By Xinhua
Beijing : Omar Osama bin Laden, son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, told media Thursday he wants to be an “ambassador for peace” between the Muslims and the West.
The 26-year-old said: “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, one of bin Laden’s 19 children, left his father’s side in 2000. He married a British women Jane Felix-Brwone in 2007 and lives in Saudi Arabia now.
Omar claimed that he had been trained in an al-Qaeda camp and lived with his father through the late 1990s.
But he didn’t criticize his father. “My father thinks he will be good for defending the Arab people and stop anyone from hurting the Arab or Muslim people any place in the world,” he said.
At least two of Osama bin Laden’s sons, Hamza and Saad, are believed to have an active role in al-Qaida — with Hamza believed to be in the Pakistan-Afghan border zone and Saad thought to be in Iran, perhaps in Iranian custody.
But most of the al-Qaida leader’s children, like Omar, live as legitimate businessmen. The family as a whole disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his activities.