A parting gift from me. =) Images are sourced from Wikipedia.
When the new millennium arrived amidst spectacular fireworks and tumbling confetti, there was hope that we would be stepping out into a newer and better era. With the sobering lessons of the 20th century behind us, it wasn't hard to believe that given enough time, we would be able to overcome our mistakes and discord. It didn't take very long for that idealism to be shattered.
When two hijacked aircraft walloped into the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, the fiery aftershocks could be felt around the globe. Seemingly lifted from the breezy pages of a techno-thriller novel, September 11th became the catalyst for a domino effect that has seen the United States invade two Arab countries, and the rise of countless controversies that have divided the world.
In this proverbial 'War on Terror', governments are seeking to combat terrorism and dismantle the means by which it is financed and supported. However, there is no international consensus on how best to achieve these goals. Even in New Zealand, the debate still rages on issues such as the legitimacy of detaining suspected terrorists without trial, and the implementation of security measures that might impinge upon the rights of citizens.
To fully understand why the world has changed so drastically in the wake of September 11th, we must unmask the mystique behind the man whose very name has become a byword for international terrorism in the 21st century. Like Carlos the Jackal before him, Osama bin Laden is the most wanted man in the world, with tens of millions of dollars being offered for his capture.
But who is he, really? Where did he come from? What are his influences? What are his motivations? What are his goals?
Osama Bin Laden was born on 10th March 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His father was Muhammad Awad Bin Laden, an affluent businessman, and his mother was Hamida al-Attas, who was Muhammad Awad’s tenth wife. As was common in Arab families, Osama had dozens of siblings. The Bin Laden family was wealthy because of their involvement in the construction industry and their strong ties to the Saudi royals.
Despite belonging in the upper echelons of Saudi society, Muhammad Awad strived to live a pious and religious life, one that he insisted his children follow. Osama, like all his siblings, was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim, and had the opportunity to grow up at the forefront of religious zeal. Muhammad Awad would generously play host to pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia from overseas in order to perform the Hajj. In addition to this, the family was heavily involved in construction work on the mosques in Al-Aqsa, Medina and Mecca.
In 1973, after a mostly unremarkable childhood, Osama travelled to Beirut, Lebanon. During this time, he developed a fondness for the city, which was famed as the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ until the outbreak of hostilities in 1975. Perhaps offering a glimpse into how much the disintegration of Lebanon affected him as a youngster, Osama would be later quoted saying: “As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.”
In 1979, Osama graduated from King Abdul Aziz University with a degree in civil engineering. It appeared that he would be following his father’s footsteps into the construction business. However, towards the end of that same year, everything changed.
The Soviet Union stunned the world by launching what seemed to an unprovoked invasion of Afghanistan. The United Nations was quick to green-light a resolution demanding the withdrawal of Soviet forces, but this was conveniently ignored. Anti-Soviet guerrilla resistance in the form of the mujahideen—loosely translated as ‘holy warriors’—was quickly organized and supported by the American Central Intelligence Agency.
Osama had his first taste of the inferno when he travelled into Pakistan to witness the suffering of the Afghan refugees, and subsequently met several leaders of the mujahideen resistance. He was quick to pledge his support, and promptly returned to Saudi Arabia to raise money for what he considered jihad—a holy struggle against Soviet oppression. By virtue of his connections, Osama had no trouble soliciting sizable donations. Between 1980 and 1982, he made several return trips to Pakistan to distribute these donations.
In 1982, Osama ventured into Afghanistan itself in order to undertake a more active role in the resistance. Over the next few years, he helped set up an organization known as Maktab al-Khadamat—translated as ‘Office of Order’—which played an important role in raising money, acquiring weaponry and recruiting foreign volunteers for the mujahideen. It is estimated that Maktab al-Khadamat trained over 10,000 militants and dispensed over US$2 billion to the resistance. This was done with support from the governments of the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
In 1986, Osama decided that he had fielded enough experience and began exercising command over his own militia. He led them into several battles against the Soviets; his reputation bolstered by his successes. By 1988, his confidence was at its peak, and he parted ways with Maktab al-Khadamat. Al-Qaeda—translated as ‘The Base’ or ‘The Foundation’—had been born.
If we are to believe popular lore, Al-Qaeda actually originated as a generic name for the safe-house that Osama established in Penshawar, Pakistan. This safe-house functioned as a location where foreign mujahideen could stay before proceeding into Afghanistan.
