Usama bin Laden and His Selection Of Terrorism
Usama bin Laden, born in 1957, comes from a wealthy Saudi Arabian family that owns a multinational construction business. He used his inherited wealth to finance Afghan forces fighting the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980’s. After the 1991 Gulf War, he was distressed that Saudi Arabia allowed U.S. forces to remain in the Arabian Peninsula. To advance his agenda of expelling the U.S. from the Islamic world, he worked with other anti-Western fundamentalists to organize a secretive, highly compartmentalized terrorist network, known as al-Qaida. It is through his upbringing, education, culture, and wars in Islamic countries, that Usama bin Laden has sought to purge the Islamic world of the influences that he believes have corrupted and degraded it.
Usama bin Laden was born in 1957 in Saudi Arabia. He was the seventeenth son of 51 children of Muhammad bin Laden. His father was of Yemeni descent, and his mother was from Saudi Arabia. Usama’s father was the dominant figure in the family, and Usama may have obtained his strong Islamic heritage from his father. “He had a tough discipline and observed all the children with strict religious and social code. He maintained a special daily program and obliged his children to follow.”1 Over and above the strict Islamic teachings that he received from his father, Usama bin Laden also received religious indoctrination from a variety of people who were transients during Hajj.
While Usama was still young in age, his father would invite pilgrims traveling during Hajj into their home. Those individuals seemingly had a profound effect on his life. Some of those were senior Islamic scholars or leaders of Muslim movements, and he used to make good contacts and relations through those gatherings.1 In addition to the Islamic teachings at home, Usama also expanded his education in relation to Islam and Islamic movements at the collegiate level.
Usama attended school at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during a period when there was a trend or movement, known as the Muslim Brotherhood, which garnered popularity. There was also an abundance of Muslim scholars that he followed and received teachings from; however, there were two renowned teachers in Islamic studies at the university from whom he developed close relationships with. The teachers that...
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...of the USS Cole in Aden Yemen; the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and most memorable, the attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001 when commercial airplanes were used as flying bombs, targeting the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a failed attack on the White House.
Since the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Usama bin Laden has sought to purge the Islamic world of the influences that he believes have corrupted and degraded it. These influences, he believes, include American culture, U.S. military bases, and the Arab governments who tolerate them. As the American war on terrorism wages on in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is inevitable that Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida movement will strike American interests, and those governments that accept American foreign policy, once again.
Works Cited
1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html
2. http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Biographies/Bios/binLaden/BiobinLaden.html
3. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/binladen/profile.html
Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.
“Name one significant figure, in Islam and analyse their impact on the lives of adherents”
Alexander, Yonah, and Swetnam, Michael S., Usama bin Laden’s al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network, Transnational Publishers, September 2001
Thomas W. Lippman gives an introduction to the Muslim world in the book Understanding Islam. He has traveled throughout the Islamic world as Washington Post bureau chief for the Middle East, and as a correspondent in Indochina. This gave him, in his own words, "sharp insight into the complexities of that turbulent region." However, the purpose of the book is not to produce a critical or controversial interpretation of Islamic scripture. It is instead to give the American layman an broad understanding of a religion that is highly misunderstood by many Americans. In this way he dispels many myths about "Muslim militants," and the otherwise untrue perception of Islamic violence. In this way the American reader will become more knowledgeable about an otherwise unfamiliar topic. However, the most significant element of Lippman’s book is that it presents Islam in a simple way that makes the reader feels his awareness rise after each chapter. This encourages him to continue learning about the world’s youngest major religion. Understanding Islam dispels many misconceptions about the Muslim world, and presents the subject in a way that urges his reader to further his understanding of Islam through continued study.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1957 and he was surrounded by 49 brothers and sisters. His family was really rich because of his father who was a billionaire, and owned one of the biggest construction companies of the kingdom. Bin Laden attended a high leveled school during his childhood, which combined British style secular education with Islamic worship. During his college years, he went to King Abd Al University to study four different courses: civil engineering, public administration, business and economics. In the 1970’s, when he was only 17 years old, bin Laden married his first cousin, and later on married three other women (marrying several times was permitted among Muslims). From a little age, Osama was religiously committed, and whenever his father hosted hundreds of pilgrims during the Hajj, bin Laden had a great time getting to know the gatherers and making new contacts. (A Biography of Osama Bin Laden) Due to influences and strong conviction, this young boy, when reached adulthood, became a terrorist and high threat to many countries, especially America. Osama bin Laden, a fugitive terrorist, was finally caught and killed on May 2, 2011 with the cooperation of Obama and the Navy SEALs bringing peace and closure to American citizens as well as political acknowledgement.
