Al-Qaeda ‘s Ayman al-Zawahiri Brother: Who Is Muhammad al-Zawahiri?

Muhammad al-Zawahiri is the younger sibling of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born physician and theologian notorious for being the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda from June 2011 until July 2022, when he was killed in Afghanistan.

Ayman was killed in a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, July 31, 2022.

Ayman’s younger brother Muhammad is an Egyptian Islamist who was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and one of 14 people subjected to extraordinary rendition by the CIA prior to the 2001 War on Terror.

Muhammad graduated from the engineering college at Cairo University in 1974.

Seven years after graduating, thus, in 1981, his name was among those indicted in absentia for the assassination of Anwar Sadat after his brother implicated him in recruiting the Egyptians Mustafa Kamel Mustafa and Abdel Hadi al-Tunsi while living in Saudi Arabia.

However, he was found not guilty of the charge. He joined the World Islamic Relief Organization, and traveled to Indonesia, Bosnia and Malawi where he helped build schools and medical clinics.

Muhamad is a contractor and his work saw him frequently travel to the United Arab Emirates for business.

Following his in absentia conviction in the Returnees from Albania trial, he was arrested in March or April 1999 in the United Arab Emirates and renditioned to Cairo, where he was accused of conspiring with Khaled Abdul Samee.

Muhamad was released from prison in Edypt in March 2011, but was quickly re-arrested.

He was subsequently re-tried in an Egyptian military court on terrorism charges and acquitted of all charges, and was released in March 2012.

In September 2012, he offered to mediate a 10-year hudna between Islamists and the Western world, under the condition that the United States and the West would stop;

1. Intervening in Muslim lands,
2. Stop interfering in Muslim education,
3. End the so-called ‘war on Islam’ and
4. Release all Islamist prisoners.

In August 2013, in the wake of the overthrow of President Morsi, Muhamad was arrested and in April 2014, together with 67 others, he was charged with forming a terrorist group and seeking to undermine security across Egypt.

However, on 17 March 2016, Muhamad was released from prison.

Muhamad is married with six kids.