Usama bin Ladin’s “Father Sheikh”:

Muhammad Nabi Muhammadi: Nabi Muhammadi was a graduate of the Dar al‐‘Ulum
Haqqaniyya. Nabi Muhammadi was chosen as a compromise leader to unite the
squabbling mujahidin factions in the late 1970s with the creation of the Harakat‐e
Inqilab‐e Islami. This unity party failed in its original purpose, but Nabi Muhammadi
continued on as the leader of Harakat throughout the war.
Professor Ghulam Niazi: Niazi left Afghanistan to be educated at al‐Azhar in Egypt,
where he was exposed to the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al‐Muslimin).
He began holding political discussion group meetings in the 1960s, which later evolved
into some of the first anti‐leftist mujahidin political movements in Afghanistan. Both
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabbani looked to Niazi as a political and
spiritual leader.
Sayyid Ahmed Gailani: Gailani was the leader of one of the largest networks of Sufis in
Afghanistan at the start of the Soviet‐Afghan War. He used this network to help create
“the National Front” (Mahaz‐e Milli), one of the two Sufi mujahidin political parties.
Sibghatullah Mujaddidi: Mujaddidi was the leader of one of the largest and most
politically influential Sufi networks in Afghanistan during the 1960s and 1970s. He
eventually founded “the National Salvation Front” (Jebha‐ye Nejat‐e Milli). This was
one of the two Sufi mujahidin political parties.
Al‐Qa`ida Affiliated Individuals or Relatives of Usama bin Ladin
Abu Musab al‐Suri: Al‐Suri (whose real name is Mustafa bin ‘Abd al‐Qadir Setmariam
Nasar) was a strategist and trainer with ties to al‐Qa`ida. He wrote about some of his
experiences with Usama bin Ladin, and gives a brief account of a meeting between
Yunus Khalis and the al‐Qa`ida leader in 1996. After spending several years in
detention in a number of countries following 9/11, he is rumored to have been released
from Syrian custody during the 2011 to 2012 timeframe.
Ayman al‐Zawahiri: The former head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and a key al‐Qa`ida
member and propagandist, al‐Zawahiri has served as the leader of the latter group
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