Zachariah Anani

Zachariah Anani (Arabic: زكريا عناني ) (also Zack or Zak) is a former Sunni Muslim Lebanese citizen who later converted to Christianity and settled in Canada in 1996. He describes himself as a former militia fighter.[1]

Background

Zachariah Anani was born in Beirut "from a long line of imams and was expected to become one at the age of 14." Anani says he became a fighter in a Lebanese militia and "at the age of 14"[2]

According to his biography on shoebat.com, Anani claims to have been trained to fight and kill Jews, and to hate Christians and Americans. He says his family was pleased with his decision because they believe Islamic teachings promise reaching heaven if he were to die in battle against "unbelievers". Ironically, Anani says he faced Muslim groups, who fought among themselves, most of the times while facing Israelis only once.[3]

He was later to meet an American Southern Baptist missionary who inspired him to convert to Christianity and later moved to Canada.[2]

In 2007, Tom Quiggin, reported at the time as "Canada's only court-qualified expert on global jihadism and a former RCMP intelligence and national security expert", suggests that considering Anani's date of birth ("in 1957 or 1958") and the age he states to have joined the militant activity (age 13, 1970 or 1971) are too early for the time the fighting in Lebanon became truly aggressive, around 1975. He adds that Anani states he left Lebanon to go to Al-Azhar University, Egypt at the age of 18, which means he left Lebanon within a year of when the fighting actually started. Quiggin claims that, while Anani may have been a low-level militant, street fighter or insurgent; there are doubts that he was a terrorist in Lebanon in the early 1970s.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 'Zachariah Anani phone interview' on CBC radio (January 16, 2007)
  2. 1 2 'Ex-terrorists' in Ann Arbor / Credibility questions' by Ali Moossavi (TheArabAmericanNews.com)
  3. ↑ Biography of Zachariah Anani on shoebat.com
  4. ↑ Windsor Star: 'Doubt cast on Anani's terrorist claims' by Trevor Wilhelm (on canada.com)

See also

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