Abdullah Yusuf Azzam

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam ((1941-11-14)14 November 1941 – (1989-11-24)24 November 1989) was a Palestinian-Jordanian Islamist jihadist and theologian. Belonging to the Salafi movement within Sunni Islam, he and his family fled from what had been the Jordanian-annexed West Bank after the 1967 Six-Day War and pursued higher education in Jordan and Egypt before relocating to Saudi Arabia. In 1979, Azzam issued a fatwa advocating for "defensive jihad" in light of the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War, and subsequently moved to Pakistan to support the Afghan mujahideen. As a teacher and mentor to Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, he was one of the key figures who persuaded bin Laden to go to Afghanistan and personally oversee the mujahideen's efforts in that country. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam is the 1,992nd most popular politician (up from 2,413th in 2019). (up from 261st in 2019)

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam is most famous for being the mentor of Osama bin Laden and co-founder of the Muslim World League.