Pornography Found in Bin Laden's Compound

“Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them. You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire.”
~Osama Bin Laden

A friend of mine posted this quote on her Facebook page but did not reveal its source. I agreed with the quote except for the last line that read, "yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire." I do not believe that men cannot help themselves when it comes to their desire of women. It seems that Bin Laden is saying that if a man is attracted to a woman who wears revealing clothing she has no one to blame but herself. This is strikingly close to the common thought that a woman who wears revealing clothing and then is raped has only herself to blame. Let us give men some credit. Let us not insult them by promoting the myth of male weakness.

According to a May, 13th New York Times article by Scott Shane, the Bin Laden quote came from a 2002 "Letter to the American People" authored by. Bin Laden. Ironically, when the computer files obtained from Bin Laden's compound carried a large quantity of pornographic videos.

According to the article officials have not said if there was evidence that Bin Laden had aquired the material himself or if he had even viewed it. It is unknown as to whether the five computers, then hard drives and dozens of thumb drives and CDs had been previously owned.

If Bin Laden did utilize the pornographic material, he is then a hypocrite. Bin Laden is not the first to contradict himself. You do it, I do it, we all do it or have done it or will do it. I am however, not excusing Bin Laden. He is a man who had spent so much time and energy making statements against American politics and culture and there he was going against a rather passionate statement about patriarchy.

A man who lived with three wives cannot be perceived as authentic in my eyes when making a statement as the quote above.

To read the entire New York times article entitled, "Pornography Is Found in Bin Laden's Compound Files, U.S. Officials Say," click here.