geffs,
Under Ten Flags,
156–57;
interview with Michael Welsh.

Middle Eastern community:
interview with Sa‘eb Dajani.

“But we’re Egyptians”:
interview with Sa‘eb Dajani.

several of the Arab students:
interview with Ibrahim Insari.

“racism had brought”:
al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
169.

“The foot does not”:
Qutb, “Amrika allati ra’ayt” (b), 1301–2.

20
“simply biological”:
al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil
, 194.

22
Qutb acted as host:
interview with Ibrahim Insari.

classical records:
interview with Sa‘eb Dajani.

“Jazz is”:
Qutb, “Amrika allati ra’ayt” (b), 1301.

“dancing hall”:
ibid., 1301–6.

“estrangement”:
al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
157.

23
“The soul has”:
Sayyid Qutb, letter to Tewfig al-Hakeem, in al-Khaledi,
Amrika min al-dakhil,
196–97.

“white man”:
ibid., 39.

24
Islam and modernity:
Abu-Rabi,
Intellectual Origins,
156; Berman,
Terror and Liberalism,
87ff.

Qutb returned:
interview with Mohammed Qutb; al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-adib,
152.

two hundred red automobiles:
Rodenbeck,
Cairo,
152.

25
“It is the nature”:
Neil MacFarquhar, “Egyptian Group Patiently Pursues Dream of Islamic State,”
New York Times,
January 20, 2002.

lower-middle class:
Ibrahim,
Egypt Islam and Democracy,
36.

more than a million:
interview with Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

intimately organized:
Mitchell,
Society of the Muslim Brothers,
32.

In retaliation:
Abdel-Malek,
Egypt,
34; Rodenbeck,
Cairo,
155. Nutting,
Nasser,
31, gives the alternative figure of forty-three policemen dead and seventy-two wounded.

led by members:
Abdel-Malek,
Egypt,
35.

26
classical music albums:
interview with Fahmi Howeidi. Other observations of Qutb’s villa were made during a tour of Helwan with Mahfouz Azzam.

Some of the planning:
interview with Gamal al-Banna; al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-shaheed,
140–41; al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-adib,
159. Members of the Free Officers who were in the society are listed in Abdel-Malek,
Egypt,
94, 210–11.

“just dictatorship”:
Sivan,
Radical Islam,
73.

Nasser then invited:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication.

he was offered:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-shaheed,
142.

The Islamists wanted:
interview with Olivier Roy; Roy,
Afghanistan,
37–39.

opposed egalitarianism:
Heikal,
Autumn of Fury,
127.

secret alliance:
Ibid., 141.

28
“Let them kill”:
nasser.bibalex.org

placing thousands:
ibid.; figures range from “dozens” (Calvert, “‘Undutiful Boy,’” 101) to “seven thousand” (Abdel-Malek,
Egypt,
96).

Qutb was charged:
Hannonen, “Egyptian Islamic Discourse,” 43.

high fever:
Moussalli,
Radical Islamic Fundamentalism,
34. Al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-shaheed,
145, also mentions the use of dogs during the torture of Sayyid Qutb.

“principles of the revolution”:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-shaheed,
154.

planned takeover:
Mitchell,
Society of the Muslim Brothers,
152.

always frail:
Mohammed Qutb, personal communication; Moussalli,
Radical Islamic Fundamentalism,
34, 62 n.

29
tuberculosis:
Fouad Allam, personal interview.

29
in the prison hospital:
Moussalli,
Radical Islamic Fundamentalism,
36.

“Mankind today”:
Qutb,
Milestones,
5ff.

30
government of Saudi Arabia:
al-Aroosi,
Muhakamat Sayyid Qutb,
80–82.

plot to overthrow:
interview with Fouad Allam; al-Aroosi,
Muhakamat Sayyid Qutb,
43.

security police:
interview with Fouad Allam.

“time has come”:
al-Khaledi,
Sayyid Qutb: al-shaheed,
154.

31
“Thank God”:
ibid., 156.

He dispatched Sadat:
interview with Mahfouz Azzam.