Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'
Online document: the full text of Osama bin Laden's "letter to the American people", reported
in today's Observer. The letter first appeared on the internet in Arabic
and has since been translated and circulated by Islamists in Britain.
Observer Worldview
Observer Worldview
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,
"Permission
to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are
fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able
to give them (believers) victory" [Quran 22:39]
"Those
who believe, fight in the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve,
fight in the cause of Taghut (anything worshipped other than Allah e.g.
Satan). So fight you against the friends of Satan; ever feeble is indeed
the plot of Satan."[Quran 4:76]
Some
American writers have published articles under the title 'On what basis
are we fighting?' These articles have generated a number of responses,
some of which adhered to the truth and were based on Islamic Law, and
others which have not. Here we wanted to outline the truth - as an
explanation and warning - hoping for Allah's reward, seeking success and
support from Him.
While seeking Allah's help, we form our reply based on two questions directed at the Americans:
(Q1) Why are we fighting and opposing you?
Q2)What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
Q2)What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:
(1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.
a) You attacked us in Palestine:
(i)
Palestine, which has sunk under military occupation for more than 80
years. The British handed over Palestine, with your help and your
support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years
overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion,
destruction and devastation. The creation and continuation of Israel is
one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals.
And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of
American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which
must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted
in the contribution towards this crime must pay its*price, and pay for
it heavily.
(ii) It
brings us both laughter and tears to see that you have not yet tired of
repeating your fabricated lies that the Jews have a historical right to
Palestine, as it was promised to them in the Torah. Anyone who disputes
with them on this alleged fact is accused of anti-semitism. This is one
of the most fallacious, widely-circulated fabrications in history. The
people of Palestine are pure Arabs and original Semites. It is the
Muslims who are the inheritors of Moses (peace be upon him) and the
inheritors of the real Torah that has not been changed. Muslims believe
in all of the Prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all. If the followers of Moses
have been promised a right to Palestine in the Torah, then the Muslims
are the most worthy nation of this.
When the
Muslims conquered Palestine and drove out the Romans, Palestine and
Jerusalem returned to Islaam, the religion of all the Prophets peace be
upon them. Therefore, the call to a historical right to Palestine cannot
be raised against the Islamic Ummah that believes in all the Prophets
of Allah (peace and blessings be upon them) - and we make no distinction
between them.
(iii) The
blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged. You must know
that the Palestinians do not cry alone; their women are not widowed
alone; their sons are not orphaned alone.
(b) You
attacked us in Somalia; you supported the Russian atrocities against us
in Chechnya, the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir, and the Jewish
aggression against us in Lebanon.
(c) Under
your supervision, consent and orders, the governments of our countries
which act as your agents, attack us on a daily basis;
(i) These governments prevent our people from establishing the Islamic Shariah, using violence and lies to do so.
(ii) These governments give us a taste of humiliation, and places us in a large prison of fear and subdual.
(iii) These governments steal our Ummah's wealth and sell them to you at a paltry price.
(iv)
These governments have surrendered to the Jews, and handed them most of
Palestine, acknowledging the existence of their state over the
dismembered limbs of their own people.
(v) The
removal of these governments is an obligation upon us, and a necessary
step to free the Ummah, to make the Shariah the supreme law and to
regain Palestine. And our fight against these governments is not
separate from out fight against you.
(d) You
steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices because of you international
influence and military threats. This theft is indeed the biggest theft
ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world.
(e) Your
forces occupy our countries; you spread your military bases throughout
them; you corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctities, to protect
the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of
our treasures.
(f) You
have starved the Muslims of Iraq, where children die every day. It is a
wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result
of your sanctions, and you did not show concern. Yet when 3000 of your
people died, the entire world rises and has not yet sat down.
(g) You
have supported the Jews in their idea that Jerusalem is their eternal
capital, and agreed to move your embassy there. With your help and under
your protection, the Israelis are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa
mosque. Under the protection of your weapons, Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa
mosque, to pollute it as a preparation to capture and destroy it.
(2) These
tragedies and calamities are only a few examples of your oppression and
aggression against us. It is commanded by our religion and intellect
that the oppressed have a right to return the aggression. Do not await
anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge. Is it in any way
rational to expect that after America has attacked us for more than half
a century, that we will then leave her to live in security and peace?!!
