Lunch Break: Talk of who betrayed Osama bin Laden sparks a harem scuffle
by LauraLoo
Yesterday I was listening to Chicago’s WLS newstalk radio and learned that Osama bin Laden had a first wife named Najwa. Najwa had been pregnant 11 times. That’s what initially drew me into the conversation.
But the rest of the storyline revealed a very private side to the bin Laden family. To me it was reminiscent of Old Testament times with some of the Patriarchs in Genesis (or King David) having multiple wives and children.
A few interesting excerpts from The Australian:
- The three widows of Osama bin Laden are turning on each other in custody, with two older Saudi women blaming a much younger Yemeni wife for leading US intelligence to their hideout. “It’s vicious,” said a Pakistani official briefed on the interrogation of the widows.
- “The older wives think the younger one tipped off the Americans or was tracked when she came to join him.”
- The al-Qa’ida leader was living with three wives when he was killed in Abbottabad three weeks ago. Until US investigators discovered his hiding place, it was not known whether bin Laden and his family were alive. Some reports suggested they had been killed in the US bombing of Afghanistan.
- Although the compound where bin Laden hid for five years was large, the three wives were all cooped up in the same house. The older two lived on the second floor and the youngest one on the top. Their husband alternated between them. Pakistani officials who have been debriefing the women portray life in the compound as an Islamic version of Desperate Housewives.
And below is a video from a few years ago that nicely ties to yesterday’s storyline.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZmUVpg_Io[/youtube]
Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.
[HT: The Australian and WLSam.com; photo courtesy of Desperate Housewives]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I hope they put this fight on pay-per-view. I am betting on the one in the black bed sheet milking the camel. She has strong hands…..
Texan: I hear you Muslims can have more than one wife.
Muslim: Yes that is true. Allah [pbuh] says the perfect number of wives is four.
Texan: Four?!?, Why four?
Allah [pbuh] says, If you only have one wife she will lonely and clamor for your attention.
If you have two wives there will competition between the two and even enmity.
If you have three wives, two will collude to oppress the third.
If you have four wives, each wife will have her own friend and all will be well in your household.
Texan: If I told my wife, I wanted three more she would kill me.
Muslim: Ah, yes. It is so.
Texan: So how many wives do you have?
Muslim: Only one.
Texan: Why only one?
Muslim: Because If told my wife I wanted three more, she would kill me.
Omar bin Laden says his family was humuliated when the U.S.A. buried his father, Osam bin Laden at sea.
When Omar was asked how he felt about the stash of pornography and slasher films that were discovered under his late fathers bed, Omar shrugged and said they were only family movies.
Did ol’ Osama have an Eva Longoria type wife?
Ken – “only family movies” – ahahahahahhahaaaaa!
Some jokes are OK. Those that depend upon cliches and stereotypes, and promote these stereotypes, are not funny. Those types of jokes are ways of de-humanizing groups of people so they can be perceived as “other,” or as less-human, less deserving of respect and decent human rights. A joke abt milking a camel just does not come across as funny.
I’m half Mexican. My Dad is white. I grew up learning every Mexican joke in the book. My siblings and I learned to laugh at ourselves, and those sorts of things lost power over us. We’re proud to have a Mexican heritage, but we’re Americans first and foremost. This type of crap has only as much ability to “oppress” you as you allow it. I think this world would be so much better if everyone was free to tell jokes about whoever they wanted and everyone did what one was supposed to do at jokes-laugh.
Xalisae,
Amen! Humor is a wonderful invention. Too many people today are completely too thin-skinned. It’s humor. It’s supposed to be funny. I think all the Republicans/Conservatives who whine about Sarah Palin or Republican SNL skits are just pathetic. It’s supposed to be funny!! Laugh a little – it’s okay. And props to you for learning to take a joke. ;)
This world would be terribly dull and dreary if everyone ran around refraining from humor, wringing their hands in agony, worrying about whether they have offended anybody or not.
Xalisae: This type of crap has only as much ability to “oppress” you as you allow it. I think this world would be so much better if everyone was free to tell jokes about whoever they wanted and everyone did what one was supposed to do at jokes-laugh.
I mostly feel that way too, although that’s easy for me to say, bein’ a white guy in the US. For what it’s worth, the Jewish people I know tell Jewish jokes all the time – the jokes are funny and they’ve got a million of ’em.
Where I would disagree is when it’s not really a matter of laughing, anymore, rather that the jokes are primarily vehicles for simple-minded hatred and racism. You know – if everybody was already laughing, then it wouldn’t be like this, but after a while, enough of the jokes that are really aimed at you, aimed at your group in a mean-spirited and demeaning way, and it just grinds you down. I say that never having truly been on the receiving end. But I’ve seen when it really does hurt, and the hurt can outweigh whatever humor others perceive.
And there’s often humor there – some of the funniest stuff I’ve heard is from stand-up comics who take aim at everybody. If everybody’s feeling “equal” and relaxed enough, and laughing, then it’s all good.
So when isn’t it all good? I think when it goes to far, when it’s too much, when it’s really “laughing at” a group or person rather than having an element of laughing with them. I realize that’s still somewhat nebulous, but if you get to the point where it really does hurt, or you see somebody else and realize that it hurts them, then you’re there.
You make fun of no one or you make fun of everyone. That’s the only fair way to do it. I hear what you are saying Last Dem but it is just humor, take it easy.
Biggz, my opinion – if you or your group had been on the receiving end of the “just humor” like it works out sometimes, you’d have a different view of it.
If you want to minimize the risk of offending someone with your ‘humor’, then convert all your ethnic jokes to to ‘cowboy’ jokes.
‘cowboys’ have a sense of humor and they are not easliy offended. Just steer clear of comments about their truck or their horse.
TheLastDemocrat says: May 25, 2011 at 11:52 am
“Some jokes are OK. Those that depend upon cliches and stereotypes, and promote these stereotypes, are not funny. Those types of jokes are ways of de-humanizing groups of people so they can be perceived as “other,” or as less-human, less deserving of respect and decent human rights.”
“A joke about milking a camel just does not come across as funny.”
I didn’t know camels were that hypersensitive.
I bet if you knew some bedouins they could tell you some pretty funny camel jokes.
The whole point of telling democrat jokes is to needle the democrat.
They struggle with humor anyway, particularly when they are butt of the joke.
It is NOT a false stereotype.
Ken, “they struggle with humor anyway, particularly when they are butt of the joke” – certainly applies to Republicans too.
“Harem scuffle” reminds me of the song “Harlem Shuffle.”
You move it to the left then you go for yourself
You move it to the right if it takes all night
Now baby kinda slow with a whole lot of soul
Don’t move it too last, you make it last
I can see a reality-TV show coming from all this…
“Tonight on ‘Harem Scuffle’ – Layali loses her temper and lobs a pot of lablabi at Luja. Shadiyah threatens to denounce Iftikhar to the mullahs…”