“He said bin Laden was more religious than the rest of the family.” Woops! Yeslam, aren’t you supposed to say that Osama has twisted and hijacked a great religion of peace? From The Australian, with thanks to Miss Moneypenney:
OSAMA bin Laden’s elder half-brother took time out from launching his own perfume to tell of his upset at the al-Qaeda chief’s new video.
“It was upsetting,” said Yeslam bin Ladin of the latest message, in which bin Laden warned Americans that they must change their policy toward Muslims to avoid further September 11-style attacks.
“It’s the violence,” he told Time magazine. “It wasn’t a surprise to know that he was still alive.
“I always thought that if he was killed, everybody would know it. It seems that he might have seen the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Mr Bin Ladin – who spells his name differently to the al-Qaeda leader – is based in Geneva and has Swiss-Saudi citizenship. He gave the interview in Paris during the launch of a new perfume he has developed.
“I’m not only a bin Laden. I am Yeslam bin Ladin. I have my own identity. It is my perfume, my creation. I was about to do it several years ago, but then I had to stop because of the events of September 11,” he said.
“I expect people out of curiosity will try it, and they will find the smell out of this world.”
Mr Bin Ladin also spoke of the problems he had suffered since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
“Luckily, when you go out in public, nobody knows who you are. You walk the street like everybody.”
Wait a minute. Somebody call Dyab Abou Jahjah and Ibrahim Hooper. I thought Muslims were terrorized on the streets of the West: abused, vilified, even physically attacked. And here is none other than Osama bin Laden’s brother walking around without being harmed? Sure, people don’t know who he is, but he no doubt has Arab features. Hmmm. Maybe the situation for Muslims in the West is not as bad as these guys make out.
But he added: “I’ve heard comments when I make reservations. If I am going to have lunch with somebody, the reservations would be in his name.”
Mr Bin Ladin said they he had been investigated by the Swiss and US authorities after September 11, but no link to extremist activities was found.
He said bin Laden was more religious than the rest of the family.
“He was one of the very few who did not leave Saudi Arabia to study. I don’t know him very well. I think I saw him before he left (for Afghanistan in the 1980s), and I haven’t seen him since.
“The only memory is that he didn’t want music on in the house. He wanted it off. It wasn’t ‘ethical’. I thought that was weird.”
Nothing weird about it at all, Yeslam. Islamic law forbids music except in certain restricted circumstances.