The Life of Osama Bin Laden and a Wealthy Arabian Family - Essay Example

THE LIFE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN Introduction Osama bin Laden or Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad was born in 1957 to a wealthy Arabian family. He father was a wealthy businessman with an interest in the construction sector. He was born in the town of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. He father had over 50 children, and Osama was the 17th born in the family. The father died in a helicopter crash when Osama bin Laden was just 11 years old [Cho01]. The mother of Osama was left to take care of the young children though she remarried at a later time. He was the leader of an international terrorist network called al-Qaeda. The group has various terrorist gangs around the globe who pledge allegiance to them. The group has carried out many of attacks targeting Western governments and also western owned buildings. They carry the attacks as they are what they call infiltration of the Islamic religion [Hof08]. His well to do upbringing saw him attend prestigious schools in Saudi Arabia. He schooled in the Saudi port city in an elite school called Al Thagher Model School between 1968 and 1976 [Neu14]. At the institution, he studied British style education alongside daily Islamic worship. According to Steve Coll, a writer for the New Yorker, Osama was introduced to Islamic teachings. This formed the foundation for his political and violent activism in favor of Islamic religion. At the age of 17, Osama was married to his first cousin. At this time, it was a normal convention among traditional Muslims to practice this. His wife was a Syrian woman from his mother’s side. He later on married three other women in line with the Islamic law. He bore between 20 and 30 children [Cho01]. He married at an early age to protect him from corruption. He attended his secondary and university education in Jeddah. He attended King Abdi Al-Aziz University where he studied public administration, economics, business administration as well as civil engineering. While at the university, he was very enthusiastic about religious debates, particularly Islam religion. About the Father of Osama Mohammed Laden first came to Saudi Arabia from South Yemen where he had spent most of his early years. He started as a very poor laborer, working as a porter in Jeddah port. He later got into the construction building from where he build much wealth. While working in the constructions business, he developed very close ties with members of the ruling family at the time of King Saud [McA05]. The close ties with the first family saw his take the risk of building King Saud’s palaces at very cheap prices, cheaper than the lowest bids. He impressed the King very much for his good performance in the construction of the royal palaces. He also builds a friendship with members of the royal family, especially Faisal [Hof081]. When King Saud and Faisal were in disagreement over who should rule, Bin Laden the father was very instrumental in convincing King Saud to step down in favor of Faisal. After King Saud had left, the treasury was emptied, and the kingdom was unable to pay the servants. However, Bin Laden intervened and paid wages for all civil servants for a period of six months [Hof081]. To return the favor, King Faisal ordered that all construction projects to be awarded to bin Laden. In fact, Bin Laden was also appointed the Minister of public works for a period during the reign of King Faisal. Bin Laden was a devoted Muslim, something that he passed on to his sons and daughters. He was also very humble and generous. He was very proud of his previous occupation as a porter that he kept his bag as a trophy at the palace entrance. He ensured that he sons were responsible and even assigned them responsibilities to manage some of the construction projects on his behalf [McA05]. Bin Laden, the father, was a disciplinarian and ensured his children remained disciplined all the time. He observed his children with strong Islamic and social code. There was a daily program that had to be keenly followed by the children as a daily routine at his house. Though he had very many children, he was very keen in the treatment of his kids and ensured there were no favors [Cho01]. Shaping Osama’s mentality Osama bin Laden was a committed Muslim since his tender age. He started forming an Islamic responsibility since a young age, and his father's conduct also shaped this habit. His Father was also a devoted Muslim and used to host Pilgrims during the Haji season at his home. During this seasons, most of the attendees were senior Islamic scholars and leaders of Islamic Movements. This habit of hosting pilgrims went on even after his father’s death through his elder brothers who were also staunch Muslims. During these seasons, Osama interacted with the attendees and built strong relations and contacts with them [Hof08]. The secondary and university education also shaped his future Islamic activism in a way. During these years, he adopted a trend that was popular among educated Muslims at the time [Fuk02]. This was the Muslim Brotherhood. The group had its routes in Egypt where members promoted violent means of achieving Islamic Governance. At the