He immigrated with his mother at Chicago, Illinois, at age fifteen, after his father, who was a colonel in the Egyptian Army was executed for participation in the murder of the president Anwar al-Sadat. He was in the U.S. Army as biological chemical warfare specialist during the Gulf War. Farik had the other terrorists stone him to death because he had talked about their plans to an uncle, putting them in danger as someone else could have overheard.