Khadr family
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
family noted for their ties to Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and alleged connections to al Qaeda. The family maintains that they have not broken any Canadian laws, and they have never been charged with any crimes by Canadian authorities.
The Khadr family comprises:
- The father, Ahmed Khadr (born 1948), an EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian-Canadian, killed in 2003 - The mother, Maha el-Samnah (born 1957), a PalestinianPalestinian peopleThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
-Canadian
- Their children:
- Zaynab KhadrZaynab KhadrThe eldest child of the Khadr family, Zaynab Khadr was born in Canada to Maha el-Samnah and Ahmed Khadr.Following the 1992 injury that left Ahmed disabled, Zaynab became a "second mother" to the younger children....
(born 1979), a daughter - Abdullah KhadrAbdullah KhadrAbdullah Ahmed Khadr is the oldest son of Ahmed Khadr and brother of Omar Khadr who has been charged with war crimes before the Guantanamo military commission....
(born 1981), a son who returned to Canada in 2005, was arrested on behalf of the United States and held for 5 years while an extradition request was reviewed. Ontario Superior Court ordered him released in 2010 citing "shocking and unjustifiable" human rights violations. - Abdurahman KhadrAbdurahman KhadrAbdurahman Khadr is the third child of the Egyptian Canadian Khadr family, and was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, after being detained in Afghanistan under suspicion of connections to Al-Qaeda...
(born 1982), a son notable for press interviews dubbing the Khadrs "an al-Qaeda family" and his co-operation with the United States intelligence services - Ibrahim Khadr (born 1985), a son, who had a congenital heart defect and died in 1988
- Omar KhadrOmar KhadrOmar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009 including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism,...
(born 1986), a son captured by American forces following a 2002 firefight and currently held in Guantanamo BayGuantanamo Bay detainment campThe Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq... - Abdulkareem Khadr (born 1989), a son who was made a paraplegic in a PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i attack that killed his father - Maryam Khadr (born 1991), the youngest daughter
Location
In 1986, the family was living in an apartment in PeshawarPeshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
on an $800 monthly allowance.
The family returned to Canada and rented an apartment near Bloor
Bloor Street
Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct westward into Mississauga, where it ends at Central Parkway. East of the viaduct, Danforth Avenue continues along the same...
/Dundas
Dundas Street (Toronto)
Dundas Street, also known as Highway 5 west of Toronto, is a major arterial road connecting the centre of that city with its western suburbs and southwestern Ontario beyond...
in 1992 following an incident in Afghanistan that left Ahmed disabled, and later moved into the Bloor/Lansdowne
Lansdowne (TTC)
Lansdowne is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line of the subway system in Toronto, Canada. Its official address is 1287 Bloor Street West, although the main station is located just north of Bloor Street on Lansdowne Avenue. Opened in 1966, the station lies approximately 561 metres from its nearest...
area.
After leaving Canada a year and a half later, the family moved into a three-room house in September 1997.
During this time, the family visited Nazim Jihad
Nazim Jihad
Najim Jihad is the name given to a housing compound outside Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which is the former home of Osama bin Laden and approximately 250 followers....
, the family home of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
in Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
which the children nicknamed "Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
", and stayed at the compound the following year during the father's absence. The family say they stayed two days, while the FBI says it was a month. They subsequently moved to the Karte Parwan
Karte Parwan
Kārte Parwān is a neighbourhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, and home to the Sikh Gurdwara Karte Parwan and Sheerno Junior High. The area is the centre of the Afghan Hindu and Afghan Sikh communities....
neighbourhood of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and lived there from 1999-2001. The Khadrs were registered as operators of a Canadian charity, and closed their office in the upscale Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood to bring work in their own home.
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
traveling towards Gardez, but discovered that their intended residence had been bombed.
They then traveled to an orphanage that Ahmed had run, and in 2003 stayed briefly in with a family in Birmal, Pakistan. They finally moved in with a Pashto family in a hut in the mountains, where they saw Ahmed monthly.
Controversy
When Maha and Abdulkareem used the family's savings to return to Canada on April 9, 2004, Stockwell DayStockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
, Bob Runciman
Bob Runciman
Robert William "Bob" Runciman is a veteran Canadian politician and former provincial Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature. First elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1981, he held the seat continuously for Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario for the next 29 years...
and John Cannis
John Cannis
John Cannis is a former member of the House of Commons in Canada.-Background:Born in Kalymnos, Greece, Cannis was raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario. A successful entrepreneur for 18 years, Cannis owned a Toronto-based international executive search firm and was a member in good standing of...
were among a public outcry calling for the Khadrs' citizenship to be revoked, and for the pair to be deported. Others suggested it was unfair to revoke citizenship from people who held views contrary to the government or majority.
Some Canadians complained that the Khadrs had "taken advantage of" Canada, living off its social services, while decrying it as a morally corrupted country. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
dissented, stating that the province would recognise the family's right to Ontario Health Insurance Plan
Ontario Health Insurance Plan
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan is the government-run health insurance plan for the Canadian province of Ontario...
medical coverage and to be treated like any other Canadian family.
In 2005, following Zaynab
Zaynab Khadr
The eldest child of the Khadr family, Zaynab Khadr was born in Canada to Maha el-Samnah and Ahmed Khadr.Following the 1992 injury that left Ahmed disabled, Zaynab became a "second mother" to the younger children....
's return to the country, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(RCMP) officer Konrad Shourie
Konrad Shourie
Sgt. Konrad Lionel Shourie is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer assigned to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams.On December 5, 2002, while attached to the Oshawa RCMP branch, he was one of three Canadian police officers awarded the Medal of Bravery for their role in the UN...
stated that "The entire family is affiliated with al Qaeda and has participated in some form or another with these criminal extremist elements".
A noted friend of the family, former Pakistani Air Force officer and ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
agent Khalid Khawaja
Khalid Khawaja
Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja was a former Air Force officer, and the former Air Force's intelligence officer of the Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency....
spoke in their defence saying they were being unfairly targeted by Canadian authorities because of a deference to the United States, and Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
.
Since returning to Canada, the Khadr family has been described as "poverty-stricken".
In their 2008 report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
(CSIS) stated that Omar and Abdulkareem attended "training camps". In late October 2010, Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to charges against him in a military tribunal, admitting to having received "one-on-one terrorist training from an al-Qaeda operative and that he threw the grenade that killed U.S. Sergeant Christopher Speer".
On June 4, 2010 the youngest member of the family, paraplegic Abdulkareem Ahmed Khadr, 21, surrendered himself to Canadian police and has since been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and child molestation, which he denies.
External links
- Macleans In-depth article about the Khadrs
- The Good Son, National PostNational PostThe National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, December 28, 2002 - Globe and Mail: Khadr mother and son return to Canada
- In Canada, an Outcast Family Finds Support, Washington Post, June 9, 2005
- The Khadr effect, Globe and Mail, October 3, 2005