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Bin Laden Son Wants to Be Peace Activist
CAIRO, Egypt
AP
Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father—except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there’s the black leather biker jacket.
The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an “ambassador for peace” between Muslims and the West.
Omar—one of bin Laden’s 19 children—raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.
“It’s about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs—especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama—are all terrorists. This is not the truth,” Omar told the AP last week at a cafe in a Cairo shopping mall.
Of course, many may have a hard time getting their mind around the idea of “bin Laden: peacenik.”
“Omar thinks he can be a negotiator,” said Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain. “He’s one of the only people who can do this in the world.”
Omar lived with the al-Qaida leader in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan in 1996.
There, Omar says he trained at an al-Qaida camp but in 2000 he decided there must be another way and he left his father, returning to his homeland of Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t want to be in that situation to just fight. I like to find another way and this other way may be like we do now, talking,” he said in English.
He suggested his father did not oppose his leaving—and Alsabah interjected that Omar was courageous in breaking away, but neither elaborated.
Although there is no way to confirm the details he describes of his childhood and upbringing, the strong family resemblance and Omar’s knowledge of Osama’s family life have convinced many that he is bin Laden’s son.
U.S. and Egyptian intelligence officials have not commented on his identity, but Omar and his wife insist they have not been bothered by Egyptian officials.
Omar said he hasn’t seen or been in contact with his father since leaving Afghanistan. “He doesn’t have e-mail,” Omar said. “He doesn’t take a telephone … if he had something like this, they will find him through satellites.”
Omar doesn’t criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world.
“My father thinks he will be good for defending the Arab people and stop anyone from hurting the Arab or Muslim people any place in the world,” he said, noting that the West didn’t have a problem with his father when he was fighting the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Omar is convinced a truce between the West and al-Qaida is possible.
“My father is asking for a truce but I don’t think there is any government (that) respects him. At the same time they do not respect him, why everywhere in the world, they want to fight him? There is a contradiction,” he said.
Osama bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in the Pakistan-Afghan border region, offered a truce to Europe in a 2004 audiotape and a conditional truce to the United States in a 2006 message. In November, he called on European nations to pull out of Afghanistan in a message seen by some experts as an effort to reach out to Europe.
But in a series of messages since last fall, he also has been calling for Muslims to rally around jihad, or “holy war,” encouraging fighters in Iraq in particular to continue their battles with U.S. and Iraqi forces.
At least two of Osama bin Laden’s sons, Hamza and Saad, are believed to have an active role in al-Qaida—with Hamza believed to be in the Pakistan-Afghan border zone and Saad thought to be in Iran, perhaps in Iranian custody.
But most of the al-Qaida leader’s children, like Omar, live as legitimate businessmen. The family as a whole disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities.
The family is wealthy: Osama bin Laden’s billionaire father Mohammed, who died in 1967, had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a construction conglomerate that gets many major building contracts in the kingdom.
Since leaving his father’s side, Omar has lived in Saudi Arabia, where he runs a contracting company connected with the Binladen Group, but he spends much of his time in Egypt. It was during a desert horseback ride at the Pyramids of Giza that he met his wife.
Their marriage in April made them tabloid fodder, particularly in Britain, where headlines touted the “granny who married Osama bin Laden’s son.” Alsabah, who has married five times, has five grandchildren.
The couple has applied for a visa to Britain. And they are planning their endurance horse race across North Africa, which they hope to start in March. It is in the planning stages—they are seeking approval of governments along the route and need sponsors to help pay for the event and raise money for child victims of war.
Omar said they plan to ride 30 miles a day, with periodic weeklong rests in each country.
Teams from around the world will be encouraged to join in what the couple envisions as an equine version of the Paris-Dakar car rally. That rally was canceled this year due to fears over terrorist threats made by al-Qaida-affiliated groups in North Africa.
Omar, however, said he isn’t worried.
“I heard the rally was stopped because of al-Qaida,” he said. “I don’t think they are going to stop me.”
Wild Thing’s comment……..
OH really??? LOL OK bring us your father’s head on a stick and we’ll talk.
The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden
No point in reading any further than that. He is one of “them”.
planning a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.
What the crap…? That reminds me a bit of the movie ‘Hidalgo.’
This is the weirdest story I’ve seen in a long time. A bin Laden an ambassador for peace?? HAHAHA. OK then, tell us where Osama is …crickets…
He doesn’t want peace, otherwise he would have denounced his father and al-Qaida and told us where he is. But he’s done none of that. He’s trying to fool us infidels. And with some people, i.e. multiculti’s and “why can’t we all get along” types, he may have succeeded.
Since he’s frankly stating he sides with the terrorists, by not denouncing daddy, I say to him, go ahead, hop on your horse and start that ride. We’ll also be riding for peace … the peace of removing terrorists, their enablers and supporters from the face of Earth. We didn’t want this war but they certainly do.
