Four years ago this past December, Saudi-born al-Qaeda senior member Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah (Shukri Jumah) lost his life during a Pakistani Special Forces pre-dawn raid in South Waziristan. Last month, Adnan’s sister Aidah took to Facebook to mourn the anniversary of his passing. Few can fault the sister for mourning her brother’s death, but many can and should question her for the extremism that she herself has exhibited.
Adnan Shukrijumah was a top-ranking al-Qaeda commander and chief of al-Qaeda’s global operations. At one point, he was said to be second-in-command of the terrorist group.
In May 2001, Shukrijumah left his family home in Miramar, Florida and disappeared from the United States. Reports show he had taken flight training with 9/11 hijackers, and information gathered from top-tier al-Qaeda operatives, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, would paint Shukrijumah as the next Mohamed Atta and leading a future 9/11-style strike against the US.
In July 2010, Shukrijumah was charged by the US government with overseeing a bomb plot to attack three New York City subway lines and a related plot to blow up a shopping center in Manchester, England. In the subway plot, he had recruited three young men for the attack. Prior to that, he had allegedly been involved in a plot to blow up high-rise apartment buildings.
Aidah el-Shukri a.k.a. Umm Taibah (Mother of Taibah) was one of Adnan’s younger sisters and is currently an oncology nurse advocate at Cardinal Health, located in Lewisville, Texas.
On December 8th, Aidah, along with photos of her now-deceased brother, wrote on her Facebook, “Can’t believe it’s been 4 years. Until we meet again my brother. Inshallah.” The photos had been reposted from a previous post she had made, on December 8, 2014, the date that the Taliban had confirmed Adnan’s death and two days following the Pakistani government’s South Waziristan raid.
These were not the first photos Aidah had posted of her brother onto social media. In 2006, she created a ‘picture show’ on her Myspace page, featuring Adnan and others. It was through this picture show that this author helped to locate Adnan in Canada, one of the nations he had spent time in prior to his final destination of Pakistan.
One of the photos, titled ‘Memories’, depicted Aidah and her sisters holding up a sketch of an older-looking Adnan with a woman, possibly their mother, Zuhrah Ahmed a.k.a. Bint Wusaab (Daughter of Wusaab). In the background, behind the family – which included the sisters, father Gulshair and brother Nabil – can be seen the ‘Mountain’ sculpture outside the CBC building in Toronto.
Prior to coming to Florida, Guyana-born Gulshair, who died in June 2004, was the imam at Masjid Nur al-Islam, located in Brooklyn, New York. While there, he was a translator for the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the ‘Blind Sheikh’ Omar Abdel-Rahman. During the federal trial concerning the attack, Gulshair was a chief/character witness for Clement Rodney Hampton-El, one of the congregants at Gulshair’s mosque and the individual who was believed to be the one who taught the terror cell how to build the bomb used in the attack.
Nabil, the youngest Shukrijumah sibling, is the Administrator for the Alazhar School, located in Tamarac, Florida. On his Myspace page, which is now restricted from public view, one could previously witness a graphic he placed on it containing the ‘black flag of jihad’ – commonly used by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups – and a poster of a Hamas militant wielding a rifle on a horse watching Jerusalem burn in the distance, with the threatening caption (in Arabic): “Oh Jerusalem, we are coming.” As well, one of Nabil’s top Myspace ‘friends,’ Hattab – The Lion of Islam, championed deceased Chechen warlord and Osama bin Laden associate, Ibn al-Khattab.
Another of the photos from Aidah’s picture show, titled ‘Big bro’, featured Aidah, as a young girl, posing with Adnan. Aidah, at times, though, had a troubled youth with her older brother. In June 1997, Adnan was arrested and charged with biting Aidah, then 13-years-old.
While Aidah doesn’t have anywhere near the violent or terror-related backgrounds of the male members of her family, she does exhibit her own radical behavior.
Aidah is rabidly anti-Israel, repeatedly referring to Israeli soldiers as “cowards.” Last July, when a bill prohibiting the importation of Israeli goods passed in Ireland’s Seanad, she wrote, “GOOD IRELAND. That’s it, that’s my next vacation spot… my kinda people… minus all the drinking of course.” And in December 2017, Aidah placed a video on Facebook deceitfully labeling Israel’s adding of East Jerusalem to its territory, in 1967, a “land grab,” ignoring the fact that, when Israel gained this territory, Israel’s Arab neighbors had verbally threatened her existence and physically threatened her economy and ability to function, by cutting off Israel’s shipping route.
Aidah cheered the ouster of America and Israel’s peace partner, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, by Islamists during the Arab Spring. In January 2011, she wrote, “I LOVE how dedicated and passionate the Egyptian ppl are abt their country… may God grant them victory.” And on February 11, 2011, after Mubarak resigned amid tens of thousands of angry protesters led by the Muslim Brotherhood, she wrote, “That’s what’s up Egypt. Your victory is my victory… and mine is yours… may Allah grant victory to all of the Muslim/Arab nations.”
In the reviews section of her Facebook page, Aidah has given Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) ‘5 stars.’ Islamic Relief’s ties to terror are well known. Israel has banned the group, labeling it a Hamas front and arresting its Gaza Program Manager, Ayaz Ali, in 2006, for providing assistance to Hamas. At the end of 2014, Britain’s HSBC bank cut ties with Islamic Relief over concerns about “terrorist financing.” Reports show that Islamic Relief has sent millions of dollars to and received tens of thousands of dollars from groups related to al-Qaeda. IRUSA Chairman Khaled Lamada has used social media to advocate for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
Adnan Shukrijumah may be gone, but part of him lives on in his little sister Aidah – a terrorist DNA from a tainted bloodline. Though she does not appear to be (at least for now) on the level of an al-Qaeda operative, her ideological connection to Adnan and her work within the medical field is extremely troubling. And if she and the family were hiding Adnan’s whereabouts, indeed, there should be legal repercussions. It is time for law enforcement to take another look at the Shukrijumah family and their activities, before it is too late. ‘Like brother, like sister.’
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
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