Abdullah Yusuf Azzam

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam ((1941-11-14)14 November 1941 – (1989-11-24)24 November 1989) was a Palestinian 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 efforts in that country. In 1984, Azzam and bin Laden co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat, an Islamic advocacy organization that sought to raise funds for the mujahideen while also recruiting non-Afghan fighters for their cause. Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, he continued to promote jihadist militancy on behalf of other Muslims in other countries, which led him to become known as the "father of global jihad" in many jihadist circles. Months later, Azzam was killed by a car bomb detonated by unknown assailants in Peshawar, Pakistan.