University, his former students describe him as extremely religious. He never watched popular films nor listened to popular music since he described this as against Islamic teachings. He spent most of the time interpreting the Quran and Jihad as well as doing charitable work. He also did writing and poetry reading during his leisure time [Cho01]. Osama had two teachers who taught Islamic teachers at the university. The first teacher was Abdullah Azzam, who later became a popular name in Afghanistan. He was the founder of Hamas, a Palestinian Militant group. The other was Mohammed Qutub, who is an Islamic writer and philosopher. Osama Bin Laden’s beliefs One of the major ideologies followed by Osama bin Laden was that civilians from enemy countries and regions were legitimate targets for jihadists to kill. The main targets were the westerners, without distinguishing whether it is a woman or child. According to those around him, Osama was motivated by the belief that the US foreign policy was designed to oppress, kill or harm people belonging to the Islam religion [Fuk02]. He criticized the US form of governance, which he says was against the Islamic teachings. He also called Americans to convert to Islam in order to do away with immoral acts associated with Americans. He outlines the immoral acts as fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants as well as gambling [Neu14]. Such acts are not allowed by the Muslim community, and he believed that such acts were being introduced to the Islamic regions where Americans are already moving. Osama believed that the Islamic religion was in crisis, and something had to be done to save sharia law from infiltration. He opposed alternative governance structures such as socialism, communism as well as democracy among the Muslim community. Such beliefs, he believed could only be dealt with in a violent way before things become worse than before [Cho01]. According to Bin Laden, Afghanistan was the only true Islamic country in the Muslim world. He constantly called for violent jihad to correct what he saw as injustices against Muslims which were being driven by the United States of America and other non-Muslim countries. He called upon the US government to withdraw all of its civilian and military personnel in the Muslim countries, especially those living in Middle East. He also called for the elimination of the Israeli state for its oppression of members of the Islamic religion [McA05]. Osama’s method of achieving activism and his stand on Muslim oppression led to him being regarded as a terrorists and governments as well as media. The Saudi Arabia bore man was charged with terrorism charges in New York, Tripoli and Madrid [McA05]. He was also anti-Semitic, where he blamed most of the negative events happening around the world to Jewish actions [Hof08]. In a 1998 interview with Pakistan Journalist Rahimullar Yusufzai, Bin Laden claimed that Operation Desert Fox was enough proof that Israeli Jews controlled the governments of US and UK. In a letter to the US in 2002, Bin Laden claimed that Jews directly controlled the political and economic institutions of the US. In addition, he claimed that the Jews also owned the western media outlets that they used to spread propaganda against Muslims. He also claimed that Israel intention was to expand its territory into the Arabia Peninsula and the Middle East as well enslaves the Muslims leaving there. This plan, he said, was aimed at creating a “Greater Israel” [Rea14]. His beliefs that music and film do not favor the Islamic religion were advanced in his later years. He also had mixed attitude towards technology. He had an interest in earth moving machinery. This was inspired by one of his professions as a Civil engineer, a profession he studied at the University. He was fascinated by genetic engineering but disliked chilled water that is as a result of technology. Bin Laden’s strategy for accomplishing his goals was inspired by the desire to cripple the economies of the enemy countries. He fought against large enemies such as the US and Soviet Union using jihadists who would never surrender [Fuk02]. He believed this tactic would dry the economies of the enemies leading to bankruptcy. Bin Laden in Afghanistan Osama bin Laden first visited Afghanistan during the onset of the Soviet invasion. He went to Pakistan and alongside his hosts Jamaal, he traveled from Karachi to Peshawar. This visit was meant to visit the Muslim refugees and also meet the leaders, some of whom he had met at the Haji gatherings at his father’s house. His list trip was short lived and was more of exploratory rather than an action trip to be updated on the progress of the muhajeen. He later traveled back to his kingdom where he lobbied with friends and relatives for financial assistance for the jihadists [Neu14]. He later went back to Pakistan than to the border to hand over the donations to the jihadists. He went on collecting money and taken them to the jihadists till 1982 [Cho01]. It was in 1982 when he decided to go inside of Afghanistan to join the jihadists and also provide moral support to the fighters. He brought construction machinery with him for use during the muhajeen. Once in a while he joined the fighters in the fields but this was not in an organized manner. He served as a motivational figure to the fighters and also encouraged more Saudis to come out and join their brothers in the Muhajeen [Neu14]. 