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| “ | Generation after generation must suffer and die. We are prepared for that. Are you? [Laughs] Really? With your pension plans and organic foods, your beach houses and sports clubs? Do you have the perseverance, the tenacity, the faith? Because we do. You can bomb us, starve us, occupy our holy places, but we will never lose our faith. We carry God in our hearts, our souls. To die is to join Him. It may take a century, two centuries, three centuries, but we will exterminate you. | „ |
| ~ Abu Nazir to Carrie. |
Abu Nazir is the main antagonist of the first two seasons of the award winning Showtime thriller series Homeland. He is a cunning and dangerous terrorist mastermind and a high-ranking leader in al-Qaeda whom Carrie Mathison of the CIA suspects to have turned Scout Sniper Sergeant Nicholas Brody against the USA.
He was portrayed by Navid Negahban, who also portrayed the Shadow King in Legion, Hassan Nadir in Criminal Minds, Al-Owal in Arrow, Dr. Challus Mercer in Dead Space, Arash Kadivar in Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, and Abir in Dead Air.
Timeline[]
1955 – Born in Palestine, the youngest of four brothers.
1957 – Family moves to Kuwait. Nazir's father, an engineer in the oil business, becomes an Imam in Ahmadi.
1963–1970 - Nazir goes to a secondary school for foreign workers where he is taught by Palestinians. During a political protest, he burns a Kuwati flag.
1979 December – Nazir returns to the Middle East and makes contact with jihadists when the Ayatola assumes power.
1980 Spring – Nazir goes to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union, and becomes a follower of Abdullah Azzam.
1988 November – Nazir is an important part of the Peshawar Summit.
2003 May – Nazir is coordinating attacks and suicide bombings against the American Coalition.
2004 June 5 – Last confirmed sighting of Nazir is made by a CIA asset in Syria.
2006 - Attempted simultaneous terrorist attacks in New York and Baghdad. (Novel Homeland: Carrie's Run)
2009 - Terrorist attack attempt to restart a civil war in Iraq. That year, his son Issa Nazir is killed in a drone attack by order of William Walden, director of the CIA. (Novel Homeland: Saul's Game)
2010 - Period of mourning for Issa's death. Planning a revenge operation against William Walden and the US.
2011 - In a plot devised by Nazir, two al-Qaeda agents prepare to assassinate Vice President William Walden, members of the government; intelligence chiefs and military leaders. (Season 1)
2012 - The CIA coordinates a failed attempt to assassinate Abu Nazir in Beirut, Lebanon during a meeting with the Hezbollah leadership. Nazir enters the United States to assassinate the Vice President and to bomb the CIA. Death and burial at sea. (Season 2)
2013 - Brief appearance as a hallucination. (Season 3: Only Last Thing)
About Him[]
Abu Nazir is a high-ranking operative, possibly the operational leader, of al-Qaeda. Nazir oversees the captivity of prisoners of war Nicholas Brody and Tom Walker, and over a period of years is able to groom them both to turn on the U.S. and align with al-Qaeda. (Novel Homeland: Carrie's Run)
Issa, Nazir's son, is killed by a CIA-sanctioned drone strike. The incident is pivotal in shifting the allegiance of Brody, and also leads Nazir to swear revenge on the CIA and its director. And Nassrin Mughrabi, Nazir's wife. (Big Man in Tehran and Novels Homeland: Saul's Game)
He sends Brody and Walker back to the U.S. with a plot to kill Vice President Walden and many other officials, but it is thwarted by the efforts of Carrie Mathison.
Brody is captured by the CIA and forced to work with them against al-Qaeda. Nazir then infiltrates the United States himself with a new plan. First, he orchestrates the assassination of Vice President Walden, holding Carrie as a hostage as leverage to force Brody's assistance. He then sacrifices himself (killed by SWAT team), along with his cell (captured by CIA forces), in order to give the appearance that the terror threat has been neutralized. However, Nazir had planted a bomb in Brody's car, and one of his associates detonates the bomb at the CIA's headquarters, killing 219 people and wiping out much of the CIA's infrastructure, and setting up the innocent Brody as the culprit.
Season 1[]
After Sergeant Nicholas Brody, who has been a captive of al-Qaeda for eight years, is freed by US soldiers, CIA agent Carrie Mathison believes him to be a sleeper sent by al-Qaeda leader Abu Nazir. Over the season, Nicholas' backstory reveals that this is in fact true. Brody, who had been captured together with his partner Tom Walker, had been tortured at first but Nazir then seemingly freed him from this torture. Nazir behaved friendly towards Brody and introduced him to his young son Issa. He asked Brody to teach Issa English and Brody did so, eventually coming to think of Issa as his own son. Over the course of his 'captivity' Brody also converted to Islam.
