Editing Osama bin Laden (section)

== Early life and education ==
{{Main|Personal life of Osama bin Laden}}
{{See also|Bin Laden family}}
[[File:Bin Ladin.jpg|thumb|The [[bin Laden family]], who run the [[Saudi Binladin Group]] (''Saudi Arabian headquarters pictured''), has connections to the [[House of Saud|Saudi royal family]].]]
Osama bin Laden was born on 10 March 1957 in [[Riyadh]], [[Saudi Arabia]].<ref name=":4">{{cite web |date=29 December 2006 |title=Usama bin Laden |url=https://rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Bin_Laden |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061229161128/http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Bin_Laden |archive-date=29 December 2006 |website=[[Rewards for Justice]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Frontline: Hunting Bin Laden: Who is Bin Laden?: Chronology |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060210192537/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |archive-date=10 February 2006 |access-date=26 May 2010 |publisher=[[PBS]]}}</ref> His father was Muhammad bin Ladin,<ref name=":7">{{cite news |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |date=7 February 2008 |title=Yemen still close to al Qaeda's heart |newspaper=Asia Times Online |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB07Ak01.html |url-status=unfit |access-date=6 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702080545/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB07Ak01.html |archive-date=2 July 2016}}</ref><ref name="strozier">{{Cite book |last1=Strozier |first1=Charles B. |title=The Leader: Psychological Essays |last2=Offer |first2=Daniel |last3=Abdyli |first3=Oliger |date=24 May 2011 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4419-8387-9}}</ref> a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the [[House of Saud|Saudi royal family]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/spot/osamabinladen.html |title=Osama bin Laden |publisher=infoplease |last=Johnson |first=David |access-date=26 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120224312/http://www.infoplease.com/spot/osamabinladen.html |archive-date=20 January 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> and his mother was Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, [[Syrian]] [[Hamida al-Attas]] (then called Alia Ghanem).<ref name="newyorker.com">{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/12/051212fa_fact |title=Letter From Jedda: Young Osama- How he learned radicalism, and may have seen America|magazine=The New Yorker |last=Coll|first=Steve |date=12 December 2005 |access-date=26 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117190909/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/12/051212fa_fact |archive-date=17 January 2010 }}</ref>{{Sfn|Scheuer|2011}} Despite it being generally accepted that Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, his birthplace was listed as [[Jeddah]] in the initial FBI and [[Interpol]] documents.<ref name=":2">{{cite web |title=Osama bin Laden Part 01 of 03 |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/osama-bin-laden/Osama%20Bin%20Laden%20Part%2001%20of%2003/view |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=10 December 2021 |archive-date=3 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103004104/https://vault.fbi.gov/osama-bin-laden/osama-bin-laden-part-1-of-1/view |url-status=live }}</ref>

Mohammed bin Laden divorced Hamida soon after Osama bin Laden was born. Mohammed recommended Hamida to Mohammed al-Attas, an associate. Al-Attas married Hamida in the late 1950s or early 1960s.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Mysterious Death of Osama bin Laden |url=http://votebits.com/tag/osama-bin-laden-histery |date=3 August 2011 |access-date=4 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425135504/http://votebits.com/tag/osama-bin-laden-histery/ |archive-date=25 April 2012 }}</ref> The couple had four children, and Bin Laden lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.<ref name="newyorker.com" /> The Bin Laden family made $5&nbsp;billion in the construction industry, of which Osama later inherited around $25–30&nbsp;million.<ref>"[http://www.economist.com/node/18648254 Osama bin Laden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520023316/http://www.economist.com/node/18648254 |date=20 May 2011 }}", ''[[The Economist]]'', 5 May 2011, p. 93.</ref>

Bin Laden was raised as a devout [[Sunni]] Muslim.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Beyer |first=Lisa |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html |magazine=Time |title=The Most Wanted Man in the World |date=24 September 2001 |access-date=26 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010916125854/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html |archive-date=16 September 2001 }}</ref> From 1968 to 1976, he attended the elite [[Al-Thager Model School]].<ref name="newyorker.com" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Bergen|2006|p=52}}</ref> Bin Laden attended an English-language course in [[Oxford]], England, during 1971.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1595205.stm |title=Bin Laden's Oxford days |work=BBC News |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904170856/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1595205.stm |archive-date=4 September 2017 |date=12 October 2001}} in, {{cite web |last1=Burke |first1=Jason |first2=Shaheen |last2=Kareem |title=This article is more than 2 years old Bin Laden's disdain for the west grew in Shakespeare's birthplace, journal shows |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/newly-released-journal-confirms-osama-bin-laden-visited-the-west |website=[[The Guardian]] 1 November 2017 20.50 GMT |date=November 2017 |publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]] |access-date=9 March 2020 |archive-date=2 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102232947/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/newly-released-journal-confirms-osama-bin-laden-visited-the-west |url-status=live }}</ref> He studied [[economics]] and [[business administration]]<ref>''[[Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden]]'', Verso, 2005, p. xii.</ref> at [[King Abdulaziz University]]. Some reports suggest he earned a degree in [[civil engineering]] in 1979,<ref>{{citation|url=http://galenet.galegroup.com/ |title=Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement|volume=22 |publisher=Gale Group |date=2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518084513/http://galenet.galegroup.com/ |archive-date=18 May 2008|url-access=subscription}}</ref> or a degree in [[public administration]] in 1981.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html |title=A Biography of Osama bin Laden |publisher=PBS Frontline |access-date=26 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329153133/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html |archive-date=29 March 2010 }}</ref> One source described him as "hard working";<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10855 |title=The Real Osama |work=The American Prospect |date=19 January 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430133236/http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=10855 |archive-date=30 April 2008 |last=Hug |first=Aziz |access-date=6 January 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> another said he left university during his third year without completing a college degree.<ref name="gunaratna-22">{{Cite book |title=Inside Al Qaeda |last=Gunaratna|first=Rohan |publisher=Berkley Books |year=2003 |edition=3rd |page=[https://archive.org/details/insidealqaedaglo00guna/page/22 22] |isbn=0-231-12692-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/insidealqaedaglo00guna/page/22 }}</ref>

At university, Bin Laden's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the [[Quran]] and ''[[jihad]]''" and charitable work.{{Sfn|Wright|2006|p=79}} Other interests included writing poetry; reading, with the works of Field Marshal [[Bernard Montgomery]] and [[Charles de Gaulle]] said to be among his favorites; black [[stallion]]s; and [[association football]], in which he enjoyed playing at [[Centre-forward|centre forward]] and followed the English club [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7630934.stm |title=Analysing Osama's jihadi poetry |work=BBC News |last=Hirst |first=Michael |date=24 September 2008 |access-date=26 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930075727/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7630934.stm |archive-date=30 September 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/osama-bin-ladens-bodyguard-i-had-orders-126430 |title=Osama bin Laden's bodyguard: I had orders to kill him if the Americans tried to take him alive |work=Daily Mirror |date=4 May 2011 |access-date=20 April 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610184157/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/osama-bin-ladens-bodyguard-i-had-orders-126430 |archive-date=10 June 2012}}</ref> During his studies in Jeddah, Bin Laden became a pupil of the influential Islamist scholar [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam]] and avidly read his treatises. He also read the writings of several [[Muslim Brotherhood]] leaders and was highly influenced by the Islamic revolutionary ideas advocated by [[Sayyid Qutb]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Klausen |first=Jytte |title=Western Jihadism: A Thirty Year History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-19-887079-1 |edition=1st |location=Oxford, UK |pages=44, 45}}</ref>