So I bet everyone reading this knows exactly who the guy is, and exactly what he is famous for. However, I doubt many know about his childhood, and the early stages of the man that would grow up to be known as the most powerful terrorist in the world.
Osama bin Laden, whose full name is Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, was born on March 10, 1957. He was born to his father’s tenth wife. His mother, Hamida al-Attas, divorced his father early on, and remarried one of Osama’s father’s friends. Osama then grew up in a household with four step siblings.
Osama bin Laden went to a secular school named Al-Thager Model School, and then went to college at Al-Thager Model School. Though neither school was radical-Islam based, bin Laden showed his interest in religion. He primarily studied the Quran and jihad. Many people feel that it was in college that bin Laden was first exposed to radical Islam.
When he was 17 Osama married his first of five wives. As it turns out, all of them have either divorced him or have gone missing in action. His father was killed in an airplane flown by an American, and his brother crashed an airplane into power lines while in Texas which led to his death.
Apparently, bin Laden did not grow up to hate Americans for who they are, but for what they did. He felt that America aided many anti-Muslim war efforts including America’s support of the Israeli forces in 1982. It is this that led to the 9-11 attacks, and it is this that led to the following statement:
"God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers, but after the situation became unbearable—and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon—I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed—when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way: to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women."
– Osama bin Laden, 2004
Although the relevance of this blog to humanities is questionable at best, i find it interesting to hear about this guys background. Even though i think he was totally wrong and twisted, i think this information on his background helps me in a very small way to somewhat start to imagine to understand why he turned out so wrong and twisted.
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