Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father — except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there’s the black leather biker jacket. The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an “ambassador for peace” between Muslims and the West.

Omar — one of bin Laden’s 19 children — raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.

“It’s about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs — especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama — are all terrorists. This is not the truth,” Omar told the AP last week at a cafe in a Cairo shopping mall.

Uh-huh. Got it. As usual, the problem with violent jihad is the Western mind. And it’s still about defending Islam. So the peacenik son’s stripes are simply a few shades lighter than the terrorist father’s. Omar is yet another validater of the Muslim-as-victim perspective, a non-violent enabler of Islamic violence. The father handles the dirty work; the son handles the propaganda.

“Omar thinks he can be a negotiator,” said Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain…

Good. Britain could use another Muslim.

Omar lived with the al-Qaida leader in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan in 1996. There, Omar says he trained at an al-Qaida camp but in 2000 he decided there must be another way and he left his father, returning to his homeland of Saudi Arabia.

“I don’t want to be in that situation to just fight. I like to find another way and this other way may be like we do now, talking,” he said in English.
…
Omar doesn’t criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world.
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Omar is convinced a truce between the West and al-Qaida is possible.

Another jihadist who doesn’t get what jihad is all about. In fact, it’s a case of “like father like son”:

In the tape, bin Laden also went into a tirade against capitalism, expressed concern over global warming, criticized JFK for not stopping the Vietnam War, praised Noam Chomsky (a Jew), and said that the war against the U.S. is about our foreign policy — the last two items indicating that the leading face of jihad doesn’t quite get what jihad is all about, or that it’s not within his power to stop it even if he wanted to.

Back to the Omar article:

Since leaving his father’s side, Omar has lived in Saudi Arabia, where he runs a contracting company connected with the Binladen Group, but he spends much of his time in Egypt. It was during a desert horseback ride at the Pyramids of Giza that he met his wife.
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The couple has applied for a visa to Britain. And they are planning their endurance horse race across North Africa, which they hope to start in March…Teams from around the world will be encouraged to join in what the couple envisions as an equine version of the Paris-Dakar car rally. That rally was canceled this year due to fears over terrorist threats made by al-Qaida-affiliated groups in North Africa.

Omar, however, said he isn’t worried.

“I heard the rally was stopped because of al-Qaida,” he said. “I don’t think they are going to stop me.”

Indeed. Because he advances their cause. Omar, why can’t you be more like your cousin:

‘My values are like yours,’ says Wafah Dufour, who distanced herself from her al Qaeda-leader uncle and changed her last name.

Wafah would definitely have cause to worry about al Qaeda stopping her dreams. And that makes her one of us.

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