Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (Arabic: عمر عبد الرحمن; ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), widely known in the United States as "the Blind Sheikh", was a blind Arab Egyptian Islamofascist cleric and jihadist leader who was convicted of terrorism-related offenses and served a life sentence in federal prison at the Federal Medical Center, Butner, in North Carolina.

A longtime resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman was a prominent figure in radical Islamist circles. In 1995, he and nine co-conspirators were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting attacks against the United States, including plans to bomb key New York City landmarks. His prosecution stemmed directly from the investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, an early Islamist terrorist attack on American soil that killed six people and injured over a thousand. Abdel-Rahman was viewed by his followers as a spiritual authority who endorsed violent jihad against the U.S. and its allies.

He remained imprisoned until his death in 2017.