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Emma Brookshire

Mr. Ratica

Computer Applications

11 October 2017

Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden is a name lots of people have no trouble recognizing, but not many people

know about the details of his life. As many people know, Bin Laden was the leader of Al-Qaeda. He led

the attacks on the World Trade Center and much more. He had five wives, went to college, had a family,

and has strong political views. What people do not know about Bin Laden is he was rich and before he

was a terrorist had a normal life (Kentish).

Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia into a wealthy family. Some people think Bin Laden’s

early life was easy because they thought he was very privileged due to his wealthy family. His parents

are Mohammed Bin Awad Bin Laden and Hamida al-Attas. Other than Bin Laden, his mother and father

had four other children. He always stayed close to home, even when he went to college. He went to

school in Jiddah. Soon after, he married many women. Their names are Amal al-Sadah, Siham Sabar,

Khairiah Sabar, Khadijah Sharif, and Najwa Ghanhem. He is estimated to have about 20 children with his

wives. Four of the five of his wives he had all at the same time. While studying in Jiddah, he joined the

Islamist Muslim brotherhood which became the origin of his ideas (Coll) (Taboola).

For Bin Laden, Islam wasn’t just a religion. It was his political views, way of life, and many other

things (Taboola). In college, Bin Laden became a follower of Abdullah Azzam. Azzam was what they call

“pan-Islamic”. Pan Islamic is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic

state. Azzam felt that people could unite as one and all become Islamic. This idea appealed to Bin Laden
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when he was in college and he then decided that one day that he was going to make it happen with Al-

Qaeda (Coll).

In 1988 Bin Laden formed what was called “the base” (or Al-Qaeda). The first time they struck

was a hotel in Aden, Yemen. In this attack, two Australians were killed. 18 American servicemen were

attacked and killed by Al-Qaeda in Mogadishu in 1993. The biggest attack of all was September 11th

2001, when planes struck the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field. Many more attacks

and tragedies were caused by Al-Qaeda. People wanted Bin Laden dead (Jerrold). In August of 2010,

America traced Bin Laden to a compound in Pakistan. For many months, CIA agents watched him with

drones and took many pictures from the air. Finally, May 2, 2011 (May 1st in the United States), a group

of Navy SEALs moved in. They shot him in the head and chest. When Bin Laden died, he was thought to

be worth up to 300 million dollars. Later the day he died, President Obama said “Justice has been done.”

(Biograohy.com Editors).

All in all, Bin Laden was from a rich family in Saudi Arabia. He had parents and four brothers and

sisters. He went to college in Jiddah, married five women, and had 20 children. In college, he joined the

Islamic brotherhood and started following a man named Azzam and adopted many of his ideas. He

formed Al-Qaeda, attacked many people and places, and was killed in 2001 by a group of Navy SEALs.
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Works Cited

Taboola. “Osama Bin Laden: Birth of Al-Qaeda “. History.

www.History.com. 2017. Web. 9 October 2017.

Post, Jerrold M. “Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda”. Killing in the Name of God.

Maxwell Air Force Base: Jerrold M. Post, 2002.

Coll, Steve. “Saudi Arabia.” The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American

Century. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008.

Biography.com Editors. “Osama Bin Laden.” Biography.com. www.biography.com. 28

April 2017. Web. 8 October 2017.

Kentish, Ben. “Former US Navy Seal Robert O'Neill describes the moment he ‘shot

dead Osama Bin Laden.” Independent. 30 April 2017. Print.