Terrorism Reference Biographies | Ahmed Yassin Biography

c. 1936

Al Joura, Palestine Mandate

Religious leader of Hamas

"There is a misconception in the world of the meaning of the word jihad; it comes from juhad and it means effort… . I can be a teacher and be practicing jihad, I can be a builder and be practicing jihad and I can be a fighter…. All people are part of the jihad whether they know it or not."

One of the worst threats to Israel is a man who is paralyzed below the neck and confined to a wheelchair. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is the religious leader of Hamas, the organization that has done as much as any other to change the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a political struggle to a religious war.

Yassin has never been accused of murder or setting off a bomb himself. But his organization, Hamas, has been the main source of suicide bombers, a deadly and terrifying form of warfare against both military and civilian...