Article about Osama bin Laden. .

One Iraqi boy realized the consequences of having the wrong name after he and his family received death threats because he shared a name with Osama bin Laden. When we say Osama bin Laden, we’re referring to the Al-Qaeda leader and not the rogue elephant that killed 27 people in India. The unfortunate Osama bin Laden in question was born in Alexandria, Iraq, in 2002. The US invaded Iraq a year later, marking the beginning of his problems. He could not leave his home or even attend school because of his name. He was also turned away at sport clubs and always had to explain himself whenever he was asked for identification at checkpoints. Things got so terrible that his family received death threats, forcing them to flee to Baghdad. Several attempts to change his name failed. Then Qassim al-Araji, Iraq’s Interior Minister, heard of his plight and offered to help him change his name to Ahmed Hussein. Unfortunately, the boy named Osama bin Laden was electrocuted to death four days before the identification papers bearing his new name arrived. An online publication reported his death with the headline “Osama bin Laden Killed in Iraq.”[1]9 Saddam Hussain
Photo credit: looklex.com
An Indian engineer called Saddam Hussain was refused employment from over 40 jobs for no other reason than sharing a name with the former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. The Indian Saddam Hussain had his surname spelled “Hussain” (with an “a”), which is not the same as the late Iraqi dictator Hussein (with an “e”).But that meant nothing to his prospective employers. Saddam Hussain later changed his name to Sajid Hussain, but that only worsened issues because it invalidated his educational certificates.Saddam Hussain was not the only person to encounter problems for sharing a name with the former Iraqi leader. Another Saddam Hussein—who has the exact name of the former Iraqi leader and was unfortunate to also be an Iraqi—was captured and almost executed by an Iraqi militia because of his name. He only got away with his life because the weapon jammed. A boy named Saddam Hussein was also taunted and bullied in school, while one man was fired from his job after he was accused of being a member of the Ba’ath party. The evidence? He had named his son Saddam.Still in Iraq, a more unfortunate Saddam Hussein has been having problems since long before Saddam Hussein (the president) was ousted from power. Due to the young boy’s name, his schoolteachers held him to higher standards than other students and gave him severe punishments whenever he performed below expectation.[2]Thinking he would be better appreciated, this unfortunate Saddam Hussein joined the army. But he only got into bigger trouble after an officer assaulted him for tarnishing and daring to share a name with the dictator Saddam. Things got worse after the dictator Saddam lost power in 2003. The other Saddam tried changing his name in 2006 but couldn’t afford the cost and complication involved.
8 Craig CockburnSpam filters help to protect us from receiving malicious and unsolicited emails. But not for Craig Cockburn, whose messages were always marked as spam because his surname, Cockburn, contained a certain word. As if things couldn’t get any worse, even the servers at the Scottish Tourist Board, where he worked, always marked his messages as spam. We only got to hear of Mr. Cockburn’s situation after he sent an email about the issue to the San Jose Mercury News. To ensure that his email didn’t end up in the spam folder, he wrote his name as C0ckburn, replacing the letter “o” with a zero, which is the same tactic used by spammers to beat spam filters.Mr. C0ckburn is not the only one to encounter problems for using an innocent “cock.” The Age newspaper of Australia experienced a similar problem when its spam filter refused to accept an email from a reporter who was covering the Cock o’ the Bay yacht race.[3]7 Robin Kills The Enemy
Photo credit: The Telegraph
Facebook wants its users to always use their real