Original version

BBC World Service Online

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: My Father the Bomb-Plotter

Zak Ebrahim and his father

11/09/2014

My Father the Bomb-Plotter

BBC World Service - Outlook, My Father the Bomb-Plotter

Zak Ebrahim: my father plotted the first attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993

Zak Ebrahim's father plotted the first attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993.  Zak, an anti-extremism campaigner, told Matthew Bannister how his dad's actions shaped his life.

Zak Ebrahim tells how he found out that his father, El-Sayyid Nosair, had helped to plan an earlier attack on the World Trade Centre - the bombing in 1993 which killed six people and injured more than a thousand. Nosair's actions had a devastating impact on his family. Zak spent many years struggling to come to terms with his father's violent legacy, and eventually turned his back on Nosair's fundamentalist ideology. His book is called The Terrorist's Son, A Story of Choice.

Also, we speak to 70-year-old Gianni Mura. He's something of a legend in sporting circles in Italy: in a 50 year career as a sports reporter he's covered 28 Tours de France, five Olympic games and nine football world cups. His fame is preceded only by the sound of his old fashioned typewriter, a five kilogram Lettera 32 which he carries with him everywhere he goes.  

Sakari Oramo, a renowned Finnish violinist and conductor, tells us about his extraordinary career in music, which started with him conducting in his wellies. He will be conducting the orchestra and choirs at BBC's Last Night of the Proms this Saturday, the culmination of one of the world's greatest classical music festivals. 

We meet Mamen Sanchez Perez. She's the granddaughter of the founders of Hola!, a Spanish-language celebrity news magazine which this month is celebrating its 70th birthday.  It was launched by a young couple in Barcelona in 1944, and the company is still run by the same family today.  Mamen reveals the first picture they published on the cover was American actor Clark Gable.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

My Father the Bomb-Plotter

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service