Arfan Bhatti

Arfan Bhatti is a key leader and the “glue” of Norwegian Islamist group Profetens Ummah, according to Norwegian media. He has been convicted of several crimes and has expressed pro-sharia Islamist views, saying, “We want Norway to become an Islamic nation one day and be governed by sharia law.”Olga Stokke, Lene Li Dragland, and Thomas Olsen, “Hvem er Arfan Bhatti?,” Aftenposten (Oslo), January 16, 2015, http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Hvem-er-Arfan-Bhatti-7864498.html.

Bhatti has a long history of aggressively antisocial behavior. As a member of a youth gang at age 15, Bhatti stabbed a shop-keeper in Oslo multiple times and received his first conviction. In 2006, Bhatti was convicted of shooting at a Synagogue and charged with plotting to blow up the Israeli and American embassies in Oslo. He was acquitted of terrorist plotting but convicted of vandalism.“Arfan Bhatti trolig i Pakistan,” NRK, October 19, 2012, http://www.nrk.no/norge/arfan-bhatti-trolig-i-pakistan-1.8364071. In summer of the same year, he was arrested by German police in his car, which contained “a variety of missiles and weapons, handwritten notes about gun calibers and shooting distances, and a picture of a dead Palestinian girl.” Also in 2006 he was arrested but not convicted of shooting the house of a Norwegian journalist. He remained in custody between 2006 and 2009.Olga Stokke, Lene Li Dragland, and Thomas Olsen, “Hvem er Arfan Bhatti?,” Aftenposten (Oslo), January 16, 2015, http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Hvem-er-Arfan-Bhatti-7864498.html.

In January 2012, Bhatti protested Norway’s military participation in Afghanistan in front of the Parliament building in Oslo. In August of the same year, he was expelled from the Oslo courtroom during the trial of fellow Norwegian-based extremist Mullah Krekar.Olga Stokke, Lene Li Dragland, and Thomas Olsen, “Hvem er Arfan Bhatti?,” Aftenposten (Oslo), January 16, 2015, http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Hvem-er-Arfan-Bhatti-7864498.html.

Bhatti was diagnosed with “antisocial personality disorder” in 2008, the same year he was indicted for violence against his ex-wife and children, over whom he lost custody.Gro Rognmo, “Mangler evne til å føle skyld,” Dagbladet (Oslo), April 24, 2008, http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/04/24/533513.html. He was released from Pakistani prison in 2014 and currently lives in Norway.Olga Stokke, Lene Li Dragland, and Thomas Olsen, “Hvem er Arfan Bhatti?,” Aftenposten (Oslo), January 16, 2015, http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Hvem-er-Arfan-Bhatti-7864498.html. In 2015 he was stopped at the border of Turkey trying to enter the country, during which his designation as a “national security risk” was revealed.“Arfan Bhatti nektet innresie til Tyrkia,” Dagen, June 30, 2015, http://www.dagen.no/Nyheter/nyheter/Arfan-Bhatti-nektet-innreise-til-Tyrkia-217994.

Bhatti was born and raised in the Norwegian capital city of Oslo. Both his parents are from Pakistan, where Bhatti also spent several years during the early 2000s and reportedly grew more radicalized. He has also acquired a reputation as a “Casanova.” Bhatti married a Pakistani woman in 2003 after becoming engaged to her in 1995. He has apparently married two other Muslim women. He also had an affair with a Norwegian television reporter prior to his attack on the Oslo Synagogue.Olga Stokke, Lene Li Dragland, and Thomas Olsen, “Hvem er Arfan Bhatti?,” Aftenposten (Oslo), January 16, 2015, http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Hvem-er-Arfan-Bhatti-7864498.html.

Extremist entity
Profetens Ummah
Type(s) of Organization:
Grassroots
Ideologies and Affiliations:
Islamist, Salafist, Wahhabi, jihadist
Position(s):
Key leader

  • Rhetoric
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