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Ghost in the Machine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 02:50 AM
Original message
Bin Laden Son Wants to Be Peace Activist
Bin Laden Son Wants to Be Peace Activist
Published: 1/18/08, 1:46 AM EDT
By PAUL SCHEMM

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - 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-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.

Omar - one of bin Laden's 19 children - raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 3,000-mile 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," Omar told the AP last week at a cafe in a Cairo shopping mall.

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 Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain. "He's one of the only people who can do this in the world."

http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7401&eeid=5640718&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt
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Horse with no Name Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 03:20 AM
Response to Original message
1. The sins of the Fathers should not be born onto the son
What a brave thing to do--knowing he would be a target for hate.
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Ghost in the Machine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 03:24 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. I think it's a great thing for him to do also...
I wish him the best of luck and hope he accomplishes his goals...

Maybe he's seen enough hate in his short life to know that it isn't the right path to follow?? :shrug:


PEACE!

Ghost

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regnaD kciN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 03:32 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. It would be cool, except...
...that he "does not renounce his father." It's hard for me to take seriously any "peace activist" who won't renounce the architect of 9/11.

I know that this is skirting Godwin's Law, but say that Hitler had a son, and that boy grew up to be a "peace activist," while all the while refusing to renounce his father. Don't you think he would have little or no credibility, based on that alone?
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Hatalles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 03:52 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I'm not quite sure I understand what that means in the context of the article...
"Does not renounce" could mean something like "does not 'disown' him as a father." He doesn't renounce him but can still condemn his actions...

:shrug:

Anyways, very cool story.
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Ghost in the Machine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 03:52 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. the architect of 9/11?? Last I heard, Osama denied involvement in the attacks...
Here, take your choice of links and read up:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLJ_enUS250US251&q=osama+denies+9%2d11+involvement%3f

Of course we also have this:
October 29, 2004, 5:10pm EDT
BIN LADEN ADMITS 9/11 RESPONSIBILITY, WARNS OF MORE ATTACKS

A tape aired by Al-Jazeera television Friday showed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden admitting for the first time that he orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and saying the United States could face more.

It was the first footage of bin Laden to appear in more than a year and came just days before voters head to the polls Tuesday after an extremely tight president race.

In the 18-minute tape, bin Laden, who appeared to be sitting or standing at a table against a neutral background, said: "Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened."


But judging from the date, how are we to believe it when we have this?:

Fox News: "Bin Laden Already Dead"

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.

Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html


or this?:

The Death of bin Ladenism
By AMIR TAHERI
Published: July 11, 2002

Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan.
Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?

Even if he is still in the world, bin Ladenism has left for good. Mr. bin Laden was the public face of a brand of politics that committed suicide in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of innocent people in the process.

What were the key elements of that politics?

The first was a cynical misinterpretation of Islam that began decades ago with such anti-Western ideologues as Maulana Maudoodi of Pakistan and Sayyid Qutb of Egypt. Although Mr. Maudoodi and Mr. Qutb were not serious thinkers, they could at least offer a coherent ideology based on a narrow reading of Islamic texts. Their ideas about Western barbarism and Muslim revival, distilled down to bin Ladenism, became mere slogans designed to incite zealots to murder.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EFDE1230F932A25754C0A9649C8B63


Just a few things to ponder.....

PEACE!

Ghost


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conspirator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 06:29 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. Should Jenna renounce bush for killing thousands in Iraq?
"renounce" may mean a lot of things, but you are being biased saying that you cannot trust him.
Yet you would trust Jenna even if she said she loved her father.
The only difference is that bin laden is a brown criminal and bush is a white ciminal.
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robbedvoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 06:31 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. Yes, she should. If she had any conscience. Svetlana Stalin did!
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 08:47 AM
Response to Reply #3
9. Right wingers keeps saying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not bin Laden, was the architect of 9/11
Edited on Fri Jan-18-08 09:36 AM by NNN0LHI
They say he admitted to it while being waterboarded. And while the CIA was holding his two young children.

So it must be true.

Can't have it both ways.

Don
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Marrah_G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 08:38 AM
Response to Original message
8. I hope he succeeds
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Ghost in the Machine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #8
12. I hope he does as well... refreshing to see a voice for peace, huh?
:hi:

Maybe its an idea whose time has come...


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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 09:20 AM
Response to Original message
10. Count Well the Cost, Omar
Because there are big pockets of folks even here in America who hold more animosity toward Cindy Sheehan than they could ever muster for your dad. You're taking on one of the world's biggest religions, with adherents far more numerous than Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, or Hinduism. Combined. It's the Church of Redemptive Violence, and they don't cavil at assassinating those they regard as heretics and infidels. Ask Gandhi or King. Ask Rachel Corrie or Ted Studebaker. And the fact that those last two names are unknown to more than 90% of Americans, who can still identify the names Alvin York or Audie Murphy should tell you about all you need to know about the popular reception for being a peace activist.

But I'm on your side, for what that's worth.
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Ghost in the Machine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-18-08 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
11. kick
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