Why was Osama bin Laden a cruel person?

Answer 1

I would be the last person to defend Osama bin Laden, but I do want to point out one thing: if you were to ask him, he did not believe he was cruel. In fact, he believed he was on a mission to purify the world and win it over to his version of Islam. Sadly, he believed only he practiced Islam correctly, and he also believed he had the right to execute those who disagreed. This is similar to how Hitler felt-- he believed that his ideology (Naziism) was the correct one, and if you didn't agree, he believed you should be killed.

I am not comparing Bin Laden to Hitler, but they are both object lessons in the dangers of fanaticism. Bin Laden probably was not born a cruel person. But he became one. He became a fanatic, and decided he had the right to be judge and jury over anyone with whom he disagreed. Thousands of innocent people were killed just because Bin Laden thought they deserved to die. That seems rather cruel to me, and it also seems like a perversion of what religion is supposed to be about.