Topic: Umar Farouk

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (also referred to as Umar Abdul Mutallab and Omar Farooq al-Nigeri; Arabic: عمر فاروق عبدالمطالب born December 22, 1986, in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Muslim Nigerian citizen who allegedly attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear on board of Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day December 25, 2009. He was subsequently charged, and is in U.S. custody awaiting further legal proceedings.

Abdulmutallab is the youngest of the 16 children of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, one of the richest men in Africa and the prominent former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria and former Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Economic Development. His Yemeni mother, Aisha, is the second of his father's two wives.

The family comes from Funtua in Katsina State. Abdulmutallab was raised initially in an affluent neighborhood of Kaduna, in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north, and at the family home in Nairobi, Kenya. As a young boy he attended the Essence International School in Kaduna, as well as classes at the Rabiatu Mutallib Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, which is named after his grandfather. As a child he enjoyed playing PlayStation and basketball, but as he grew older he abandoned such pursuits in favor of striving to be more devoutly Islamic. According to one of his cousins, Abdulmutallab condemned his father's banking profession as "immoral" and "un-Islamic" for charging interest, urging him to quit.