The family name is perhaps most relevant to international terrorism.
But in recent years, Omar bin Laden lived a quiet life in the picturesque landscape of Normandy in France.
However, on Tuesday, France banned him from the country for what authorities said were comments that “glorified” 9/11.
Omar, the son of Osama, denied terrorism to enjoy a quiet life in the north of France married to a British grandmother from Cheshire, but was expelled from the country in May 2023, the authorities announced on Tuesday.
Bruno Retailleau, France’s new hardline interior minister, said he had now signed an order banning Omar from the country permanently.
“Mr. bin Laden, who has been living in the Orne region for several years as the wife of a British citizen, posted comments on social networks in 2023 that glorified terrorism,” said Mr. Retailleau.
“The administrative ban ensures that Mr. bin Laden cannot return to France for any reason.”
The exact nature of the comments that led to Mr. bin Laden being banned from France is unclear. However, according to the local daily Le Publicateur Libre, the X account with the handle @‌omarbinladin1 posted on May 2, 2023, the 12th anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, a message paying tribute to the mastermind behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, which destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City.
Born in Saudi Arabia, where he spent his early years, Omar bin Laden, 43, also lived in Sudan and Afghanistan. He left his father at the age of 19 and ended up living in Normandy in the north of France in 2016, taking up painting. Mr Retailleau said he had been living in France as the wife of a British citizen.
His marriage to the Englishman Jane Felix-Browne, a grandmother who had been divorced five times before and was more than twenty years old, had caused a lot of media interest when it was confirmed in 2007. After the marriage, he took the Muslim name Zaina. Muhammad. Omar bin Laden sought to live in the UK, but the offer was rejected by the British authorities.
Through his colorful paintings, he expresses a certain nostalgia for his childhood.
“I miss those happy times, when I was too young to understand and too innocent to see the world,” he told Vice. “I miss the desert dunes and the roaring sea. I miss the peace of my childhood.”
In one of Omar’s favorite paintings, he depicts the Arizona desert where lodges and pale green cacti sit beneath a starry sky.
But in another, he recreated the Tora Bora mountain, where his father hid on September 11.
Mr. bin Laden, who reports suggest suffering from PTSS and bipolar disorder, said he wanted to be an “ambassador for peace” to try to make up for what he called his father’s “big mistake”.
Referring to another painting called The Light, he said: “I think I’m trying to find the light at the end of this dark path. I hope the painting will open the light in my life again.
While he has never shied away from his father’s name, Omar has rejected deadly religious extremism to embrace art.
Mr bin Laden has repeatedly condemned the September 11 attacks over the past 20 years – expressing deep sorrow for the thousands of dead and blaming al-Qaeda’s barbaric ways.
“A lot of people think Arabs — especially the bin Ladens, especially Osama’s sons — are all terrorists,” Omar told the Associated Press in 2008. “That’s not the truth.”
Mr Retailleau, the interior minister, has promised to restore “order” on immigration and crime and the appointment is seen as a shift to the Right under Michel Barnier, the new prime minister, after this summer’s legislative elections that left parliament suspended. .
He promised to lower immigration, “against political Islam” and said that État de droit, the French equivalent of the rule of law, is not “intangible or sacred”.
Mr. bin Laden initially lived in France in 2016.
He was later placed under official investigation after his tweets in 2023, but at the time said the allegations were based on “false information”.
Two-year ban
He left France in October 2023 after receiving an order to leave, the French interior ministry added. At that time, Mr. bin Laden’s residence permit, which he obtained through his wife’s British citizenship, was revoked and the 43-year-old received a two-year ban on entering France.
Late Friday, a French court rejected Mr. bin Laden’s appeal against an order to leave.
Mr Retailleau said on Tuesday that he had imposed additional restrictions to ensure that Mr bin Laden “would not be able to return to France for any reason”. The minister said the son of the jihadist “sent comments on social networks in 2023 that encouraged terrorism”.
Those who have received an administrative entry ban can request that the measure be revoked after one year and the interior ministry must re-evaluate the ban every five years.
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