The news of Osama bin Laden’s death brought rejoicing to the West and mixed feelings to the Arab world. His death will be painted as a symbolic success in the war on terror for the West and the death of a martyr that must be avenged by al-Qaeda. Given the amount of media attention that has been directed towards the hunt for and murder of arguably the world’s most reviled man, very little has been made of either bin Laden’s personal history or background. Given his global infamy it is hard to understand why more research has not been done on the man largely responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people and for the spread of one of the world’s most twisted and evil ideologies.
A little known fact amongst the general population is that the bin Laden family owns one of the world’s largest construction companies, the Saudi Binladin Group, which has offices around the world. Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, the father of Osama, founded the Binladin group. The Binladin group took advantage of a close relationship with the royal family to obtain a promise that all future construction projects in the Kingdom be awarded to their company, including the multi-billion dollar refurbishment of Mecca. The company has since accumulated a net value of five billion dollars, making the bin Ladin family the richest non-royal family in all of Saudi Arabia.
Osama bin Laden was born into this wealthy family in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to the aforementioned Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden and the man’s tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas. Soon after the birth of Osama, his father divorced al-Attas, who soon remarried an associate of Mohammed and had several other children. Osama was raised in the household of his mother and stepfather as a devout Wahhabi Muslim. Wahhabism is recognized as an ultra conservative Muslim sect that is the dominant religion in Saudi Arabia. There is much debate as to what Osama bin Laden may have studied in his post secondary education, with some stating he got a degree in civil engineering while others state that he studied business.
It is known, however, that after Osama bin Laden left college he joined the US-backed Mujahideen fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. After successfully fighting off the USSR, bin Laden was largely responsible for the collapse of the Afghanistan Republic and the installment of the ultra orthodox Taliban as leaders of the nation. After being expelled from Saudi Arabia for his criticism of the Kingdom’s decision to allow US troops onto their soil during the Gulf War, bin Laden took refuge in Sudan where he began the global terrorist network we know today as al-Qaeda. Soon after, however, he was expelled from Sudan and returned to Afghanistan where he began large scale planning of more terrorist attacks. After the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent American invasion of Afghanistan, bin Ladin took exile in Pakistan, where he was killed with much fanfare weeks ago.
The effects of his death remain to be seen. The “war on terror” remains hugely unpopular in Canada and amongst too many Americans, and the death of bin Laden is a much needed boost for the campaign for the Obama regime. However, the celebration will be short lived. As more soldiers die fighting an ambiguous enemy, the direction and goals of the mission will continue to be in question. However, the death of bin Laden is certainly a success for NATO in Afghanistan, and we can, if only for a moment, take some satisfaction that our world will no longer be influenced by the mass murderer that was Osama bin Laden.
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