Najmadin Faraj Ahmad, widely recognized as Mullah Krekar, was born on July 7, 1956, in Iraq. He is an influential Kurdish Sunni Islamic scholar and a notable figure in militant leadership. Krekar's early involvement in the Peshmerga unit during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings marked the beginning of his political and military career. In 2001, he founded the Islamist armed group Ansar al-Islam, which operated in Northern Iraq while he was a refugee in Norway.
In 2003, Krekar relocated to Norway, where he established Rawti Shax. His life took a significant turn when he was arrested and extradited to Italy in 2020, where he is currently serving a prison sentence. Despite his family's Norwegian citizenship, Krekar himself does not hold this status. He is multilingual, fluent in Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Norwegian, and English, which reflects his diverse background.
Krekar has faced numerous legal challenges throughout his life. He has been on the UN terror list since December 2006 and was deemed a