When Nazir's son was killed when his school was bombed in a strike ordered by the US Vice President, Nazir managed to convince Brody to take revenge. He smuggled Walker, who had also been turned, back into the United States and made it possible for the US marines to free Brody.
It is later reveals that Nazir plans for Brody to kill the Vice President and many of his close associates after they had been ushered into a safe bunker after a seemingly assassination attempt carried out by Walker. After Nicholas fails to use his explosive vest, Nazir sends Walker after him to confront him. Walker confronts Brody under an abandoned bridge and hands him a mobile phone over which Nazir speaks to Brody. After Brody convinces Nazir that he is still his man, Nazir orders him to prove it by killing Walker. Brody does so and executes Walker.
Season 2[]
At the beginning of the season, Nazir is meeting with Hisbollah members in Beirut. The wife of one of the men, an old asset of Carrie, informs Carrie and the CIA sends a team to kill Nazir. When Nazir really shows up, he is warned just in time by Nicholas Brody who manages to send a text message in secret. Mere seconds before he can be shot, Nazir flees from the scene though the rest of the men are killed by the CIA team.
After shaving his beard, Nazir is able to enter the Unites States unnoticed. There, he meets with Nicholas Brody, who has been kidnapped by Nazir's men and is horrified to see him. Nazir thanks Brody for warning him of the assassination attempt and tells him about his new plan, to blow up a ceremony celebrating the homecoming of US soldiers the Vice President will also attend. He tells Brody that his role will be to make sure that one of Nazir's henchmen, a reporter, will be able to attend the ceremony. Brody however warns the CIA and Nazir's men are killed or captured, his plan foiled. As a way of revenge, Nazir kidnaps Carrie. He later calls Brody and tells him to get a code from the Vice President's office. This code would allow Nazir to deactivate the Vice President's pacemaker. He threatens to kill Carrie should Brody refuse.
While waiting for Brody to get the number, Nazir talks to Carrie. She attempts to convince him that Brody will never get the number but Nazir is optimistic. He also tells Carrie that he does not intend to leave the Unites States alive and is amused when Carrie cannot believe such a thing. The two then discuss about their different beliefs about who is at fault and who is the terrorist.
When Brody gets the code, he calls Nazir. Nazir asks for the code but Nicholas demands that Carrie be released first - fully aware that Nazir would kill her once he had the code. Nazir in turn argues that Nicholas wouldn't text him the code should he release Carrie. Brody swears on the soul of Issa that he will keep his word. After a brief moment of distrust, Nazir agrees and cuts the ropes binding Carrie. Carrie is able to flee from the warehouse. In turn, he receives a number from Brody which he immediately sends to one of his men. The man manages to deactivate the pacemaker and the Vice President dies after a heated confrontation with Brody.
Meanwhile, the escaped Carrie calls her colleagues at the CIA and informs them about Nazir's location. They send their forces in to close on the steel mill. Instead of waiting for them, Carrie returns to the steel mill but neither she nor the arriving agents are able to capture Nazir who has seemingly vanished. After interrogating the reporter, Carrie realises that Nazir has never left the steel mill but must still be hiding in the tunnels somewhere. With a sweep team she heads back down into the tunnels. They find Nazir's hideout in a hidden tunnel and Nazir kills the agent Carrie is with. He grabs the man's machine gun and pursues Carrie who is trying to hide from him inside the mill. He is able to find her and beats her up. Before he can kill her, the arrival of more soldiers forces him to retreat. During his escape Nazir is cornered and shot multiple times when he aims for his gun.
After his death, Nazir's body is thrown into the ocean after an imam performs burial rites. This is done to prevent other terrorists from finding it.
Nazir's true master plan is only revealed after his death. The homecoming ceremony was never his true target. He sacrificed his crew and even himself to lure the CIA into a false sense of security. His true target was always the Vice President and the CIA and during the ceremony for the Vice President's death, a massive bomb (hidden inside Brody's car) explodes, killing almost everyone attending the ceremony (government officials and CIA agents mostly). Only 27 people survive the explosion, leaving over 200, including David Estes and the Vice President's wife and son, dead. Thus, Nazir posthumously achieved his goal.
Because his death was highly strategic. It allowed the CIA to let its guard down, and thus hosted a massive funeral service for the Vice President (who was a former Director). Al-Qaeda used Brody's SUV to frame him for a devastating car bombing of the event which killed 219 people.
Season 3[]
One final appearance was made in a hallucination Brody experienced during an extreme heroin withdrawal. He was imagined to be cleaning a flesh wound Brody sustained as a POW. (Only Last Thing)
Novels[]
Abu Nazir also appears in Andrew Kaplan's tie-in novels Carrie's Run and Saul's Game.
Gallery[]
