“Hijra” sounds like something from a movie where a character jumps off a cliff or something (something like “Cowabunga). However, it certainly has a much deeper meaning when it comes to Osama Bin Laden. Today, I’ll be discussing chapter 12 and chapter 13 of “The Looming Tower.”
First, I’ll be talking about chapter 12 titled “The Boy Spies.” Essentially, in April of 1995, Egyptian Government Intelligence realized that al-Zawahiri held a meeting with al-Jihad and leading members of other Islamic groups. The intelligence understood that the two groups were plotting against the Egyptian Government along with the Sudanese Government. In June of 1995, assassins attempted to kill the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when he was traveling to a meeting. Unfortunately for the Islamic groups, Mubarak survived and he declared a state of emergency that would last for another 14 years after. Throughout the next year, al-Zawahiri continued to attack Egypt with bombs and other weapons. The U.S started taking actions and Sudan wanted to get them off their backs so they asked what they could do for the US. The US responded by saying that Sudan needed to get rid of bin laden. Sudan then banished bin Laden and told him to go.
Now, this brings us to chapter 13 titled, “Hijra.” As I was saying earlier, this does indeed sound like something that someone would yell while jumping off a cliff but actually, there are similarities in the case with Osama bin Laden. With bin Laden, he was exiled by Sudan in the previous chapter in order to please the U.S. With nowhere to go, bin Laden lived off donations and went to Afghanistan where the Taliban had been terrorizing. The Sudanese government gave bin Laden over to the Taliban and he would become a person in the hands of Mullah Mohammad Omar who was the “self-imposed ruler of the Muslims.” Bin Laden realizing that his banishment would raise suspicion made it sound better by morphing the story into something like the “hijra” of the prophet Mohammad (a retreat) to Mecca. Soon, bin Laden declared war on the US and called for supporters to fight. Shortly after, he was visited by the uncle of Ramzi Yousef who would be the very man to suggest the attack of 9/11.
It’s certainly a surprise that the person who created commotion with a car bombs’ uncle was actually the one who started the idea of the attack of 9/11. It’s also interesting to me that the Egyptian Government, which was probably not as advanced as the US Government, managed to catch on sooner than us. It shows the amount of ignorance that we really showed during the time and I think there is definitely something to be learned.