Here is OUR ride! Thanks to our awesome troops!
Omar of Arabia’s #1 islamofascist terrorist dad is one of what… 42 children? Ramadan polyannas must be a real expensive pain in the camel behind…….
Religion of pieces…kaboomy, eh? Omar would be a natural speaker at Columbia U or Colorado U or Cal-Berkeley! A good ANALyst at CNN and MSNBC too?
“Open wide and say Allah!”
“”We’d fly 4,000 miles to smoke a camel!!”
“You are certainly no Omar Shariff!!!”
Ummmmm, let me get this straigt……
“they are seeking approval of governments along the route and need sponsors to help pay for the event and raise money for child victims of war.”
but…..
“The family is wealthy: Osama bin Laden’s billionaire father Mohammed, who died in 1967, had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a construction conglomerate that gets many major building contracts in the kingdom.”
I wonder how much money the Bin Laden family contributed to the victims of the attacks on 9-11. Oh, silly me, they contributed TO THE ATTACKS on 9-11.
Shoot them all and bury them face down in graves with pigs.
(sorry, that tear jerking story just didn’t quite put me in touch with my sensitive side)
PS: Omar would be a natural Minnesota US senator or Illinois represenative! He could also replace Louie Farrakhan?
You know how you can tell this is all a lie on his part? Because no fatwas or death threats have been made against him.
Just look at anyone else who’s ever spoken out. They are either living in fear or pushing up daisies.
This is nothing more than propaganda meant to soften us up. To distract us.
Somehow the media ignores all this and tries to make him a “brave man.”
Nice picture of him and his horse…
Revelation 6:8
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
WoW!!!! I was thinking the same thing Billy……….They have Billions of dollars and need support to finance this Lawrence of Arabia ride????? Maybe the money will be going for other things, i.e. explosives, cars to blow up, etc!!!! I will say one thing…..at 52 she looks a whole lot better than he does at 26!!!!!!!!! LOL If he is truly concerned about peace, why isn’t he working with his father to bring this crap to an end. I agree with Darth…….he would definitely fit in with the liberal bleeding hearts over here. And the sad thing is……he would probably get elected!!!!!!!!!!!
Kill him! Some day, probably after sharia law replaces the Constitution, we will finally figure out that the Saudis are the heart, soul and finance behind the islamic fundamentalist movement. Meantime, our goofy President laughs and jokes with them and wears their man-dresses and plays with their swords as he dances holding hands with oil sheiks.
I wonder if any of bin Laden’s sons have been suicide bombers?
Yo Omar……..where’s your daddy?
Bookmarked your post over at Blog Bookmarker.com!
Is that Britany with him. Looks like he didn’t follow Moslem law.
With that helo coming in like that someone should tell him is ride is here.
The sad part of this story is that there are probably some people who will buy into this crap. It is interesting that it is only the ideas of the Western minds that must change. Never the barbaric and savage minds of the Islamofascist terrorists and their millions of Arab and Muslim supporters. Saudi Arabia, home of the bin Ladens, would be a good place to start.
That this buffoon is still alive proves Vilmar’s point. Power through money, which is the reason that Saudi Arabia isn’t the world’s biggest cat box.
Two points: Baby Bin Laden says that his father is defending the Islamic world, while he, himself, lives a Western lifestyle. Hypocrisy and lies seem to be standard issue defenses for Arabs like him. I bet he doesn’t have Palestinians over for dinner.
Second, he says his father is seeking a truce. A truce? Sorry, sleazebag, but no truce is possible now. There are over 3000 Americans to avenge.
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Take care.
Darth……..”natural speaker at Columbia U or Colorado U or Cal-Berkeley”……
Your right they would love him there, he would fit right in.
drstrangeloveb52isok,LOL love it.
Billy, I agree.
“Shoot them all and bury them face down in graves with pigs.”
Darth, yes, they sure are interchangable aren’t they. All cut from the same cloth.
Vilmar, yes, I don’t trust any of them and I would wonder also if this is some kind of thing for his son to work his way in to certain groups to cause trouble. There is no way any of them are about peace.
GiddyUp Steve, what a perfect verse for this. Thank you so much Steve.
John, yes I agree, I really think the people like the ones that elected Keith Ellison woould elect this terrorist too.
Tom, I will am so upset that Bush did all of that. sheesh
Bob, good question!! They sure love to use other’s sons for the job.
Mark, hahahahaha it sure is. His ride has arrived……K-pow!
Les, exactly! All those touchie feeling, peace sign brained people will eat this up.
Rhod, amen to that!! Truce, sheesh he can take his truce and put it where the sun doesn’t shine. Better yet be a lone bomber on himself and do the world a favor.
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