Osama Binladin's Brother,

October 7, 2001 12:02 PM

Osama Binladin's Brother, Abdullah Mohammed Binladin, condems him in this Boston Globe article.
posted by sierray (8 comments total)

Osama's brother appears to be a normal, respectable, and gentlemanly person. Must be pretty smart, too, earning JD and PhD at Harvard. I hope that he is able to resume his "normal" life soon. As one who has a "black sheep" or two in my family, I can understand how awkward intra-family relations can be, but of course nothing on the scale of the Binladin clan.
posted by davidmsc at 12:26 PM on October 7, 2001

At least he can afford Harvard. His family second only to the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia in total wealth. Does he play football for Harvard?
posted by Postroad at 1:00 PM on October 7, 2001

It's a great story, the Globe guys have done a magnificent job. Their coverage of the crisis is really world-class
posted by matteo at 1:12 PM on October 7, 2001

Can you imagine bringing HIM home to meet the parents?
posted by aaron at 1:14 PM on October 7, 2001

Yeah but what do the other 49 brothers think? If only they'd all gone to Harvard, perhaps even Osama could be assistant professor in Postcolonial Islamic Mumbojumbo right now. Though I wouldn't be sharing a latte with him, that's for sure.
(Great link - anything this interesting that would otherwise have gone unremarked is surely an example to be followed)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:36 PM on October 7, 2001

I've got to say, this is probably the best Binladin-related post yet to appear on Metafilter. Real information from a first-person source in a respectable publication, rather than the usual innuendo and opinions recycled third-hand from a clearly biased rag. More information, less commentary, please. I'll draw my own conclusions, thank you.
posted by Mo Nickels at 2:34 PM on October 7, 2001

"Can you imagine bringing HIM home to meet the parents?"

Dad "So...Osama.... what's your line of work, son?"
Osama "Oh....I don't like to talk about myself much...."
Fiance "Oh, go on honey.... tell him."
Osama [sheepishly] "Well, I brought death to nearly 6000 infidels."
Dad "That was YOU? Why, that was everywhere last month. That was huge! What have you done lately?"
Osama "I write screenplays, ad copy.... Tom Green is attached to my latest project."
Mother "Ooooh.... he's so crude."
Osama "Really? I think he's quirky."
posted by dong_resin at 4:19 PM on October 7, 2001

When Abdullah visited Boston in 1990...his English was not yet very strong...

The Binladins also made a $1 million donation to the school of design at Harvard, and gave $300,000 to Hess's program at the Fletcher School. They have funded another fellowship program at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies

Let's see: He could barely speak english when he enrolled in Harvard for Masters, Ph. D, and now, a law degree. Oh yeah, now I have great faith in Harvard's admission process. I guess I always knew this was true, just didn't want to believe it.

Nothing against Abdullah of course, more power to him. Just sucks for the rest of us who can't donate the millions to gain an ivy league degree.
posted by Rastafari at 9:54 PM on October 7, 2001