Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani (1959 – December 18, 1998) was the Moro chief founder and leader of the

Abu Sayyaf Abu Sayyaf (; ar, جماعة أبو سياف; ', ASG), officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based i ...

organization until his death in 1998 by Filipino police. Upon his death his brother,

Khadaffy Janjalani Khadaffy Abubakar Janjalani (also transliterated as Khadafy Janjalani, Khadafi Janjalani and Khaddafi Janjalani; March 3, 1975 – September 4, 2006) was the leader of the Moro militant group known as Abu Sayyaf and the leader of one of its ...

, took control of the organization. Janjalani was born on the Philippine island of

Basilan Basilan, officially the Province of Basilan ( cbk, Provincia de Basilan; yka, Wilayah Basilanin; tsg, Wilaya' sin Basilan; fil, Lalawigan ng Basilan), is an island province of the Philippines located primarily in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Re ...

to a Tau Sūg father and a Ilonggo Christian mother; his presumed year of birth, 1959, is still subject to dispute. A former teacher, he studied theology and Arabic in Libya, Syria, and Saudi Arabia during the 1980s. When he returned to the Philippines in 1990 Janjalani was able to attract many

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

youth to join his organization. Janjalani was also allegedly given $6 million by

Osama Bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

to establish the organization as an offshoot of the

Moro National Liberation Front The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF; ar, الجبهة الوطنية لتحرير مورو) is a political organization in the Philippines that was founded in 1972. It started as a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement. The M ...

(MNLF). Janjalani had allegedly met Bin Laden in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in the late 1980s and allegedly fought alongside him against the Soviet Union during the

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. At the time of his death, he was the country's most wanted man, with a bounty of 1.5 million pesos on his head.

References

External links

Asia Times: "Philippines the second front in war on terror?"
1959 births 1998 deaths Tausūg people Abu Sayyaf members Deaths by firearm in the Philippines Filipino Islamists Filipino Muslims Leaders of Islamic terror groups People from Basilan Salafi jihadists {{Philippines-paramilitary-bio-stub