Osama Bin Laden was born Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957 to construction billionaire Mohammed Awad Bin Laden. Bin Laden was one of fifty of his father's children. Osama Bin Laden only knew his father for a short time before his parent divorced. After the split, his mother took him to live with her new husband, Muhammed Al-Attas. Thus, Bin Laden spent the majority of his childhood with his four step-siblings and he attended Al Thager Model School--at the time, the most prestigious schools in the area. When he was fourteen, Bin Laden was recognized as an outstanding student at Al Thager. Because of this, he was offered an invitation to join a small Islamic study group; Bin Laden was told that he and the group would memorize the entire Koran--a highly regarded accomplishment--before their graduation from the institution. However, the group soon lost its original focus and Bin Laden began his learnings in some of the principles of violent jihad.
The teacher who educated the study group was influenced by a sect of Islam called the Brotherhood, thus he began instructing his pupils about the importance of instituting pure, Islamic law around the Arab world. This teacher often used allegories with violent endings as he taught that truly loyal observers of Islam would institute the holy word, even if these means were reached through death and destruction. By the time of their graduation, Bin Laden and his fellow pupils had completely adopted these principles and the attitude of Islamic teen activists.
Osama Bin Laden went on to create Al Qaeda (a militant group), orchestrated attacks on America, and masterminded the tragedy of 9/11.
One of the main questions that I get from this text is about the turning point from being highly educated to leadership of terroristic organizations. It's interesting that Osama bin Laden, along with his successor, al-Zawahiri, began as highly educated students; bin Laden a civil engineer, and Zawahiri a surgeon. I wonder what it is about those qualities that encouraged them to rise to the top - leadership skills learned there? Skills as orators or high-level planning skills?
ReplyDeleteWow, interesting post! I found particularly fascinating the shift you described towards radical ideas while a student. Interesting how much education or even a single teacher can influence a student.
ReplyDeleteGood informative post about the origin story of bin Laden. According to his statements on recording, Laden orchestrated the 9/11 attacks to demonstrate the killings of women and children that the American-Israeli did to his people. Other motivations included the presence of US military in Saudi Arabia and US enforcement of sanctions in Iraq. The 9/11 attacks would go on to instigate the War on Terror that listed bin Laden the primary target for the FBI. The teachings that Bin Laden adopted are very much alive today in the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_the_September_11_attacks