Osama bin Laden Essay Example for Free

Osama bin Laden Essay The world is now at a turning point in its history and the reason for this is the man behind the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Osama Bin Laden’s connections and wealth have made it possible for him to elude U. S. authorities. He has no problem recruiting men, for many Muslims in the Middle East have a hatred of America. Bin Laden has been able to organize an extremist group and they have been strike fear into the free, democratic world. Osama Bin Laden is a man in position of power and he has used it to Reign terror on the United States. In this regard, the paper will try to discuss and analyze different aspects of Osama bin Laden’s life, which is one of the foremost most wanted lives of this planet. On March 10, 1957, Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden was born in an Arab Muslim family in Saudi Arabia. Jihadist organization, Al-Qaeda was founded by this Islamic militant, which is considered one of the deadliest terrorist networks on this planet. Prince, Abu Abdullah, the Lion Sheikh, Imam Mehdi, and Samaritan are some of the nicknames of Osama bin Laden. A number of Islamic militant groups have been connected with the life of Osama bin Laden, who is involved in the issuance of different fatwa (religious strict opinions), which have resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians, and especially, the military of the United States and its allies. In addition, Osama bin Laden has assured military resistance in response to the military activities in Muslim countries. A number of times, the federal court of the United States have indicted his involvement in different terrorist attacks, especially the embassy bombings in the cities of Dar-es-Salam and Nairobi in the year 1998, which killed many civilians and officials. Moreover, list of the ten most wanted fugitives issued by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has the name of Osama bin Laden on top of the list. Although the attacks of September 11, 2001 have not been included with the accusations on Osama bin Laden, various videos are issued by Laden himself in which, he accepted the responsibility of these attacks in a victorious manner. The attacks of September 11 included a series of different criminal activities, such as hijacking of different airlines like Flight 93, Flight 175, Flight 11, and Flight 77 of the American Airlines, as well as, destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City, which killed thousands of American people. Furthermore, the Pentagon was severely damaged in the similar series of attacks that were planned by the Al-Qaeda, and so, by its mastermind, Osama bin Laden. Childhood Until now, the paper has described some of the characteristics of Osama bin Laden in an introductory manner. Now, the paper will discuss some of the perspectives of personal life of Osama bin Laden. Riyadh city of Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, as already described in the introductory section of the paper. According to a television interview of Al-Jazeera in the year 1998, March 10, 1957 was the given birth date of this militant leader. Saudi royal family has close ties with wealthy father cum businessperson of Osama bin Laden, the late Muhammad Awad bin Laden. Until the World War I, Osama’s father was a poor and uneducated individual who immigrated to Saudi Arabia for the purpose of employment. In the year 1930, Muhammad bin Laden started his building related business that resulted in an unlimited fortune during the 1950s. Different experts have provided different number of children of Muhammad bin Laden, as he had fifty children by some resources, and fifty-five by others. Osama was seventeenth son of Muhammad bin Laden according to a number of accounts. Shariah law was followed by Osama’s father, as he was only married to four women at a single time; however, was married twenty-two times. Different sources reported of Osama being the only son of tenth wife of Muhammad bin Laden. According to one of the senior editors of Al-Madina newspaper, Khaled M. Batarfi, Osama’s parents got divorced after his birth in Saudi Arabia. Education Teachings of a devout Sunni Muslim were given to Osama bin Laden. Al-Thager Model School was his first platform for acquiring secular education from the year 1968 to the year 1976, which was considered one of the elite schools of the region. In the 1960s, exiled teachers from different Muslim countries were welcomed by King Faisal, in order to attain a considerable number of Muslim teachers in the schools and universities of Saudi Arabia. During that period, various Islamic study groups were attended by Osama bin Laden that provided different political teachings to him. The Management and Economics School of King Abdul-Aziz University provided the education of economics and business administration to Osama bin Laden in Jeddah city. It is suggested by some reports that degree in civil engineering was attained by bin Laden in the year 1979, as well as, a degree in public administration in the year 1981. On the other hand, he is reported