Saudi Arabia: (10) Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, member of the affluent Saudi bin Laden family, is the founder of Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for multiple mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. This means that Osama bin Laden was typically known as the "man in charge" when it came to terrorist attacks, especially against the Western nations. On September 11th, 2001, Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger aircrafts, destroying the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and Arlington, Virginia's Pentagon, killing just a little under 3,000 civilians. This put the United States of America in a panic as their country became a major target within Middle Eastern rage.

Osama bin Laden was motivated by the belief that United States' foreign policy has harmed the Muslims in the Middle East. This lead to the ongoing belief that the world would perhaps be benefited greatly if the United States of America was finally demolished. Osama Bin Laden believed that only the restoration of Sharia law could make things right in the Muslim world, and that alternatives such as pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy, etc must be opposed. This means the Osama bin Laden was greatly into Saudi Arabian extremism, also known as fundamentalism. This idea formed the massive fight against Western involvement, laws, government, and ideas. In general, the United States stands for everything that Saudi Arabian fundamentalists stand against.

Although it may seem as Saudi Arabia was mostly to blame for the terrorist incidents, Saudi Arabia is actually against the idea of terrorism. In fact, Osama was forced out of Saudi Arabia because of his actions. This provides as evidence that Saudi Arabia could possibly be moving forward in relations with the West. Especially after the 9/11 attacks on New York City, Saudi Arabia is trying to keep terrorism down with the formation of anti-terrorist groups that teach about peaceful resolutions. Also, this entire issue can lead to less violence in the Middle East as terrorism is frowned upon and the government moves forward with Western relations.
Although it may seem as if Saudi Arabia is being judged for doing all of the bombing and terrorist attacks within the Middle East, this stereotype would be completely considered incorrect. It does not matter that Saudi Arabia is associated with Osama bin Laden when it comes to terrorist attack on the country of Saudi Arabia. For example, on June 25, 1996, the Khobar Towers Bombing had taken place within Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. This attack was carried out by followers of Kohmeini, one of the major rulers of Iran. So although it may seem as if Saudi Arabia is safe from terrorist attacks, this is not so as many innocent people died in Dhahran, just like in the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.