Birth: NULL/NULL/1958 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Shaja’iyyeh Refugee Camp, Gaza, on 1 Jan. 1958; got early involved with secular-nationalist organizations; then joined the Muslim Brotherhood while studying at Zagazig University in Egypt from 1977-81; after returning to Gaza, became one of the founders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), together with Fathi Shiqaqi and Abdul Aziz Odeh, and became editor of its journal; also worked as a lecturer in the Economics Dept. of the Islamic University in Gaza; fled Gaza after an Israeli crackdown in the early 1980s; in 1985, went to the UK to continue his studies and earned a PhD in Economics from Durham University; then moved to the US in 1988; became an adjunct professor at the South Florida University in Tampa, Florida; also served as Exec. Director of the World Islam and Studies Enterprise (WISE), a think tank of the Islamic Committee for Palestine, which he co-founded in 1991 with fellow Professor Sami Al-Arian; left the university and WISE in Oct. 1995 when he was chosen to become the new Sec.-Gen. of Islamic Jihad after the assassination of Fathi Shiqaqi earlier that year; returned from the US and settled in Damascus in 1996; was designated by the US as a Specially Designated Terrorist in Nov. 1995; member of the PIJ’s Shura Council.
