Osama Bin Laden led Al-Qaeda from its founding in the late 80s until he was killed by the U.S. Navy in May of 2011. He was one of the central masterminds between the numerous terrorist attacks against Western powers executed by Al-Qaeda, most famously on the United States during the 9/11 Attacks. He was able to bring Al-Qaeda to levels of glory that would have been unattainable without his assets, outside the fact he founded the organization. Bin Laden was able to become the leader of Al-Qaeda because he was born into a lot of money and ability to manipulate people helped him gain a good following.
First, Bin Laden was able to lead such a dedicated group because he was born into a very wealthy and well-known family. Firstly, to understand the wealth Bin Laden was born into, you have to go back to the success of his father. Mohammed Bin Laden was born in a remote valley in central Yemen. He eventually ended up in Jeddah as a twenty-three year old. At the time, Arabia was one of the poorest, most desolate places in the world. He worked at Aramco, the Saudi American Oil Company, for a while and was known as a trustworthy worker. Eventually, he was able to make a name for himself and founded the Mohammed bin Laden Company, a construction company. From there, his career skyrocketed as his work became more and more well known. He was able to get on the good side of the King of Saudi Arabia. At this time, the Saudis had lots of money to spend, and spend it they did. The company was granted many contracts for building extremely prestigious buildings around the Kingdom. The bin Laden name quickly became one of the most well known across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When Osama Bin-Laden was born, the family was spoiled with riches and prominence. The Bin Laden name was already huge and had lots of money to its name long before his personal rise to stardom. Second, Bin Laden attended King Abdul Aziz University, where he would meet Jamal Khalifa. There in college, the two of them grew close and became interested in Sayyid Qutb’s writings. Mohammad Qutb, the younger brother of Sayyid Qutb, was a frequent speaker in the area. The two of them would grow to learn more and more about the radical ideas of Qutb. The two of them actually sided with the non-radicals, but Bin Laden’s opinions would clearly change later on in his life. If he didn’t have the money, he wouldn’t have been able to attend college, and potentially wouldn’t have exposed himself to the radical ideas that eventually fueled Al-Qaeda. Bin Laden was able to start such a prominent militant organization because he was born into prominence.
Second, Bin Laden became the leader of a group like Al-Qaeda because of his ability to manipulate the public. Bin Laden was known to be a very strategic speaker. He often spoke in such a way that managed to convince people to get on his side. In one instance, Bin Laden claimed that his men downed U.S. helicopters in Somalia, which wasn’t the case. He said, “Based on the reports we received from our brothers who participated in the jihad in Somalia, we learned that they say the weakness, frailty, and cowardice of U.S. troops.” Even though this was completely false and the al-Qaeda members had actually fled the scene, this claim was able to convince people of the group’s legitimacy and the opposition’s weakness. His ability to manipulate the reality of the situation into becoming beneficial for al-Qaeda showcases how he was able to convince so many of the organization’s power and increase its numbers.