Omar Khadr - Early Life

Early Life

Khadr was born in Toronto's Scarborough district on September 19, 1986. Because his father, Ahmed Khadr, an Egyptian Canadian, had raised his family in Peshawar, Pakistan since 1985, Omar spent his life moving back and forth between Canada and Pakistan. His mother also wished to raise her family outside of Canada due to her animosity toward Western social influences. Khadr was enrolled in a school in Peshawar.

In 1992, Khadr's father was severely injured while in Logar, Afghanistan; the Khadr family moved back to Toronto so he could recuperate. After the move, Omar became "hypersensitive to tension in the family" and would often quote Captain Haddock from The Adventures of Tintin. Enrolled at ISNA Elementary School for Grade 1, Omar's teachers described him as "very smart, very eager and very polite".

After the family's return to Pakistan, Omar and his siblings attended a private school in Peshawar, and were homeschooled for two years, returning to write their exams at the Ansar Scientific Institute. While he was not fond of math, his favourite subjects were English and Islamic Studies, as he already knew the topics well.

In 1995, Ahmed Khadr was arrested following Ayman al-Zawahiri's bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan, and accused of financially aiding the conspirators. Ahmed was hospitalised after engaging in a hunger strike, and 9-year old Omar spent every night sleeping on the floor beside his father's bed until his release a year later for lack of evidence.

Khadr's father moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 1996, where they lived in their father's NGO office.

Following the 1998 embassy bombings, the United States had retaliated by bombing camps in Afghanistan. Thus, expecting a similar retaliation following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Khadr family retreated towards the Pakistani mountains, where Omar went shopping, washed laundry and cooked meals.

In early 2002, he was living in Waziristan with his mother and younger sister while his father visited infrequently, and took up beading his mother's clothes as a hobby. At one point, he was forced to wear a burqa and disguise himself as a daughter to avoid scrutiny, an act that upset him. When his father returned, he asked to be allowed to stay at a group home for young men, despite his mother's protests. His father agreed, and a month later allowed him to accompany a group of Arabs associated with Abu Laith al-Libi, who needed a Pashto translator during their stay in Khost. Khadr promised to check in regularly with his mother.

A later collection of biographies written by al Qaeda praises the elder Khadr for "tossing his little child in the furnace of the battle", and likens his son to a lion cub. According to charges signed by military commission officer Susan J. Crawford, Khadr received "one-on-one" weapons training in June, 2002, as his visits home became less frequent.