Enduring Appeal What explains the appeal of this gangly son of a prominent Yemeni family? By contrast with some jihadist preachers, he was not a screamer, adopting instead an earnest, explanatory manner, playing the popular young professor. Not a serious scholar, he was nonetheless an omnivorous consumer of Islamic history and texts and an unequalled popularizer.
He was also prolific. He appears to have lived his entire professional life before audio or video recorders. His early audio lectures on the life of the Prophet Muhammad were sold in a CD box. Critically—and unlike every other prominent extremist—he enjoyed a long, successful career as a mainstream preacher and lecturer before he gradually embraced extremism and violence.
And today, all of his material is jumbled together, mixed and remixed and posted online. For a new convert to Islam or a Muslim taking a new interest in the faith, al-Awlaki can provide an inspiring introduction to Islamic history, a grounding in the basics of the faith, and clerical advice on everything from marital strife to overeating.
And in other, later material that is equally available, he argues that is always a mistake to trust non-Muslims, that the United States is at war with Islam, and that to be true to his faith, any Muslim has the obligation to fight the United States and the other purported enemies of Islam. A posthumous article in Inspire magazine in , plausibly attributed to al-Awlaki, took the argument still further.
He says that at some future time, there will no kuffar , or non-believers. It is a noxious message that figured in the online education of many jihadis. It is interesting to ask how al-Awlaki, had he survived, might have reacted to the announcement of the caliphate in June and the naming of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as caliph. He was working in Yemen under the leadership of Nasser al-Wuhayshi, a former personal secretary to bin Ladin.
The same qualities have preserved, even enlarged, his influence in the age of the Islamic State. Greenberg, noted in an email exchange with the author, the actual percentage is probably much higher. And if one of you wishes and tries hard to reach the Islamic State, then one of us wishes to be in your place to hurt the Crusaders day and night without sleeping, and terrorize them so that the neighbor fears his neighbor.
The effect is much greater, it always embarrasses the enemy, and these type of individual decision-making attacks are nearly impossible for them to contain. Citations [1] Mohammed A. Pham, cr, Southern District of New York. Read More. Father: Nasser al-Awlaki a former government minister and university president.
Marriage: Married to a cousin September 30, , his death. Children: Five some sources say three. Education: Colorado State University, B. Human Resources program. Al-Awlaki returned to the United States in for college and remained until He then briefly lived in London before returning to Yemen. Al Jazeera English.
Anwar al-Awlaki was described as "chief of external operations" for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Awlaki was a western-educated American citizen who spoke fluent English who rejected his adopted country for the militant ideology of al-Qaeda.
Fighting the devil doesn't require consultation or prayers seeking divine guidance," he has said. He travelled to Yemen in , where he established contact with Islamist groups fighting the government in Sanaa. Awlaki is thought to have helped oversee a plot in October to detonate explosives aboard a US-bound cargo plane.
He is also said to have had contact with Major Nidal Hassan, the man behind the Ford Hood army base shootings in and to have played a role in the attempted "Christmas Day" attack later that year. I am proud of Nidal Hasan and this was a heroic and wonderful act," Awlaki has said. Al Jazeera's Khadijah Magardie reports.
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