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Laden's son promotes peace at 9/11 breakfast

At the end of a sandy track in the shadow of some of Egypt's lesser-known pyramids, Osama bin Laden's son Omar broke the Ramadan fast on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the name of world peace. Read on...

Updated on: Sep 12, 2008, 13:03:32 IST
AFP | By , Cairo
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At the end of a sandy track in the shadow of some of Egypt's lesser-known pyramids, Osama bin Laden's son Omar broke the Ramadan fast on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the name of world peace.

HT Image
HT Image

Here, in the desert a few kilometres outside of Cairo, is where Saudi-born Osama's fourth son Omar, 27, and his English wife Zaina have decided to set up a desert farm, a halfway point between their respective homelands.

But having invited a Bedouin tent-full of guests to join their sunset "iftar," Zaina, 52, confesses they hadn't realised the date was September 11, seven years since the 2001 attacks on the US, claimed by her father-in-law.

"They thought about having a minute's silence but instead they asked me to say some words for peace in the world," says Suzanne, a friend.

"And Omar will be the first to sign the scroll of peace," a petition she hopes will draw a million signatures.

Omar signs the scroll, but tonight there will be no quotes about his father's whereabouts or anything else beyond his new, placid realm of a few hundred square metres of sandy land at the foot of the Abu Sir pyramids.

The couple are wearing traditional Arab gowns for the occasion, relaxed in the middle of a parade of Arab stallions, two cages of guinea fowl and a sitting, grumbling camel.

The fourth of 11 children from his father's first wife and one of reportedly 19 fathered by the world's most wanted man, Omar bears a remarkable resemblance to his father.

He and Zaina recently set up the "Al-Mirage" horse ranch after Britain rejected Omar's application to move there with Zaina, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne, because his presence might cause "considerable public concern.

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