In 1988 Osama bin Laden started the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Osama stole over 250 million dollars, and was already committing murders by then. In 1993 a bomb exploded in the World Trade Center area, the bomb was set off by al-Qaeda members. The bomb did not kill as many as the planes did, but killed up to 6 people and injuring many. In 1995 a bomb went off at a military base, and killed around 15 people, not only Americans were killed also Indian soldiers. In 1996 he called full jihad war on the US. Two years later he killed 224 people in a US embassy in Africa, and three years later his attack on US soil 9/11 was the US last straw. The reason for Osama’s killing wasn’t just because of 9/11 it was to prevent war on jihad that Osama had claimed on the US, if we wouldn’t have killed Osama in 2011 think about how many more terrorist attacks would have gone on in the
The Motivation for Osama bin Laden to use his terrorist networks and cells around the world for attacks against the United States came in 1990. Now that he had an army with weapons and tanks, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, he was ready and willing to defend it. Bin Laden was “shocked,” a family friend said, to learn that the Americans — the enemy, in his mind — would defend it instead. To him, it was the height of American arrogance” (The Most Wanted Face of...
Al Qaeda’s history began during the Cold War. Western countries, such as the United States, and its allies supported militant units within Islam to fight the Soviet Union. The United States formed an alliance with the Pakistan Interservice Intelligence Agency (ISI) (White, 2012). The ISI is equivalent to the United States intelligence agency CIA. The ISI, along with the United States began training and arming the mujahedeen (holy warriors) to fight the Soviet Union. In 1979, Afghan mujahedeen along with Saudi Arabia fought the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan (White, 2012). The United States supported the Afghan mujahedeen along with any other form of Islam to combat the Soviet Union. The United States developed an unde...
Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia either in 1957 or in 1958 (Davis 1). He was the 17th of 52 children born to Mohammed Bin Laden, a Yemeni Immigrant who worked with the Bush Family and owns the largest construction company in the Saudi Kingdom ( Davis 1). He was really blessed growing up as he and his sibling have a mass fortune and a luxurious life. All of his siblings were educated in the west and went to work for his father. Bin Laden stayed close to home. He went to school in Jeddah and was a really successful student. Like typical Saudi Arabian men, he married young and joined the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Islam was more than just a religion; it shaped his political beliefs and influenced every decision he
Coll, S. (2005, December 12). Young Osama. The New Yorker. Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/1
Al Qaeda is leading by Osama bin laden that was born and grown up in Saudi Arabia; his family was very rich and respected by Saudi Royal household and the public. When he finished his University in Saudi Arabia, he becomes an extreme religious person. Osama started to help Islamist movement against communist in Yemen (Gunaratna, 2005) . In December 1997 when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan he went to Pakistan and then Afghanistan to help Afghan group to protect it from Soviet Union. At the time a Palestinian Jordanian, Dr Abdullah Azzam esta...
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
Osama Bin Laden was born into Muslim family on the 10th of March, 1957 Osama’s full name is Osama Bin Mohammed Bin Awed Bin Laden. This stands for “Osama, son of Mohammed, son of Awed, son of Laden. His birth place is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the place of his death was in Abottabad Pakistan. Osama was raised under a strict Islam family. He was one of 50 children and he was the seventh born. Osama’s father died in a plane crash when Osama was just 10 years old. Bin Laden had been persuaded into the Muslim brotherhood at the age of 14. He studied/Practiced religion in most of his time, but he was also an avid reader.
Burns, Thomas J. "Islam." Religion and Society. OU Campus' Dale Hall, Norman. 14 Apr. 2014. Lecture.
Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005), 5.