Bin Laden's son wants to be peace ambassador between West, Muslims

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father - except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket. The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than al-Qaida's militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. Omar raised a tabloid storm in Britain last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took on the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 5,000-kilometer horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace. "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 told AP last Friday at a cafe in one of Cairo's new shopping malls. Of course, many may have a hard time getting their mind around the idea of "bin Laden: peacenik."