as a dropout student from the university by some other reports. A number of journalists reported that interpretation of Quran and Jihad was one of the most interesting subjects of bin Laden at the university level, where he was greatly involved in the study of religion. Furthermore, he contributed a lot in various charitable campaigns. Marriages and Children In the year 1974, Osama bin Laden married his first cousin, Najwa Ghanem for the first time at the age of seventeen in northwestern part of Syria. Four other women married Osama bin Laden; however, two got divorces from bin Laden. One of his wives is a university lecturer in Saudi Arabia. Her wife is also involved in providing teachings to the children of Sudanese Royal family. All the other wives were also lecturers at the university level, and therefore, he was the person that accepted education of Muslim girls, which is a matter of criticizing bin Laden by different bodies. According to his close friends, the Word of God was the only reason for his marriage, as he was not interested in marriage at all. According to different sources, Osama bin Laden is father of approximately twenty to twenty-four children. In January 2001, Osama arranged the marriage ceremony of one of his sons, Muhammad bin Osama bin Laden with the daughter of Muhammad Atef, former military chief of Al-Qaeda at the age of eighteen in the Kandahar city of Afghanistan. Personality No matter most of the nations criticized Osama bin Laden’s policies, it should be accepted that honesty is one of the major characteristics of bin Laden in terms of his beliefs. Honesty has been one of the major factors of successful accomplishments of bin Laden even after criticism and opposition of some of the major nations of the globe. According to his closest men, he is one of the most loyal individuals in his region, which has provided him high reputation amongst his members. Osama has some principles, which has provided a mechanical platform for his charismatic and ascetic life. It is suggested by some commentators that he now has an influential position in different parts of the world, which has revolutionize from his humble appearance until the 1990s. Until the 1990s, he used to wear simple clothing while addressing his followers. However, his later videos and interviews show a more decorated clothing style during his addresses that showed his significant personality. After the responses of United States and its allies, he is taking more precautions in terms of his safety, as compared with the circumstances before the 9/11 attacks. Assets Originally, Osama bin Laden has inherited most of the properties from his father; however, his investments provided high profits to him successfully. In Sudan, his businesses were very successful that generated profits of millions of dollars. Due to his terrorist profile, figures of his properties and assets are not good enough, and organizations have only guessed different figures. Approximately, three hundred million dollars of assets are guessed by different bodies. Osama bin Laden owns a number of companies, such as Hijra Construction and Development, which is owned in the coordination with military of Sudan, as well as, the National Islamic Front. Taba Investment Company and Shamal Islamic Bank are considered some of the major economic activities of Osama bin Laden that have contributed greatly to his assets. Some of the countries having his companies are Sudan, Syria, etc; whereas, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Somalia have his foreign accounts that are utilized for the distribution of required financial resources for different terrorist activities around the globe. Shariah Restoration of Shariah law is one of the most important objectives of Osama bin Laden like various other Islamists and Jihadist fundamentalists around the globe. Shariah law is considered the major factor of setting things right in various Muslim countries of the world. The circumstances were very dignified and happy during the revelation period of Prophet Muhammad, and even after some years of His death. However, the situation became worse when the Shariah law was not followed by Muslims. Until the late 2001, Afghanistan was the only Islamic country with the implementation of Shariah law in the Muslim world, as believed by Osama bin Laden. In this regard, most of his terrorist activities are based on the opposition of countries that have not implemented the Shariah law. Jihad Sometimes, public statements of Osama bin Laden have shown a proper planned system for the implementation of his ideologies and beliefs, and a number of experts considered it as a political system. In the month of January 2004, Muslim countries were requested to establish underground ruling councils for the religious Islamic leaders for the welfare of people and nobles in the Muslim countries. Moreover, easy access to light weapons, ant anti-tank mines was also preferred, in order to defend raids from the Western countries according to the Al-Qaeda leader. Need of jihad for the defending of rights of Muslims in different countries is always one of the foremost