Osama bin Laden, born into a millionaire family in Saudi Arabia, gave up a lavish lifestyle to pursue a path of warfare against the United States. A ruthless architect of massacres, he was chiefly responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks – an event that led to the deaths of thousands of innocent people and triggered bloody wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2011, bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The legacy bin Laden left behind extended beyond prolonged conflicts or colossal human losses. The 9/11 attacks sparked a global “War on Terror,” profoundly altering legal and ethical norms in international politics. The extremist ideology bin Laden followed deepened ideological divides, creating intense confrontations between “Islam” and the “West.”
Osama bin Laden’s Early Life
Born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden was the 17th of 52 children of the Yemeni-Saudi construction magnate Muhammad bin Laden. After his father’s death when he was 11, Osama inherited an estimated fortune of 25 to 30 million USD.
Raised as a devout Sunni Muslim, bin Laden married his 15-year-old cousin at the age of 17. Like many members of the global elite, he briefly studied English at Oxford University in 1971. However, bin Laden reportedly viewed the British lifestyle as “morally corrupt.”
While many of his siblings studied abroad, bin Laden chose to stay in Saudi Arabia. He studied economics, business administration, and civil engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. As a student, bin Laden was known for his football skills and passion for poetry.
In Jeddah, bin Laden became a disciple of the radical Islamic scholar Abdullah Yusef Azzam and was deeply influenced by the works of Islamic revolutionaries such as Sayyid Qutub. Despite being educated in a secular environment, he maintained a passion for religious studies.
Osama bin Laden and His Journey in Afghanistan
Heavily influenced by Abdullah Azzam’s ideology of “global jihad,” Osama bin Laden decided to join the fight in Afghanistan in 1981, when the country was under Soviet occupation, which had begun in 1979.
Bin Laden quickly became a prominent figure not only due to his ample financial resources but also because of his expertise in construction. He participated in building vital infrastructure, including roads, shelters, and refugee camps for Afghan fighters. During the early 1980s, bin Laden focused on assisting refugees at the Pakistan border and coordinating volunteers from the Arab world to fight.
While stories of bin Laden’s military exploits were sometimes exaggerated, by the late 1980s, he led a unit of “Arab Afghan” fighters and earned recognition from his comrades for his courage on the battlefield.
In 1988, bin Laden collaborated with Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian former doctor and ally in the fight against the Soviet Union, to found Al-Qaeda. Unlike domestic Islamic organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda was formed with a vision that reached beyond national borders, aiming to become a global network promoting jihad.
Al-Qaeda Organization
In 1989, after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. However, he was enraged when the Saudi royal family allowed U.S. troops to be stationed in the kingdom to counter Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. This led bin Laden to leave his homeland and move to Sudan.
In Sudan, bin Laden continued his activities for five years before being expelled in 1996 under pressure from the United States. Returning to Afghanistan, bin Laden officially declared war on the United States. In 1998, Al-Qaeda carried out its first attacks directly targeting the U.S., specifically bombing the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people. The U.S. retaliated with cruise missile strikes in “Operation Infinite Reach.”
In 2000, Al-Qaeda continued its suicide bombing attacks, targeting the USS Cole destroyer in Yemen, killing 17 sailors.
However, Al-Qaeda’s most infamous attack was the 9/11 event in 2001 on U.S. soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people. In response, the United States launched bloody wars in Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2011), and reshaped international law in a unilateral manner under the banner of the “War on Terror” led by the U.S.
Osama bin Laden’s Political Views
Osama bin Laden frequently condemned what he considered “moral corruption,” including drugs, usury, gambling, and homosexuality. In bin Laden’s eyes, Afghanistan under the Taliban’s rule was the only truly Islamic country in the Muslim world.
He opposed secular regimes that he saw as “godless,” such as Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Egypt under Hosni Mubarak, and the “infidel” governments like Iran and Saudi Arabia. All political systems such as liberal democracy, communism, or socialism were rejected by him, unless they adhered to a rigid, fundamentalist interpretation of Sharia law. However, bin Laden was not an Islamic scholar.
Bin Laden’s motivations were more political than religious. His speeches and statements often focused on criticizing the injustices caused by U.S. foreign policies toward Muslims in the Middle East, from Iraq to Palestine. Bin Laden’s politics carried anti-imperialist sentiments, and occasionally addressed issues of environment, gender, and class.
However, bin Laden was the embodiment of deep contradictions. Although he used the language of social equality, bin Laden had no qualms about calling for violent jihad against anyone he considered an enemy of “Islam.”
Conclusion
Osama bin Laden was a controversial figure who left a deep mark on modern history. From his wealthy upbringing in Saudi Arabia, he gave up a luxurious life to pursue warfare and extremist ideology. As the founder of Al-Qaeda, bin Laden masterminded brutal terrorist attacks, most notably the 9/11 event in 2001, which shocked the world and completely altered the international political landscape.
Through this article from Thefactsofwar, we hope readers gain a more comprehensive understanding of the life and influence of Osama bin Laden – a figure whose ideas and actions have changed the course of modern history in ways that few could have predicted. Furthermore, the article serves as an opportunity for us to reflect deeply on the impact of war, extremism, and the collective responsibility of humanity in building a more peaceful and just world.
Translation by: Minh Tuan
Source: thecollector.com – Who Was Osama bin Laden?