In 1989, the ten-year Soviet occupation came to a grinding halt. Reeling from the financial toil and human cost of the conflict, the Soviets made the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. It was a stunning victory for the mujahideen, and Osama was hailed as a war hero for his exploits.
He returned home to Saudi Arabia a changed man. His once-youthful idealism had hardened into ideological conviction. If the Soviets could be dissuaded from attacking the Muslim community in Afghanistan, couldn’t the same be done elsewhere? Surely oppressed Muslims in Kashmir or Chechnya deserved to be defended, as well.
In 1990, his convictions were confirmed when Iraq staged a blitzkrieg invasion of Kuwait. Osama considered Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein a secular and un-Islamic leader, and was quick to pressure the Saudi royalty to give him permission to organize a mujahideen resistance. He was concerned that Iraq might set its sights on Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. To his dismay, the royals dismissed his request in favour of cooperation with the American-led coalition. The Gulf War had begun, and Osama was stunned to learn that American troops would be deployed on Saudi soil. Outraged, he protested and questioned the legitimacy of the Saudi government. To have a significant non-Muslim presence close to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina was an abomination.
By 1991, Osama’s anti-government rhetoric had created such an upsurge of tension that his Saudi patrons forced him to leave the country. Faced with no choice, Osama relocated to Sudan, where he was welcomed with open arms. He invested heavily in the country’s agriculture, and in return, the Sudanese regime allowed him to set up training camps where aspiring militants could study the guerrilla techniques that Osama and his colleagues had perfected in Afghanistan. The seeds of terrorism had been planted and the stage was set for future acts of ferocity.
In 1998, just prior to the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, ABC network report John Miller became the first Westerner to interview Osama. The American military presence in Saudi Arabia was his primary grievance, which he made clear by stating that, “the call to wage war against America was made because America has spear-headed the crusade against the Islamic nation, sending tens of thousands of its troops to the land of the two Holy Mosques over and above its meddling in its affairs and its politics, and its support of the oppressive, corrupt and tyrannical regime that is in control.”
His secondary grievance relates to the perceived imbalance of international relations: “They rip us of our wealth and of our resources and of our oil. Our religion is under attack. They kill and murder our brothers. They compromise our honour and our dignity and dare we utter a single word of protest against the injustice, we are called terrorists. This is compounded injustice. And the United Nations insistence to convict the victims and support the aggressors constitutes a serious precedence which shows the extent of injustice that has been allowed to take root in this land.”
Osama goes on to shed light on his methods: “The terrorism we practice is of the commendable kind for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of Allah, the tyrants, the traitors who commit acts of treason against their own countries and their own faith and their own prophet and their own nation. Terrorizing those and punishing them are necessary measures to straighten things and to make them right.”
Osama defends his decision to issue a fatwa—a legal Islamic declaration—calling for Muslims to kill Americans, regardless of military or civilian: “Through history, Americans have not been known to differentiate between the military and the civilians or between men and women or adults and children. Those who threw atomic bombs and used the weapons of mass destruction against Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the Americans. Can the bombs differentiate between military and women and infants and children?”
It is impossible to analyse Osama Bin Laden without developing an understanding of the role religion plays in his cause. Osama—along with his associates and followers—adhere to a puritanical deviation of Sunni Islam known as ‘Wahhabism’. Their primary conviction is that invoking the name of prophets, saints and angels amounts to polytheism hence their animosity towards religions like Judaism and Christianity. They also oppose any innovation in methods of Islamic worship. This creates a fundamentalism that is incredibly intolerant, even towards Muslims who practice more mainstream Islam. Chillingly enough, Wahhabism was influenced by the violent nationalism bred in Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets.
As we reach the final part of our assessment, we have gained an intimate understanding of how religion and militarism are interconnected and interlocked on a personal level for Osama Bin Laden. He is not merely the simplistic psychopath or the deranged religious extremist that the mass media has led us to believe. His brand of radicalism has less to do with upbringing, and more to do with complex circumstance.
In coming to conclusion, perhaps it is only appropriate for us to ponder over several questions. What if the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait had never taken place? What if the Soviets had never occupied Afghanistan? Without the traumatic driving force of these episodes, Osama Bin Laden could have very well remained an unknown fundamentalist, one among millions. But violence breeds violence, and there is little doubt that it gave birth to the terrorist that we know today.
