The Journey Of Haroun Fazul | PBS - Saudi Time Bomb? | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE

Haroun Fazul comes from the impoverished Comoros Islands off East Africa where he attended a Wahhabi madrassa (religious school) and, at the age of sixteen, received a scholarship to study at a Wahhabi madrassa in Pakistan. From there he went to Afghanistan, to join the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

In August 1998, Fazul, together with two Saudi men, blew up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. To this day, he remains a fugitive and is on the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists"list.

For over three years, FRONTLINE has followed Fazul's story. The first time was in its 1999 report on Osama bin Laden and the 1998 embassy bombing in which FRONTLINE examined how life in Fazul's homeland, the Comoros Islands, made young men like him susceptible to Islamic extremism.

Three years later, FRONTLINE returned to Fazul's story, taking a closer look at the religious school Fazul attended as a boy on the Comoros Islands--a Wahhabi madrassa funded with Saudi money--and his later schooling at another Wahhabi madrassa in Pakistan. There--as happened in many madrassas which exploded in number during the Islamic jihad in Afghanistan against the Soviets(1979-1989)--Islamic militancy and military training were emphasized far more than religious scholarship.


	Read the letter Haroun Fazul wrote from Afghanistan to his brother Omar in which he writes;"I want to inform you that I spent two months in military bases; I learned how to use armoured cars and heavy weapons - Russian, not American. After I went to another place where I learnt how to handle an automatic pistol (Peyat). I became a member of their group (literally: `I got confirmed with them')"


	Read the deposition of Haroun Fazul's wife, conducted during the investigation into the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing in Nairobi.

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