Bin Laden was a “good kid” but brainwash by spiritual advisor – mother says

The mother of the late al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, gave her first interview 7 years after the death of her son.

Alia Ghanen, in an interview with The Guardian, said her son was a “good kid” who was brainwashed at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where he was studying economics.

Bin Laden’s mother, about 70 years old, remembers her eldest son as a shy and intelligent boy.

According to her mother, he was a motivated and pious child in his early twenties.

Osama bin Laden’s mother who speaks for the first time after her son’s death said, “the people at the university changed him, he became a different man. One of the men he met was Abdullah Azzam, a member of the exiled Muslim Brotherhood of Saudi Arabia who became Osama’s spiritual advisor.”

“He was a very good kid until he met people who brainwashed him. You can call that a cult. They have money for their cause. I always told him to stay away from them, and he never told me what he was doing because he loved me so much.”

“He taught me a lot. But I do not think I’m very proud of him as a man. He became a superstar on a global scale and all for nothing.”

“He was very straight. Very smart at school. He really liked studying.”

She had never imagined that her son would become one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world.

“It never crossed my mind. We were extremely upset. I did not want things to be that way.”

Since the 2001 attacks and the death of bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, his family is closely watched because a son of the leader of Al Qaeda, Hamza bin Laden, seems to follow in his footsteps.

He promised to avenge the death of his father.