1n 1984, alongside Azzam, he founded a Saudi Arabian funded organization named Maktab-al-Khadamat. The organization was used to fuel money, arms, as well as fighters from Arab countries to the Afghanistan war. Through this organization, Bin Laden inherited family wealth and also made logistical arrangements for the jihad fighters. He also took care of their paperwork with Pakistan government. He also set up a network of couriers from Afghanistan and Peshawar. It was during this time that he met Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later became the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad [Neu14]. There grew a rift between Bin Laden and Azzam later because of decisions regarding the heading of the jihad. Azzam was blown up in a car bombing outside a mosque in 1989. The assassination of Azzam was seen as perpetrated by Bin Laden due to the tense relations with Azzam prior his death. However, some scholars were against this view and alleged that Azzam had other worse enemies taking into account the nature of his position. Formation of Al-Qaeda In 1989, Bin Laden founded the Al-Qaeda group to focus on symbolic acts of terrorism. After the Soviet had withdrawn from the Afghanistan war, Bin Laden decided to return to Saudi Arabia to seek more funds for his new group, which was a more complicated mission. The group comprised of ex-soviet war jihad fighters and was getting ready for big battles. Back home, he faced much resistance from the royal family who thought that the pan-Islamic rhetoric would cause trouble in the Kingdom [Cho01]. Following the resistance at home, Bin Laden relocated to Sudan, which was a more military Islamic state. In Sudan, Osama continued to recruit more fighters and collecting funds for his militant group [McA05]. After a whole year of preparations, the group struck for the first time against the Americans. They bombed a house in Aden which was housing American troops on their way to Somalia for a peace-keeping mission. After the attack in Aden, multiple attacks followed mainly aimed at Americans. One of the attacks happened in Mogadishu in 1993 where 18 Americans died. The group is also linked to the 1993 bombing of World Trade Centre in New York as well as the attempted assassination of Egyptian President Mubarak [Rea14]. There was continued international pressure on Sudan to arrest Bin Laden, who was carrying his operations in Khartoum. This had spoilt international relations between Sudan and other countries which were against the Militant Islamic group. Bin Laden relocated to Afghanistan again in 1996 in order to protect himself from arrest and recruit more fighters. On August & 1998, there was twin bombing in two African countries i.e. Kenya and Tanzania targeting US embassies. 225 people died in the two attacks and thousands injured [Neu14]. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the two attacks. On October 12, a boat loaded with explosives plowed into the hull of an American owned destroyer docked off the coast of Yemen. During this incident, 17 sailors were killed while 38 of them were injured. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for this attack as well. The Osama led group managed to stage a number of devastating attacks for several years with the help of Al-Qaeda trained jihadists. The worst attack happened on September 11, 2001. A group of Al-Qaeda jihadists hijacked four commercial planes carrying passengers in the US. Two of the planes collided into the World Trade Centre towers while a third one crashed on the Pentagon house in Virginia. The fourth plane was retaken and crashed in Pennsylvania. All the attacks killed 3000 civilians. Osama Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks in a videotaped message released in 2004 [Rea14]. Following this attack, the US government led by President George W Bush successfully overthrew Taliban fighters. Osama went into hiding and was hunted for over ten years close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Death of Osama Bin Laden After the deadly attack on Sept 11th, the US government executed a mission to capture dead or aline, the mastermind of the attack. Following leads given to the US government, the location of Osama was unearthed in Pakistan. On May 2nd, 2011, a group of US marines raided the home of Osama and killed him [Rea14]. This marked a victory for the US. In a speech by President Obama, he praised those involved in the raid. He, however, cautioned American nationals since Al-Qaeda movement was still alive and could attack as part of retaliatory attacks. Conclusion Osama bin Laden’s life was full of controversies. Though he was seen as a united figure and as an inspiration by the jihadists, he created many enemies due to his violent activism in favor of Islam. He was an enthusiastic person and passionate in everything he did. His virtues are admired by many even though his ideologies were extreme. References List Cho01: , (Chossudovsky, 2001), Hof08: , (Hoffman, 2008), Neu14: , (Neumann, 2014), McA05: , (McAuley, 2005), Hof081: , (Hoffman, 2008), Fuk02: , (Fukuyama, 2002), Rea14: , (Reading, 2014), Read More