October 8, 2001 at 11 AM
Consanguinity
“‘Our name is being hijacked,’ he said.”
In Massachussetts, one brother tries to live past his family’s shame — the world’s current demon of choice, Osama bin Laden.
Interesting tidbits: The Binladin family (who spell their name differently) disowned Osama in 1994. He is one of more than fifty children born to the late Mohammed Bin-Awad Binladin, a wealthy Saudi businessman whose family is tightly linked to the Saudi crown, having received contracts to construct important roads and rebuild the treasured mosques in Mecca and Medina, the holiest sites in Islam. Controversially, when the US started installing a military presence in Saudi Arabia during and after the Persian Gulf War, the Binladens were enlisted to build military support facilities for the Americans. Osama’s turn against the Saudi royalty, his own family and the Americans was born out of the belief that this action betrayed Islam by allowing foreigners control over the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed.
And yet the turn was surprising. “‘That’s like someone with the last name of Rockefeller turning communist.’”
For the rest of the Binladins, whose strong connections to Boston and its universities date to the 1970s, the fact that two of the hijacked planes departed from Logan Airport is either a cruel irony, or an indication of the degree to which Osama is trying to take moral revenge on his family.
Previously: Would the World Like Fries With That?
Subsequently: The Force Is Strong With These Ones
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