Mohammed Omar

Mohammed Omar (Arabic: ملا محمد عمر; born 1959) is the reclusive leader of the Taliban of Afghanistan and was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to 2001. He has been in hiding since the U.S. war in Afghanistan started in 2001 and is wanted by US authorities for harboring Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization.

For a man who served as the head of state of a nation of 25 million people, remarkably little is known about him. According to Omar, he has never flown on a plane, and has left his native Afghanistan only once, to travel briefly to the tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan. Omar gave few interviews, rarely met with non-Muslims, and there are only a few known pictures of him. Diplomats describe him as shy and untalkative with foreigners. During his rule, almost all contact with the outside world was carried out by his foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil.

Personal Life

Omar is an ethnic Pashtun and is described as very tall (some say 1.98 m. or 6'6"). He was born the son of a peasant farmer, and grew up in mud huts around the village of Singesar (some reports say Nodeh), near Kandahar. He lost his father when he was young and the responsibility of fending for his family fell on him. He is said to be married with at least two wives and has five children who are studying in the madrassa run by Omar.

Soviet Invasion and radicalisation

He is said to have been a guerilla fighter with the Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami faction of the anti-Soviet mujahideen. He was wounded four times and lost one eye to shrapnel. Taliban lore has it that, upon being wounded by a piece of shrapnel, Omar removed his own eye and sewed the eyelid shut. However, reports from a Red Cross facility near the Pakistan border indicate that Omar was treated there for the injury, where his eye was surgically removed.

It may have been after he was disabled that Omar studied and taught in a madrassah, or Islamic seminary, in the Pakistani border city of Quetta. It is known that he was a mullah with a village madrassah near the Afghan city of Kandahar.

After 1989

Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the collapse of the Communist regime in Kabul in 1992, the country fell into anarchy as various mujahideen factions fought for control. Omar came to head a group of fighters known as the Taliban (students). His recruits came from the Qur'anic schools within Afghanistan and in the Afghan refugee camps across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption that had emerged in the civil war period and were initially welcomed by Afghans weary of warlord rule.

Reportedly Alternative link at TVNZ, in early 1994 Omar lead 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two girls that were kidnapped and raped by local commanders. His movement gained momentum through the year, and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools. By November 1994, Omar's movement managed to capture the province of Kandahar.

Leader of the Taliban

In April 1996, supporters of Mullah Omar gave him the title Amir al-Mu'minin (أمير المؤمنين, "commander of the faithful") after he supposedly took the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad out of a series of chests it was locked in, which were held in a shrine in Kandahar. Legend had it that the person who could get the cloak out of the chests would be the great King of Islam, or "Amir al-Momineen" . Shortly, Kabul fell to him and his followers in 1996. It is now widely believed that the Taliban received widespread support from the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence service.

Mullah Omar renamed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in October 1997.

However, Omar did not move to Kabul, which has been the capital of Afghanistan for several centuries. In fact he only visited Kabul twice during the reign Taliban from 1996 to 2001. Omar ruled from his base in Kandahar.

Under Mullah Omar Taliban authorities enforced a particularly strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. Women were not allowed to work, save in health care, or to attend school. A stringent interpretation of the Islamic dress code, or hijab, was enforced; women were not to leave the house without a burqa. Men were required to grow beards and to avoid Western-style haircuts or dress. Cinemas were closed and music was banned. Theft was punished by the amputation of a hand, rape and murder by public execution. Married adulterers were stoned to death. In Kabul, punishments were carried out in front of crowds in the former Kabul soccer stadium.

After 2001

Since the 2001 U.S. war in Afghanistan started, Omar has been hiding in unknown location(s) and is still at large. The United States government is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture. He is believed to be in Pakistan, but there is no conclusive proof that he is there.

In June 2006, a statement was released supposedly from Mullah Omar regarding the death of al-Zarqawi in Iraq. The statement hailed Zarqawi as a martyr and claimed that resistance forces in Afghanistan and Iraq "will not be weakened".

Personal Life

Soviet Invasion and radicalisation

After 1989

Leader of the Taliban

After 2001

References and External links

See also

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Mohammed Omar

Personal Life

Soviet Invasion and radicalisation

After 1989

Leader of the Taliban

After 2001

References and External links

See also