Notes

Mohammad Omar (born ca.
1950-1962 near Kandahar, Afghanistan, died in April 2013 in Pakistan), leader of the Taliban (Pashto: Ṭālebān ("student")), Afghanistan Chief (1996-2001)).
Omar's refusal to extradite al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden triggered the U.S.
invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and led to the overthrow of Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Biographical information about Rabbi Omar is sparse and contradictory.
He is a Pashtun from the Ghilzai branch and was reportedly born near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
He is said to have received minimal schooling, with the exception of religious training at a madrasa (Islamic school), which was interrupted by the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
During the Afghanistan War (1978), he fought with the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union, during which he lost his right eye in an explosion.
After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Rabbi Omar taught in a small village madrasa in Kandahar province.
However, peace did not return even after the war ended, and political and ethnic violence intensified thereafter.
Claiming to have seen visions instructing him to restore peace, Omar led a group of madrasa students to occupy cities such as Qandal, Herat, Kabul, and Mazar-i-Sharif in the mid-1990s.
In 1996, the Shurah (Council) recognized Omar as Amir al-Mumineen ("Commander of the Faithful").
This title is very important in the Islamic world, but has not been used since the abolition of the caliphate in 1924.
This designation was made because he was also the emir of Afghanistan, which was known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from October 1997 until the fall of the Taliban.
To mark the occasion, Omar took off the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad from the mosque in Kandahar where he was staying and wore a holy relic symbolizing his status as Muhammad's successor.
The Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan under the leadership of Mullah Omar is believed to have been at least partially financed by bin Laden, who moved his headquarters to Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan in the mid-1990s.
Under Omar's leadership, Pashtun social law (Pashtunwali) was given top priority and strict Islamic principles were enforced.
Women's education and employment virtually ceased.
Crimes such as adultery and conversion from Islam were punishable by death.
and music, television, and other popular entertainment were banned.
One of his most notorious decisions was ordering the destruction of the giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan, culturally significant relics of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic history.
To the great regret of the international community, they were destroyed in his March 2001.
After Al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
, and Omar's refusal to hand over bin Laden, the United States launched a series of military operations in Afghanistan.
The Taliban government was overthrown and Omar fled.
The location was undecided.
Reverend Omar lived a reclusive life for a long time.
He was rarely allowed to meet non-Muslims or Westerners, and it was unclear whether the photos purported to be of him were genuine, making his pursuit even more difficult.
By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it was believed that Omar continued to direct Taliban operations from his safe haven in Pakistan, although the Taliban disputed this idea.