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The Most Famous

EXTREMISTS from Iraq

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This page contains a list of the greatest Iraqi Extremists. The pantheon dataset contains 209 Extremists, 4 of which were born in Iraq. This makes Iraq the birth place of the 14th most number of Extremists behind Japan and Egypt.

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Iraqi Extremists of all time. This list of famous Iraqi Extremists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

1. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (1971 - 2019)

With an HPI of 68.11, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the most famous Iraqi Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 79 different languages on wikipedia.

Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (Arabic: ابراهيم عواد ابراهيم علي البدري, romanized: ʾIbrāhīm ʿAwād ʾIbrāhīm Alī al-Badri; 28 July 1971 – 27 October 2019), commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Arabic: أبو بكر البغدادي, romanized: ʾAbū Bakr al-Baghdādī), was an Iraqi militant who was the first caliph of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 until his death. Baghdadi was born in Samarra and obtained graduate degrees in Islamic theology in the late 1990s and 2000s. Following the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Baghdadi led the "Jama'at Jaysh Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama'ah" insurgent group in Iraq and was detained with al-Qaeda commanders at the American Camp Bucca in 2004. His group joined the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) coalition in 2006 and fought alongside Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Upon the dissolution of the MSC in October 2006, Baghdadi became a leading member of the newly established Islamic State of Iraq organization, and rose through the group's ranks until he was appointed its emir, the highest leader, in 2010. In March 2013, the group renamed itself as the "Islamic State of Iraq and Levant" (ISIL), announcing its intention to expand into Syria and forcibly assimilate the Al-Nusra Front, leading to a conflict with Al-Qaeda's general command. In June 2014, the group once again re-designated itself as the "Islamic State", and declared itself to be a caliphate. Baghdadi was chosen caliph of the Islamic State by the Shura Council, who represented those members of the Islamic State qualified to elect a caliph.Baghdadi's claim to be "caliph" was almost universally rejected by the Muslim community. IS was designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and almost all sovereign states, and Baghdadi was individually considered a terrorist by the United States and many other countries. As leader of IS, Baghdadi led the Islamic State's wars against Iraq and Syria. Baghdadi directed the use of controversial tactics, including the mass use of suicide bombings and the execution of prisoners of war. IS briefly captured substantial territory in Iraq and Syria, but lost all of that territory and almost all of its fighters during Baghdadi's tenure as caliph. Baghdadi would become directly involved in IS's atrocities and human rights violations. These include the genocide of Yazidis in Iraq, extensive sexual slavery, organized rape, floggings, and systematic executions. He directed terrorist activities and massacres. He embraced brutality as part of the organization's propaganda efforts, producing videos displaying sexual slavery and executions via hacking, stoning and burning. Baghdadi was a serial rapist who kept several personal sex slaves.On 27 October 2019, Baghdadi killed himself and two children by detonating a suicide vest during the Barisha raid, conducted by the United States following approval from President Donald Trump, in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province. After being offered Islamic funeral rites, his body was buried at sea. IS confirmed his death and named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as his replacement.

Photo of Taha Yassin Ramadan

2. Taha Yassin Ramadan (1938 - 2007)

With an HPI of 58.42, Taha Yassin Ramadan is the 2nd most famous Iraqi Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi (Arabic: طه ياسين رمضان الجزراوي; 20 February 1938 – 20 March 2007) was an Iraqi politician and military officer of Kurdish origin, who served as one of the three vice presidents of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Following the fall of Saddam's government, Taha Yasin Ramadan was placed on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis and depicted as the Ten of Diamonds in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. He was captured on August 19, 2003, in Mosul, by fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and handed over to US forces.He was one of the defendants in the Iraq Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. On 5 November 2006, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On 26 December 2006, the appeals court sent the case file back to the Tribunal, saying the sentence was too lenient and demanding a death sentence. On 12 February 2007, he was sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was carried out on the fourth anniversary of Iraq's US invasion, before dawn on 20 March 2007.

Photo of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi

3. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (1976 - 2022)

With an HPI of 51.87, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is the 3rd most famous Iraqi Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (Arabic: أبو إبراهيم الهاشمي القرشي, romanized: Abū Ibrāhīm al-Hāshimī al-Qurashī; born Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi (أمير محمد عبد الرحمن المولى الصلبي);‎ 1 or 5 October 1976 – 3 February 2022) was an Iraqi militant and the second caliph of the Islamic State. His appointment by a shura council was announced by the Islamic State media on 31 October 2019, less than a week after the death of previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.Al-Qurashi's tenure as caliph saw the Islamic State being mostly limited to insurgent activity in the Middle East, but also make substantial advances in Africa, where IS increased its territories and influence. The U.S. Rewards for Justice Program was offering up to $10 million in exchange for information leading to al-Qurashi's apprehension. On 3 February 2022, al-Qurashi killed himself, and members of his family, by triggering a large bomb during a raid by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command.

Photo of Ramzi Yousef

4. Ramzi Yousef (1968 - )

With an HPI of 44.49, Ramzi Yousef is the 4th most famous Iraqi Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef (Arabic: رمزي احمد يوسف, romanized: Ramzī Ahmad Yūsuf; born 27 April 1968) is a convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434; he was also a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and U.S. Diplomatic Security Service at a guest house in Islamabad, Pakistan, while trying to set a bomb in a doll, then extradited to the United States. Yousef was tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York along with two co-conspirators and was convicted of planning the Bojinka plot. He received two life sentences plus 240 years for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Bojinka plot. Yousef's maternal uncle is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with whom he allegedly planned the Bojinka plot. Mohammed is a senior al-Qaeda member accused of being the principal architect of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Yousef is serving his life sentences at ADX Florence, located near Florence, Colorado. He shared a cell block that is commonly referred to as "Bombers' Row" with Terry Nichols, Eric Rudolph, and Ted Kaczynski, before his transfer in late 2021. In 2007, Ramzi Yousef claimed to have found Jesus and converted to Christianity.

Pantheon has 4 people classified as extremists born between 1938 and 1976. Of these 4, 1 (25.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living extremists include Ramzi Yousef. The most famous deceased extremists include Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.

Living Extremists

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Deceased Extremists

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Which Extremists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Extremists since 1700.