Osama Bin Laden bar in Brazil attracts media gasps

Football fans heading to Brazil this summer for the 2014 FIFA World Cup may be in for a surprise when they stumble across the “Ousama Bin Laden” bar in Sao Paulo – a local watering hole that has attracted international media attention over its name.

The establishment, named after the late al-Qaeda leader, is run by an apparent Bin Laden lookalike, Ceará Francisco Helder Braga Fernandes.

He had opened the business years ago, but renamed it after the September 11, 2001 attack on New York City, the Guardian reported.

It is located “just down the road” from the official FIFA Fan Fest venue in Anhangabau, according to Andrew Creelman, a British blogger who resides in Sao Paulo.

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After 9/11, the U.S. sparked an international manhunt for the man behind the attacks, reportedly leading an alarmed customer at Fernandes’ bar to alert police that the terrorist leader was laying low in Brazil as a barman.

It was, of course, not bin Laden but Fernandes himself, and the case of mistaken identity launched him into the local celebrity sphere, according to the Guardian.

He now dubs himself “Francisco Laden” and serves a host of metal heads and rockers who enjoy their drinks to a soundtrack of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, according to Creelman.

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The Huffington Post calls the bar “all kinds of offensive,” while Fox News calls it a “controversial establishment.”

Brazil is home to about a dozen establishments named after the late al-Qaeda leader, including a restaurant called Bin Laden and Family, according to Vocativ.