Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Poll: Bin Laden tops Musharraf in Pakistan - CNN.com, September 11, 2007

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf — a key U.S. ally — is less popular in his own country than al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a poll of Pakistanis conducted last month by an anti-terrorism organization….

According to poll results, bin Laden has a 46 percent approval rating. Musharraf’s support is 38 percent. U.S. President George W. Bush’s approval: 9 percent.

Asked their opinion on the real purpose of the U.S.-led war on terror, 66 percent of poll respondents said they believe the United States is acting against Islam or has anti-Muslim motivation.

New Video Raises Questions on Bin Laden | World Latest, AP, September 12, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Two messages from Osama bin Laden in a matter of days have revived the game of questions over his health and whereabouts, but they also made clear he is al-Qaida’s propaganda “top gun,” able to draw attention in the West and strike a chord among sympathizers.

In a new video released Tuesday, bin Laden’s voice was heard commemorating one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and calling on young Muslims to follow his example in martyring themselves in attacks.

It came on the heels of a video released Saturday containing the first new images of the terror movement’s leader in nearly three years. It showed him urging Americans to convert to Islam and railing against capitalism, globalization and democracy as failed philosophies.

Bin Laden’s new image: younger, more Marxist | csmonitor.com, September 13, 2007

AFTER A THREE-YEAR absence, Osama bin Laden has resurfaced in another of his rousing videotapes, only this time with a new image and a new message. Projecting a younger look, Mr. bin Laden gives his most ideological address since the early 1990s with an assault on capitalism and liberal democracy loaded with Marxist and socialist terms. Indeed, this new bin Laden sounds more like Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary, than some of his rifle-toting Al Qaeda cohorts.

Scheuer’s Analysis of Osama bin Laden’s September 7 Video Statement, Jamestown Foundation, September 11, 2007

Some of the substance of bin Laden’s speech was partially new to him specifically, but the West’s failure to analyze what he and his lieutenants have been talking about for the past few years was repeatedly displayed by such foreign policy experts as a former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and New York Times journalist David Brooks, both of whom suggested that bin Laden sounded like a left-wing, 1960s Marxist blogger.

Voici la version intégrale de la vidéo de Ben Laden, le Figaro, le 10 septembre, 2007

Al-Qaida commander criticizes Hamas for abandoning Jihad - Haaretz, September 10, 2007

An al-Qaida commander who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan criticized Hamas in a new videotape Sunday and other Islamic groups that he said prioritized nationalism and electoral politics over Jihad, or holy war.

Hamas is largely focused on the creation of an independent Palestinian state rather than al-Qaida’s vision of a worldwide Muslim community ruled by Islamic law.

Like Al-Qaida, the Palestinian movement advocates violence to achieve its goal, but has also participated in elections.

“Patriotism, nationalism, shared unity, the supreme interest and other slogans … none of these have any space in the religion of Allah the Glorious and the Great,” he said, criticizing groups like Hamas for abandoning Jihad and jumping into the ballot boxes.

The New Al-Qaeda Central - washingtonpost.com, September 9, 2007

The last time bin Laden showed his face to the world was three years ago, in October 2004. Since then, al-Qaeda’s core leadership — dubbed al-Qaeda Central by intelligence analysts — has grown stronger, rebuilding the organizational framework that was badly damaged after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, according to counterterrorism officials in Pakistan, the United States and Europe.

U.S. official confirms voice on Al-Qaida tape is Osama bin Laden’s, AP,Haaretz, September 8, 2007

Technical analysis suggests the voice on a new Al-Qaida video aired by Al-Jazeera on Friday is that of Osama bin Laden, a U.S. intelligence official said.

The Al-Qaida leader appeared for the first time in three years in a videotape released ahead of the 6th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end, according to a transcript of the video by ABC News.

“Initial technical analysis suggests that the voice on the videotape is indeed that of Osama bin Laden,” the U.S. official said, adding that he had no analysis of bin Laden’s physical appearance on the tape.

Bin Laden Predicts U.S. Failure in Iraq - washingtonpost.com, September 8, 2007

Addressing his message to “the people of America,” bin Laden predicted failure for U.S. forces in Iraq and warned against what he described as the continued oppression and humiliation of Muslims by the West.

“The blood of the Muslims will not be spilled with impunity,” he said.

The tape was undergoing technical evaluation by U.S. intelligence analysts, but an initial review indicated it was authentic. “The analysis suggests that the voice on the tape is indeed that of Osama bin Laden,” said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified by name.

Transcript: Osama bin Laden’s latest video, September 7, 2007

“The holocaust of the Jews was carried out by your brethren in the middle of Europe, but had it been closer to our countries, most of the Jews would have been saved by taking refuge with us. And my proof for that is in what your brothers, the Spanish, did when they set up the horrible courts of the Inquisition to try Muslims and Jews, when the Jews only found safe shelter by taking refuge in our countries. And that is why the Jewish community in Morocco today is one of the largest communities in the world. They are alive with us and we have not incinerated them, but we are a people who don’t sleep under oppression and reject humiliation and disgrace, and we take revenge on the people of tyranny and aggression, and the blood of the Muslims will not be spilled with impunity, and the morrow is nigh for he who awaits.

No overt threats in new bin Laden video - Yahoo News, September 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - A new video of Osama bin Laden makes no overt threats against the United States and appears to have been made as recently as this summer, a government official said Friday.

Online NewsHour: Bin Laden’s Fatwa
Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places

World Islamic Front Statement Urging Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement

 World Islamic Front Call for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, original text in Arabic, 1998
World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders

Bin Laden Statements 1996-2004