(3) You
may then dispute that all the above does not justify aggression against
civilians, for crimes they did not commit and offenses in which they did
not partake:
(a) This
argument contradicts your continuous repetition that America is the land
of freedom, and its leaders in this world. Therefore, the American
people are the ones who choose their government by way of their own free
will; a choice which stems from their agreement to its policies. Thus
the American people have chosen, consented to, and affirmed their
support for the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, the occupation
and usurpation of their land, and its continuous killing, torture,
punishment and expulsion of the Palestinians. The American people have
the ability and choice to refuse the policies of their Government and
even to change it if they want.
(b) The
American people are the ones who pay the taxes which fund the planes
that bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks that strike and destroy our homes
in Palestine, the armies which occupy our lands in the Arabian Gulf,
and the fleets which ensure the blockade of Iraq. These tax dollars are
given to Israel for it to continue to attack us and penetrate our lands.
So the American people are the ones who fund the attacks against us,
and they are the ones who oversee the expenditure of these monies in the
way they wish, through their elected candidates.
(c) Also
the American army is part of the American people. It is this very same
people who are shamelessly helping the Jews fight against us.
(d) The American people are the ones who employ both their men and their women in the American Forces which attack us.
(e) This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of all the crimes committed by the Americans and Jews against us.
(f)
Allah, the Almighty, legislated the permission and the option to take
revenge. Thus, if we are attacked, then we have the right to attack
back. Whoever has destroyed our villages and towns, then we have the
right to destroy their villages and towns. Whoever has stolen our
wealth, then we have the right to destroy their economy. And whoever has
killed our civilians, then we have the right to kill theirs.
The American Government and press still refuses to answer the question:
Why did they attack us in New York and Washington?
If Sharon
is a man of peace in the eyes of Bush, then we are also men of peace!!!
America does not understand the language of manners and principles, so
we are addressing it using the language it understands.
(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
(a) The
religion of the Unification of God; of freedom from associating partners
with Him, and rejection of this; of complete love of Him, the Exalted;
of complete submission to His Laws; and of the discarding of all the
opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict with the
religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islam
is the religion of all the prophets, and makes no distinction between
them - peace be upon them all.
It is to
this religion that we call you; the seal of all the previous religions.
It is the religion of Unification of God, sincerity, the best of
manners, righteousness, mercy, honour, purity, and piety. It is the
religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between
them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the
persecuted. It is the religion of enjoining the good and forbidding the
evil with the hand, tongue and heart. It is the religion of Jihad in the
way of Allah so that Allah's Word and religion reign Supreme. And it is
the religion of unity and agreement on the obedience to Allah, and
total equality between all people, without regarding their colour, sex,
or language.
(b) It is
the religion whose book - the Quran - will remained preserved and
unchanged, after the other Divine books and messages have been changed.
The Quran is the miracle until the Day of Judgment. Allah has challenged
anyone to bring a book like the Quran or even ten verses like it.
(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.
(a) We
call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to
reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants,
gambling's, and trading with interest.
We call
you to all of this that you may be freed from that which you have become
caught up in; that you may be freed from the deceptive lies that you
are a great nation, that your leaders spread amongst you to conceal from
you the despicable state to which you have reached.
(b) It is saddening to tell you that you are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind:
(i) You
are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its
Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and
desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure
nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.
You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible
for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over
all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and
then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the
laws which govern their lives?
(ii) You
are the nation that permits Usury, which has been forbidden by all the
religions. Yet you build your economy and investments on Usury. As a
result of this, in all its different forms and guises, the Jews have
taken control of your economy, through which they have then taken
control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making
you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense; precisely
what Benjamin Franklin warned you against.
(iii) You
are a nation that permits the production, trading and usage of
intoxicants. You also permit drugs, and only forbid the trade of them,
even though your nation is the largest consumer of them.
(iv) You
are a nation that permits acts of immorality, and you consider them to
be pillars of personal freedom. You have continued to sink down this
abyss from level to level until incest has spread amongst you, in the
face of which neither your sense of honour nor your laws object.
Who can
forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official
Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other
than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no
punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go
down in history and remembered by nations?
(v) You
are a nation that permits gambling in its all forms. The companies
practice this as well, resulting in the investments becoming active and
the criminals becoming rich.
(vi) You
are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising
tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve
passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You
then rant that you support the liberation of women.
(vii) You
are a nation that practices the trade of sex in all its forms, directly
and indirectly. Giant corporations and establishments are established
on this, under the name of art, entertainment, tourism and freedom, and
other deceptive names you attribute to it.
