Sunday, February 10, 2002		Literature

This is Bin Laden’s story & it is still on
Jaswant Kaur

Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of the Terrorist
by Adam Robinson. Vision Books, New Delhi. Pages 256. Rs 225.

FOR every Gandhi there is a Hitler and for every Lenin a Mussolini. History has proved that for every man who makes the world a better place to live in, there is another who makes for its destruction. Osama bin Laden belongs to the latter category.

For his critics he is world’s enemy number one, but for his followers he is the fighter against the atrocities of the West. He is wanted dead or alive by the USA but is a Robinhood for his followers. Coming from a very rich family, known for its construction business and philanthropic activities in Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden has proved that even a tiny minority of nearly one billion people — the Arabs — can determine world policy. Despite being denounced by his own country, he has managed to not only to live freely but also finance his activities. So much so that under his influence even rich and educated young men, like Mohammad Atta, can train themselves as pilots, hijack planes and ram them into the WTC towers and the Pentagon — just to make their presence felt and to register their protest against US policies. For them their lives are not important. Attack on the USA was their goal.

Well, who is Bin Laden? What forced him to wage a war against the USA? What is his family background? How is he able to influence rich and educated men? How has he built his network? Very little is known about all this.

The book "Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of the Terrorist" tries to answer these questions. It is a story of the world’s most feared man from his childhood to September 11, 2001, the day which sent shock waves all over the world. Divided into 22 chapters, the book is based on information provided by Bin Laden’s family members who have distanced themselves from their infamous relative, helpless and shattered as they really are.

Unlike in other cases of childhood there was something he always wanted to forget. Family politics and separation of his parents made him feel insecure. His mother Hamida, born in a Syrian family, was not the kind of woman his father Mohammad bin Laden was used to. Because of this she was called Al Abeda, the slave. And so was Osama called Ibn al Abeda, son of a slave, which made him bitter and angry.

The only thing he enjoyed was his desert trips with his father. His father was a religious man and wanted his children to be so. Osama, though a quiet and shy child, was liked by his father because of his interest in religion. Even as a child, he used to sit in his majlis, surrounded by children and talk of religion, oppression of the Palestinians and hatred for the Israelis, a cause which forced him to turn against the USA for its support to Israel.

The sudden death of his father in 1967 made him all the more lonely. More and more, he withdrew into himself. The wounds, however, healed with the passage of time but the scars remained.

By the time his mother came back to Jeddah after his father’s death, he had completed his secondary education and was sent to Beirut for higher studies. Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, had a unique mixture of western and eastern cultures. An intelligent student, Osama did well in his studies but could not keep away from the glitzy and glamorous world. He started drinking and developed a strong liking for prostitutes.

However, circumstances changed. Beirut was rocked by a civil war and he had to come back. With his mind still in Beirut, he continued with his old lifestyle but was shown the right way by his brother Salim.

Osama was a changed man now. He found the new "drug" — religion — more intoxicating than liquor. He sported a long beard and prayed five times a day. And that was the start of his new journey.

After this he acquired an engineering degree and took keen interest in family business. Life was going on smoothly. His brothers were also happy to see him back. Suddenly one day in 1979 he heard of the crisis in Afghanistan.

The communist government in Afghanistan had introduced a reformist policy, including full rights to women which was against the Afghan culture. The discontent amongst the people triggered an open revolt. The government sought Soviet military aid to restore peace. The invasion of the Soviet Union was taken as an attack of atheism on Islam.

The very idea of non-Muslim forces occupying a Muslim country outraged Bin Laden who decided to fight for Afghanistan, rather fight for Islam and partly to repent for his past sins.

Afghans at that time were divided and lacked a proper leader. Osama, coming from a rich family, provided them both resources and a leader who brought various factions against their common enemy, the Soviet Union. Besides this, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA also supported Afghan mujahideen by providing funds and weapons.

After a decade-long fight ended with the withdrawal of Soviet troops Osama was still not satisfied. The Afghans, who had become one against their common enemy, were fighting amongst themselves. He came back to Saudi Arabia where he was given a hero’s welcome. He loved signing autographs, posing for photographs and the attention he got, something he had always longed for.

But soon this ended, when Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Osama, the freedom fighter, was both shocked and excited. He wanted to defend the kingdom using the Afghan mujahideen. But his offer was turned down. Instead the country reached out to the USA for military aid.

The country’s tilt towards the USA, which was the object of hatred in the Muslim world for its anti-Muslim approach, angered him further. He stepped up his activities within Saudi Arabia. He organised protest rallies against the government and in turn was denied travel documents. But he managed to get out of Saudi Arabia and went to Pakistan.

With the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency, chasing him, Pakistan was not a safe place for him and therefore, he went to his base Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Finding the country in civil war, he went to the Sudan, a country which provided a safe haven to Islamic fighters.

Sudanese spiritual leader Hussan al-Turabi welcomed him with open arms. It was in the Sudan that he built his wide network of terrorists, raised funds by exploiting the oil reserves and starting his construction business.

However, within a few years Sudan’s role in perpetrating terrorist activities came to the US notice, which imposed diplomatic sanctions on the Sudan.

Time had come for Osama to leave the country. The question before him was where to go? His own country Saudi Arabia had disowned him under US pressure. He was no longer a Saudi citizen despite being born in Saudi Arabia.

The increasing influence of the USA in Saudi Arabia, a country so dear to Muslims, made him wild. This was the main reason for bombing of Khobar and other places of American interest in Saudi Arabia.

However during his stay in the Sudan he had developed contacts with a person called Mullah Mohammad Omar who had formed a group called Taliban made up of Afghans trained in religious schools in Pakistan alongwith former Islamic fighters or mujahideen. After his victory in Kabul he provided shelter to Osama.

The coming together of Osama and Mullah Mohammad Omar resulted in attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, bombing of the naval ship USS Cole and the last, but certainly not the least, attack on the WTC towers and the Pentagon.

While the world was shocked on September 11, 2001, a tiny minority rejoiced at the attack. Among this minority were the Palestinians who have suffered the most because of the US policies and are living like refugees in their own country.

Bin Laden is not only a terrorist but is a phenomenon — a phenomena which is present in every nook and corner of the world in some form or other. In India it is present in the form of Hindu-Muslim disunity. Ayodhya issue is an example of this..

A neglected spark burns in the house. Religion, which is a symbol of love, should not be used in spreading hatred and anarchy.

In the end, the author says that it all lies with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, and the USA and its allies who can pressurise Israel to do justice to the Palestinians. Only then Osama bin Laden’s network would collapse as had the WTC towers.