The twin tower attack on 11th September 2001 are considered to be history’s most terrifying incident which shook the core of the modern world and showed us the ugly side of the human race.
The 9/11 attacks claimed 2,996 lives and leaving more than 6,000 others injured. The account of the immediate deaths included 265 people on the planes and 125 at the Pentagon.
Alia Ghanem, the mother of Osama bin Laden, who is in her mid-70s, said in an interview with The Guardian, that her son was not to blame and went on to claim that he was “brainwashed” by extremists while attending university in Saudi city Jeddah.
“Everyone who met him in the early days respected him. At the start, we were very proud of him. Even the Saudi government would treat him in a very noble, respectful way and then came Osama the mujahid. The people at university changed him,” she said.
“He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause.”
“I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing because he loved me so much.”
“It never crossed my mind,” she said with regards to his radicalization.
“We were extremely upset. I did not want any of this to happen. Why would he throw it all away like that?”
Laden studied economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Some reports suggest that he might have also been conferred with a degree in civil engineering in 1979 or a degree in public administration in 1981.
Laden was respected by the masses of Saudi Arabia for actively fighting Russian occupation in Afghanistan.
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After receiving permission from the Saudi government, Laden’s half-brother Hassan and Ahmad were also interviewed by the authorities.
Ahmad admits their mother’s views on Osama are biased.
“It has been 17 years now [since 9/11] and she remains in denial about Osama. She loved him so much and refused to blame him. Instead, she blames those around him. She only sees the good boy side, the side we all saw. She never got to know the jihadist side.”
His half-brother Hassan says he was “shocked, stunned” by the events that occurred in September 2001 which led George Bush to declare a war on terror.
“It was a very strange feeling. We knew from the beginning [that it was Osama], within the first 48 hours. From the youngest to the eldest, we all felt ashamed of him,” said Hassan.
“We knew all of us were going to face horrible consequences. Our family abroad all came back to Saudi.”
They last saw Osama in his base in Afghanistan in 1999, two years before the deadly attack, says the family.
His youngest son, Hamza, pledged to avenge his father’s killing. He is been labelled as a ‘global terrorist’ by the US.
“I am going to avenge my father, I don’t want to go through that again,” reported Hassam, Hamza’s uncle, in the words of Hamza.
“We thought everyone was over this,” he says. He still wishes to reconnect with Hamza if only once to advise him against his entry into terrorism.
“I would tell him ‘God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don’t retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul.”