The man who made bin Laden

As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Osama bin Laden will inevitably be seen as the attack’s bloody architect. Yet if the Saudi remains a jihadi icon, the extremists that came after were far more influenced by Abu Musab al-Suri — a little-known ideologue living in the suburbs of north London. Known in Spain as El Pelirrojo (“the Ginger”), Suri was not the sort of ginger jihadi Britain produced, the kind who chased you around Whitechapel distributing leaflets proclaiming “sharia-controlled zones”. Instead, he belonged more in a Joseph Conrad novel. Living a quiet life in Neasden, he fused Islamist ideology, Marxism and modern insurgent tactics into a worldview whose legacy has colored countless later terrorist campaigns. For while bin Laden became famous for the hierarchy of al-Qaed