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Osama’s son wants to be a peace envoy

Omar bin Laden

Cairo: 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-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with the Associated Press, he said there is a better way to defend Islam than Al-Qaeda’s militancy: Mr. Laden wants to be an “ambassador for peace” between Muslims and the West.

Mr. Laden raised a tabloid storm in Britain last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took on the name Zaina Alsabah. Now, the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 5,000-km 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,” Mr. Laden said at a cafe in one of Cairo’s new shopping malls.

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 Ms. Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain. “He’s one of the only people who can do this in the world.”

Mr. Laden, the fourth eldest of Osama bin Laden’s 19 children, lived with his father in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan when Khartoum forced out the Al-Qaeda leader in 1996.

There, Mr. Laden says he trained at an Al-Qaeda 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 Ms. Alsabah interjected that Mr. Laden 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 Mr. Laden’s knowledge of Osama’s family life have convinced many of his lineage. “Omar bin Laden is the son of Osama bin Laden and his first wife, Najwa,” a U.S. intelligence official said on Thursday.

Mr. Laden said he hasn’t seen or been in contact with his father since leaving Afghanistan.

Mr. Laden doesn’t criticise his father and says Osama is just trying to defend the Islamic world.

He is convinced a truce between the West and Al-Qaeda is possible. — AP

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