Osama wanted to rebrand al Qaeda: White House

Osama wanted the group to be identified more with Islam than as a global terror outfit

WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda's founder Osama bin Laden had wanted to change the name of the group after frustration that the group came to be recognised as a global terror outfit rather than being identified with Islam, the White House said according to The Times of India.

"He (Bin Laden) even contemplated, in those writings, changing the name of al Qaeda to try to more closely identify it with Islam," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, referring to the treasure trove of information recovered from the Abbottabad hide out of the al Qaeda leader.

"He felt like that would be helpful to their flagging recruiting efforts. That is an indication that our efforts to be crystal-clear about what it is that we're fighting and what we're not has not just been successful, but actually frustrated the efforts of our enemies," Earnest added.

US commandos, in their operation to recover and bring to justice bin Laden, recovered lots of material from his residence where his ongoing communications were evaluated.

"And in those writings there is clear evidence that he (bin Laden) was frustrated that al Qaeda was being recognised and acknowledged and fought not as a religious organisation but as a terrorist group," he said. 


The Press Secretary said that many radical ideologies have succeeded in some cases whereby they have infiltrated through the Muslim world and ideology has been propagated to try and distort the religion to justify their acts of violence.

"At the same time they would love nothing more than for the US or the West to engage in a religious war with them. But the fact of the matter is, that is not what this is. This is not a religious war. This is not a war on Islam. And those individuals do not represent Islam; the leaders of Islam say as much. And there are a variety of ways that we can assess this," Earnest said. 


Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad's Bilal Town on May 2, 2011 by the US Navy SEALs of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group.