The Maktab al-Khidamat

This video was recorded on October 6,2020. In 1981, Abdullah Azzam a Palestinian islamic scholar, had entered Peshawar, pakistan under the invite from notable warlord, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. Azzam had brought with him, the premise that would define the Islamic fundamentalist culture that we see today, Defense Jihad. With the Soviet invasion of Kabul, Afghanistan, Azzam saw his idea become a reality, but he needed to influence the Arab community (ummah) and appease them to enter the conflict. However he also devised an idea to receive the influx of Arab fighters and pitched it to a Saudi millionaire who was already making a name for himself during the war, Osama Bin Laden.

The idea was simple. To build a recruitment office that would help fund potential Arab foreign fighters and fight against the secular Soviet invaders. Bin Laden would help finance Azzam's idea. It was to be called, Maktab al-Khidamat (Afghan Services Bureau). Over the years, it would receive thousands of Arabs from around the world, and the global intelligence community saw its raw potential and began funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in helping it become a large recruitment/training facility with numerous offices. However what they weren't aware of was the ramifications that would come with it in the years to come. A well funded and trained Mujahideen that would turn its sights on the United States.

Correction: Bin Laden is said to have first visited Azzam in a lecture at Indiana at the Islamic Teaching Center in 1978, not at the university of Indiana. Also, Bin Laden was educated at King Abdulaziz University, not King Fahd University