The Blood of Lambs: A Former Terrorist's Memoir of Death and Redemption (34 page)

Fort Dix.
A U.S. Army installation and basic training center in New Jersey named for Major General John Adams Dix, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Gaza Strip.
A long, narrow coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the north
and east. The approximately 1.4 million Gazan residents are Palestinian Arabs. The Gaza Strip is not recognized internationally as part of any sovereign country, but it is claimed by the Palestinian National Authority as part of the Palestinian territories.

Golan Heights.
A strategic plateau and mountainous region at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The geographic area lies within, or borders, the countries of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Green Line.
The 1949 Armistice lines established between Israel and its neighbors (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria) after the 1948 Arab-Israel War. The Green Line separates Israel not only from these countries but also from the territories Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War (West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and Sinai Peninsula). Its name is derived from the green ink used to draw the line on the map during the talks.

Haifa.
The largest city in northern Israel and the third largest in the country. Haifa has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs.

Hamra District.
A shopping district in Beirut, Lebanon. It hosts a good number of hotels, furnished apartments, and coffee shops that cater to visitors and students from the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University located nearby.

Herat (or Aria).
The third largest city in Afghanistan, located in the western province of Herat, a fertile area known for its wine production.

Kandahar (or Qandahar).
The capital of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, it is the country’s second-largest city and the religious headquarters of the Taliban, an Islamic, fundamentalist movement.

Karantina.
A strategically situated slum district in Beirut, Lebanon, controlled by forces from the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). It is inhabited mainly by Kurds and Armenians, along with some Lebanese and Palestinian Muslims.

Karbala.
A city in Iraq considered by Shia Muslims to be one of the holiest cities in the world after Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Najaf Located southwest of Baghdad, it is best known for the battle of Karbala in October of the year 680.

Kuwait.
A sovereign Arab emirate on the coast of the Persian Gulf enclosed by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west. A constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Kuwait City serves as its political and economic capital. The name is a diminutive of an Arabic word meaning “fortress built near water.”

Marroush.
A chain of Moroccan restaurants owned by Marouf Abouzaki. Primarily located in London, where it has eleven restaurants, it has expanded to Beirut, Lebanon, as the Beirut Express.

Masjid al-Bakar.
A mosque in Beirut, Lebanon, located in the center of the populous Sunni Muslim territory.

Mogadishu.
An important regional seaport located in the Benadir region of Somalia on the Indian Ocean. Since the collapse of Somalia’s central government in 1991, Mogadishu has endured seventeen years of fighting between rival militias. It is considered one of the most dangerous and lawless cities in the world.

Nablus.
A Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, about 39 miles north of Jerusalem. Located in a strategic area between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.

Niger.
A landlocked country in western Africa, named for the Niger River. It is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. More than 80 percent of its territory is covered by the Sahara Desert.

Ribiana Sand Sea.
Located in Africa’s Libyan Desert, these dune fields, created by the wind, rise up to 110 meters and cover 25 percent of the Libyan Desert.

Riyadh.
The capital and largest city in Saudi Arabia, it is also the capital of the Riyadh Province in the center of the Arabian Peninsula.

River Litani.
An important waterway in southern Lebanon, rising west of Baalbek in the fertile Bekaa Valley and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre (one of Lebanon’s largest cities). It is the longest river that originates and flows entirely within the borders of Lebanon.

Raouché.
A residential and commercial area located at Beirut’s western-most tip, known for its upscale apartment buildings, restaurants, and
seaside sidewalk. Just off the coast of Raouché is a natural landmark called the Pigeons’ Rock, two massive rock formations that stand like silent sentinels. The name derives either from the Aramaic word
rosh
, meaning head, or the French word
roche
(
rocher
), meaning rock.

Sabra-Shatila.
The site of a 1982 massacre carried out by the Lebanese Forces militia group. It is alleged that Israeli Defense Forces allowed Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen to enter two Palestinian refugee camps, where they massacred civilians.

Sahara Desert.
The world’s largest hot desert. The Sahara covers most of northern Africa, an area stretching from the Red Sea and including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean.

Sidon.
A city located in the South Governorate of Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles south of the capital. Its inhabitants are primarily Muslim (both Sunni and Shiite), Greek Catholic, and Maronite Christians. The name means “fishery.”

Souq al Motaa
(or Souk Shramit). A notorious area in downtown Beirut, known as the “Market of Whores.”

Syria.
An Arab country in southwest Asia, which borders Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north.

Tartuse.
A Syrian port city.

Tripoli.
The capital and largest city in Libya, located in the northwest part of the country on the edge of the Sahara Desert on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean Sea and forming a bay. The name means “three cities.”

Turbat.
A town situated on the left bank of the Kech River, a tributary of the Dasht River, southwest of the Balochistan Province in Pakistan.

U.A.E. (United Arab Emirates).
A constitutional federation of seven emirates, it was formally established in 1971. UAE is located on the southeastern end of the Arabian Peninsula and is governed by a confederate of absolute monarchies. UAE is funded by MB Petroleum Services, a multinational drilling and well-services corporation.

