Saturday, 14 May 2011
The US Navy Seals found a cache of pornographic material in Osama Bin Laden’s abode in Abbottabad. (File Photo)
Was he watching pornography, after all? The man who billed himself as a pious man of god and denounced the West as corrupt and morally bankrupt?
The US Navy Seals who raided the Pakistan compound of Osama Bin Laden on May 2 found a cache of pornography inside the house occupied for the last several years by the Al Qaeda founder.
Some observers have dubbed the news as a US campaign to smear Bin Laden and sully his image and religious devotedness in the esteem of his supporters.
The US Navy Seals who raided the Pakistan compound of Osama Bin Laden on May 2 found a cache of pornography inside the house occupied for the last several years by the Al Qaeda founder.
Some observers have dubbed the news as a US campaign to smear Bin Laden and sully his image and religious devotedness in the esteem of his supporters.
Some die-hard defenders of Bin Laden contend that news of the pornography cache was a sinister attempt by the CIA to deflect public attention from the fact that the Obama Administration has refused to release photographs of Bin Laden’s corpse.
Officials who spoke to the New York Times on the conditions of anonymity said that they do not have evidence that Bin Laden or other men living in the house had acquired or viewed the material. That, however, begs the question as to how the pornography find its way to the Abbottabad compound? Moreover, since Bin Laden and his male hosts are dead, it may never be authoritatively established whether they viewed those videos.
Bin Laden, who was married to three women and was even married before his latest three marriages, was vociferous in denouncing the West’s lack of moral values.
In a 2002 “letter to the American people,” Bin Laden chided Americans for cultural exploitation of women’s bodies in dress, advertising and popular culture.
“Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them,” he wrote, according to The New York Times.
“You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire,” he added.
News of Bin Laden’s pornography collection came in a week when it was disclosed that he consumed an herbal potion, avena sativa, found in sexual-performance medications. The herb, which works as a natural Viagra, is not as expensive as the drug manufactured by Pfizer (and American giant), and reportedly does not have any side effects.
Here again, the question posed by Bin laden’s defenders is: How do we know that the Al Qaeda leader actually consumed the aphrodisiac? Since the herbal portion can supposedly help women as well, could his wives have used it?
Pakistani authorities are currently questioning the three wives, so perhaps the questions regarding the pornographic videos and aphrodisiac may be resolved. But what if the women claim no knowledge?
(Dina Al-Shibeeb, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: dina.ibrahim@mbc.net)
Officials who spoke to the New York Times on the conditions of anonymity said that they do not have evidence that Bin Laden or other men living in the house had acquired or viewed the material. That, however, begs the question as to how the pornography find its way to the Abbottabad compound? Moreover, since Bin Laden and his male hosts are dead, it may never be authoritatively established whether they viewed those videos.
Bin Laden, who was married to three women and was even married before his latest three marriages, was vociferous in denouncing the West’s lack of moral values.
In a 2002 “letter to the American people,” Bin Laden chided Americans for cultural exploitation of women’s bodies in dress, advertising and popular culture.
“Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them,” he wrote, according to The New York Times.
“You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire,” he added.
News of Bin Laden’s pornography collection came in a week when it was disclosed that he consumed an herbal potion, avena sativa, found in sexual-performance medications. The herb, which works as a natural Viagra, is not as expensive as the drug manufactured by Pfizer (and American giant), and reportedly does not have any side effects.
Here again, the question posed by Bin laden’s defenders is: How do we know that the Al Qaeda leader actually consumed the aphrodisiac? Since the herbal portion can supposedly help women as well, could his wives have used it?
Pakistani authorities are currently questioning the three wives, so perhaps the questions regarding the pornographic videos and aphrodisiac may be resolved. But what if the women claim no knowledge?
(Dina Al-Shibeeb, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: dina.ibrahim@mbc.net)
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