Cairo, Jan 18: Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father - except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there`s the black leather biker jacket.
The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview, he said there is better way to defend Islam than al Qaeda`s militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.
Omar raised a tabloid storm in Britain last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took on the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 5,000-kilometre horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.
"It`s about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs - especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama - are all terrorists. This is not the truth," Omar said last Friday at a cafe in one of Cairo`s new shopping malls.
Of course, many may have a hard time getting their mind around the idea of "Bin Laden: peacenik". "Omar thinks he can be a negotiator," said Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain. "He`s one of the only people who can do this in the world."
Omar, the fourth eldest of Osama bin Laden`s 19 children, lived with his father in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan when Khartoum forced out the al Qaeda leader in 1996.
Bureau Report