Valley of the Jews (or Wadi Abu Jamil).
A district in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon, which once had the largest Jewish population in
Lebanon, known for money-brokering and the establishment of banks. Most of the Jewish residents left after the onset of the war in Lebanon.

Verdan Street.
A shopping district in Beirut, Lebanon.

Zaidaniah District.
A district of Beirut, Lebanon, located in the Aisha Bakkar area.

Group
s

Al-Assifah.
The mainstream armed wing of the Palestinian party and militant group Fatah. It was established in 1964 to protect the political wing of Fatah from reprisals.

Al-Ikhwan.
See
Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-morabitun (or al-moravids).
A dynasty of Berbers (the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley). The al-Moravids were founded by Yusuf Ibn Tashfin in the Sahara and preached a strict respect for Koranic instruction. In Arabic, the group’s name means “brotherhood of warrior monks.”

Al Muhajiroun.
Thought by many to be the most extreme Islamist group operating in the West, Al-Muhajiroun, which is Arabic for “the emigrants,” was established in 1996 and based in England. Because the group was banned in England, it may be operating as The Savior Sect.

al-Qaida (or al-Qaeda).
An international Sunni Islamist movement founded in 1988. Under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, the group seeks to replace Western-influenced governments with Islamic regimes under the rule of Islamic law. In Arabic, the group’s name literally means “database,” referring to the computer file of thousands of
mujahadeen
(various loosely aligned Afghan opposition groups) who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.

Amnesty International.
A human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson. It campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of prisoners, and
to end extrajudicial executions and disappearances throughout the world.

Baathist.
A member of the Arab Socialist Ba’th Party (also spelled Baath or Ba’ath), founded in the 1940s in Damascus. It is the original secular Arab nationalist movement intended to combat Western colonial rule. In Arabic,
ba’ath
means renaissance or resurrection.

Bedouin.
The primarily nomadic Arab peoples of the Middle East. They form about 10 percent of the population and are of the same Semitic stock as their sedentary neighbors (the fellahin), with whom they share a devout belief in Islam and a distrust of any but their own local traditions and way of life.

Black September.
A militant Palestinian group, Black September is infamous for the kidnap and murder of eleven Israeli athletes and officials and a German police officer during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The name is taken from a conflict that occurred on September 16, 1970, in Jordan. The
fedayeen
had attempted to seize power from King Hussein which caused him to declare military rule. Thousands of Palestinians were killed or expelled as a result.

CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).
A civil liberties and advocacy group for Muslims in North America created in June 1994. Its professed goals are to enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

Fatah.
The Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine, this organization was founded in the 1960s by Yasser Arafat and is the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is a multi-party confederation.

Gaza Baptist Church AWANA group.
In the Gaza Strip’s only evangelical church, planted about fifty years ago by Southern Baptist missionaries, almost all AWANA (an organization that helps churches and parents worldwide to teach children Christian service) members are Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic and continue to successfully reach their parents, friends, and neighbors with the gospel.

Hamas.
An Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization founded in 1987. It
seeks to establish an Islamic state in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Hezb-e-Islamie-i-Gulbuddin.
One of the major
mujahadeen
(loosely aligned Afghan opposition groups) in the war against the Soviets. The group, founded in 1974 to fight the government of Mohammed Daoud Khan (the first president of Afghanistan), has long-standing ties to Osama bin Laden. The group has staged small attacks in its attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghan Transitional Administration, and establish a fundamentalist state.

Islamic Thinkers Society.
A Muslim group based in New York City that seeks to restore the Islamic Caliphate (the rulership of Islam) and create “an ideal Islamic society.”

Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan.
A political party in Afghanistan led by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. Founded in the late 1970s, it was originally an attempt to bring unity among Islamist opposition forces in Afghanistan. The new umbrella organization, however, effectively created a split and IULA became a political party of its own.

Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
Israel’s military forces (ground, air, and navy), the IDF is commonly known in Israel as the
tzahal.

Jamiat-i-Islami.
One of the original Islamist parties in Afghanistan established in the 1970s by students at Kabul University. Its leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was a lecturer for the Islamic Law Faculty.

Kataeb.
A Lebanese political party founded in 1936 as a national movement to secure Lebanon’s independence and advance the social rights of the Lebanese. Officially a secular group, it is primarily supported by Maronite Christians. The name is an Arabic translation of the Greek word
phalanx
or
battalion
.

Lebanese Army.
The military forces of the Republic of Lebanon. They are aligned with the Phalangist Maronite Christians.

Maronite Christians.
A Christian denomination found mainly in Lebanon. It is currently the largest Christian community in the country. Inside the denomination, religion and politics are inextricably mixed,
explaining why the group has played a central role in Lebanon’s frequent struggles over political power.

MAYA (Muslim Arab Youth Association).
Until it became inactive in early 2004, MAYA was listed on various Islamic reference websites as an organization set up to sponsor Muslim youth conferences and matrimonial services. In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. government placed MAYA on its list of the many organizations to be investigated as to whether they “finance terrorism and perpetuate violence.” MAYA was established in the 1970s and incorporated in Plainfield, Indiana, in 1989.