Rahman Alhawwash

Rahman Alhawwash

"You don't know me and we'll never meet. One day, we'll be on the same bus or at the same restaurant, and I will quietly slip away moments before your untimely death, of say, a stroke or food poisoning."

a character in “Vita Obscura”, as played by Ylanne

Groups

Description

pictorial reference
(hyperlinked, to avoid copyright violation)

Security service: MI5
Name: Rahman Assharif Zulfiqar Bahadur Alhawwash
Current alias: Rizvan Bashir, journalist
DOB: 18 July 1975
Position: Section Operative
Skills/languages: Speaks fluent Arabic, English, and Hebrew; is intimately familiar with the customs, culture, and religions/politics of the Levant area

Recruitment: After graduating from university, Rahman was employed as a linguist/intercultural affairs consultant with a non-governmental organization that operated in some of the most volatile areas of the world, leading to a number of useful connections and the attention of the MI5.

Previous operations/employment history: Rahman has been instrumental in gathering intelligence on Levant-area organizations of interest, including the Mossad, the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Levant-area branches of Al-Qaeda. Previously, he was employed by the Beit-Salem (or alternately, Beit-Shalom), the House of Peace, an interfaith religious organization, which provided housing, clothing, foodstuffs, and counseling services for poor women, widows, children, orphans, and refugees in the Middle East.

Height: 5'11" - 180.3cm (1.8m)
Weight: 160lbs, 72.6kg
Eye/hair colour: Light brown/Dark brown
Ethnicity: Palestinian
Distinguishable features: None.

History

Rahman's grandparents were Palestinian refugees during the 1948 creation of the State of Israel, who sought asylum in the United Kingdom. There, his parents were born British citizens, and when Rahman himself was born in the summer of 1975, he was a second generation UK citizen. Nominally a Muslim, Rahman's closest friends throughout grammar school were, inexplicably, practicing Jews and Christians. His parents raised him in a moderate Islamic faith, attending mosque each Friday for the jumaah service dutifully, while maintaining a safe distance from Islamic politics and any form of 'extremism'. Rahman was an older brother. His sister, born when he was six, was diagnosed with Kanner's autism, and to this day, lives at home with their parents. Unlike some with the diagnosis of Kanner's autism, Shafiqa does speak and can communicate, but often seems lost in her own world, spending hours at a time spinning or staring at lights on the ceiling. She spent four years in a dedicated school for the autistic, but as a 29 year old severely autistic adult, is unable to live independently.

As a student, Rahman excelled in school overall, but particularly with the humanities - language arts, social studies, and foreign language studies. After he graduated from the top form, Rahman spent a gap year abroad in Israel working with a humanitarian organization, before traveling to the United States to attend university at Georgetown University, where he earned a dual degree in International Relations and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. While enrolled in Georgetown, Rahman spent another year abroad, this time in Lebanon; and a summer abroad in Jordan, expounding upon his familiarity with his ancestral homeland.

Upon graduation, Rahman was briefly affiliated with an interfaith dialogue think tank concerning the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, but after a few months, was hired by Beit-Salem, or Beit-Shalom, the House of Peace, an American-based interfaith, but nonsectarian, humanitarian organization dedicated to providing basic services and other physical supplies to the particularly needy throughout the Middle East. Rahman, because of his language abilities and cultural knowledge, was based primarily in the Levant area, serving communities primarily in Israel, the occupied territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait; although he also spent weeks at a time in communities in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Rahman especially felt drawn towards the special needs population because of his sister, and spent much of his time with Beit-Salem providing education to the families of special needs students, and to the special needs students themselves.

While employed as a linguist slash intercultural affairs consultant with Beit-Salem, Rahman made a number of useful connections throughout the Levant, and gained the attention of MI5 for his dedication, abilities, and knowledge of the area. Thus he was recruited by a senior MI5 official four years ago, who has since been assassinated by an unknown terrorist. At this time, Rahman works as a section operative on sensitive assignments, sometimes engaging in clandestine work abroad as well.