By Al-Fassel | 2024-12-16

After posting comments online "glorifying terrorism and al-Qaeda" in 2023, according to French officials, Osama bin Laden's son Omar was ordered to leave France and was in August banned from returning to the country.

It was not the first door that had closed to the al-Qaeda leader's son, once tapped as his father's successor, as other countries made it clear they would not tolerate the propagation of terrorist ideologies.

In 2008, Omar bin Laden and his British wife were denied entry into Egypt, where they had tried to land after he was denied asylum by Spain.

His application to move to Britain was rejected the same year.

While the younger bin Laden's comments may have earned him plaudits in extremist circles, his ideological leanings and familial loyalties have been fickle.

In numerous public statements, he has denounced his father’s terrorism as going too far -- while also acting on some occasions as an apologist for his father's worst crimes and continuing to "advocate terrorism."

Omar bin Laden, who is now in his mid-40s, lived with his father in Afghanistan until he was 19, when he left with his mother, Najwa bin Laden.

After US special forces killed the al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan in 2011, his adult sons issued a statement, prepared at Omar bin Laden's direction, that was published in the New York Times.

The brothers denounced the killing of their father, while making a point to underscore their disavowal of the al-Qaeda leader's ideology.

"We want to remind the world that Omar bin Laden, the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances,” the statement said.

"Despite the difficulty of publicly disagreeing with our father, he never hesitated to condemn any violent attacks made by anyone, and expressed sorrow for the victims of any and all attacks," it said.

Inconsistent ideology

French interior minister Bruno Retailleau has said Omar bin Laden "posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that advocated terrorism."

While Omar bin Laden denied being the author of the comments -- published in May 2023 on the anniversary of the al-Qaeda leader's death -- he did not delete or condemn them, French officials said.

Ordered to leave France on October 27, 2023, he did so "voluntarily" but appealed the decision. A French court upheld the ruling in August.

Speaking to AFP in 2022, Omar bin Laden had said he felt good in France, where had lived -- in the northwestern town of Domfront-en-Poiraie -- since 2018.

"I feel free from the responsibility of my father's actions," he said at the time. "Nobody judges me, they respect me and they leave me in peace."

His public support for al-Qaeda has changed all that.