matters of discussion in most of the video messages and letters of Osama bin Laden. The United States has always been warned for its injustices against Muslims in the Muslim, as well as, non-Muslim countries by bin Laden. In this regard, Osama bin Laden refer jihad as a war of defense for the accomplishment of Shariah law in the Muslim countries, and for the elimination of Western forces from these countries. For instance, withdrawal of United States from different Muslim regions, especially, the Middle East is one of the significant concerns of Osama bin Laden. At occasional times, immoral acts of Americans like usury, fornication, gambling, and homosexuality are considered as some of the factors of immorality in the Western countries, which should be eliminated through the process of Jihad by the Muslims. Civilians According to the philosophy of Osama bin Laden, deliberate killing of civilians might be the only option in jihad. In the year 1998, Osama bin Laden said that men and women are differentiated by fighting jihad, which helps in the formation of a proper religious society of Muslim civilians. However, in the year 2000, one of his interviews explained that killing of children was allowed in Islam, but only in vengeance, which is not true according to Islamic scriptures. During the same interview, the interviewer asked about the killing of Muslims in September 11 attacks, and Osama told him that the land of infidels should be the permanent place of living for the Muslims; however, Muslim killings were deemed as collateral by Osama bin Laden. Shia Muslims, Christians, and Jews Profoundly, Osama bin Laden is very anti-Semitic, and a number of Jewish conspiracies are included in the warnings of Al-Qaeda leader in his different interviews and messages. According to him, treachery and usury are some of the major characteristics of Jews, and Muslims are advised to stay away from them in this world, as well as, in other world too. In some of the other interviews, Christians’ activities were condemned clearly by bin Laden. According to Osama bin Laden, it should be the belief or every Muslim to hate Jews, Christians, and particularly, Americans. Shia Muslims are never referred in the interviews and videos of Osama bin Laden. However, attempts of Shia Muslim leader, Hassan al-Turabi are disapproved by bin Laden. According to different experts, Shia Muslims are referred along with Americans and Jews in different ideology classes of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. At the same time, Al-Qaeda is found to be working with Shia Muslims in different countries. Furthermore, Hezbollah, the Shia terrorist organization has close ties with Al-Qaeda according to a number of resources. It is said that Hezbollah is responsible for providing training and advice to Al-Qaeda members. Techniques of suicide bombing are borrowed from Hezbollah by Osama bin Laden. However, such relationship has no long-term future, as the supporters of bin Laden in Saudi Arabia cannot be alienated by bin Laden by creating friendly ties with the Shia Muslims. Jihad in Afghanistan During the late 1970s, Muslim guerrillas were fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which attracted the ideology of Bin Laden, and the Afghan mujahideen were supported by the immense wealth and connections of Osama bin Laden. Different sources reported that direct resistance on the Afghan frontier was provided by Abdullah Azzam, one of the teachers of Osama. This teacher was resided in the Peshawar city of Pakistan, which is approximately fifteen kilometers away from the Khyber Pass, which connects the Hindukush range, and so, Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden chose this route to insert major resistance for the Soviet forces. In the year 1979, Osama bin laden left college and joined the fight against the Soviet Union, and resided in Peshawar. During his stay in Peshawar, he was advised by his teacher to utilize his wealth for the training of militants in Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the University Town in Peshawar was the major residential avenue from the Al-Qaeda leader. Particularly, Arab mosque at Gulshan Iqbal Road, Peshawar was utilized as a jihad centre by Osama bin laden, and his teacher, Abdullah Azzam. By the year 1984, Maktab-al-Khadamat (Office of Order) was formed with the support of Saudi Arabian supporters by Osama bin Laden with the help of Abdullah Azzam. The establishment of MAK resulted in the proper distribution of arms, finances, and militants in different Arab countries. Jihadi militants’ expenses, air tickets, accommodation, and paperwork were financed by the inherited fortune of Osama bin Laden. Reports have shown proofs of setting up of a network of couriers by Osama bin Laden, which worked near Afghanistan and Peshawar under the banner of MAK. According to Rahimullah Yusufzai, this network was active until 2001, before the attack of United States and its allies. During this time, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri met Osama bin Laden, who worked as a collaborator for Al-Qaeda, and particularly, Osama bin Laden.