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Osama bin Laden's son walks different path: peace

CAIRO - Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father, but in an interview he said there is a better way to defend Islam than militancy: The 26-year-old 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.

"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 said last week in Cairo.

"Omar thinks he can be a negotiator," said Alsabah. "He's one of the only people who can do this in the world."

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 native 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.

Although there is no way to confirm the details he describes of his childhood and upbringing, the strong family resemblance and Omar's knowledge of Osama's family life have convinced many that he is bin Laden's son.

A U.S. intelligence official, speaking Thursday on condition of anonymity, said Omar Bin Laden is the son of Osama bin Laden and his first wife, Najwa.

Omar doesn't criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world.

"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, noting that the West didn't have a problem with his father when he was fighting the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Omar is convinced a truce between the West and al-Qaida is possible.

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 militant activities.

[Last modified January 18, 2008, 01:26:18]