(viii)
And because of all this, you have been described in history as a nation
that spreads diseases that were unknown to man in the past. Go ahead and
boast to the nations of man, that you brought them AIDS as a Satanic
American Invention.
(xi) You
have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any
other nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto
agreement so that you can secure the profit of your greedy companies
and*industries.
(x) Your
law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their
political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts.
Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and
economy.
(xi) That
which you are singled out for in the history of mankind, is that you
have used your force to destroy mankind more than any other nation in
history; not to defend principles and values, but to hasten to secure
your interests and profits. You who dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan,
even though Japan was ready to negotiate an end to the war. How many
acts of oppression, tyranny and injustice have you carried out, O
callers to freedom?
(xii) Let
us not forget one of your major characteristics: your duality in both
manners and values; your hypocrisy in manners and principles.
All*manners, principles and values have two scales: one for you and one
for the others.
(a)The
freedom and democracy that you call to is for yourselves and for white
race only; as for the rest of the world, you impose upon them your
monstrous, destructive policies and Governments, which you call the
'American friends'. Yet you prevent them from establishing democracies.
When the Islamic party in Algeria wanted to practice democracy and they
won the election, you unleashed your agents in the Algerian army onto
them, and to attack them with tanks and guns, to imprison them and
torture them - a new lesson from the 'American book of democracy'!!!
(b)Your
policy on prohibiting and forcibly removing weapons of mass destruction
to ensure world peace: it only applies to those countries which you do
not permit to possess such weapons. As for the countries you consent to,
such as Israel, then they are allowed to keep and use such weapons to
defend their security. Anyone else who you suspect might be
manufacturing or keeping these kinds of weapons, you call them criminals
and you take military action against them.
(c)You
are the last ones to respect the resolutions and policies of
International Law, yet you claim to want to selectively punish anyone
else who does the same. Israel has for more than 50 years been pushing
UN resolutions and rules against the wall with the full support of
America.
(d)As for
the war criminals which you censure and form criminal courts for - you
shamelessly ask that your own are granted immunity!! However, history
will not forget the war crimes that you committed against the Muslims
and the rest of the world; those you have killed in Japan, Afghanistan,
Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq will remain a shame that you will never be
able to escape. It will suffice to remind you of your latest war crimes
in Afghanistan, in which densely populated innocent civilian villages
were destroyed, bombs were dropped on mosques causing the roof of the
mosque to come crashing down on the heads of the Muslims praying inside.
You are the ones who broke the agreement with the Mujahideen when they
left Qunduz, bombing them in Jangi fort, and killing more than 1,000 of
your prisoners through suffocation and thirst. Allah alone knows how
many people have died by torture at the hands of you and your agents.
Your planes remain in the Afghan skies, looking for anyone remotely
suspicious.
(e)You
have claimed to be the vanguards of Human Rights, and your Ministry of
Foreign affairs issues annual reports containing statistics of those
countries that violate any Human Rights. However, all these things
vanished when the Mujahideen hit you, and you then implemented the
methods of the same documented governments that you used to curse. In
America, you captured thousands the Muslims and Arabs, took them into
custody with neither reason, court trial, nor even disclosing their
names. You issued newer, harsher laws.
What
happens in Guatanamo is a historical embarrassment to America and its
values, and it screams into your faces - you hypocrites, "What is the
value of your signature on any agreement or treaty?"
(3) What
we call you to thirdly is to take an honest stance with yourselves - and
I doubt you will do so - to discover that you are a nation without
principles or manners, and that the values and principles to you are
something which you merely demand from others, not that which you
yourself must adhere to.
(4) We
also advise you to stop supporting Israel, and to end your support of
the Indians in Kashmir, the Russians against the Chechens and to also
cease supporting the Manila Government against the Muslims in Southern
Philippines.
(5) We
also advise you to pack your luggage and get out of our lands. We desire
for your goodness, guidance, and righteousness, so do not force us to
send you back as cargo in coffins.
(6)
Sixthly, we call upon you to end your support of the corrupt leaders in
our countries. Do not interfere in our politics and method of education.
Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.
(7) We
also call you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of
mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of sub dual,
theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting the
Jews because this will result in more disasters for you.
If you
fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the
Islamic Nation. The Nation of Monotheism, that puts complete trust on
Allah and fears none other than Him. The Nation which is addressed by
its Quran with the words: "Do you fear them? Allah has more right that
you should fear Him if you are believers. Fight against them so that
Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you
victory over them and heal the breasts of believing people. And remove
the anger of their (believers') hearts. Allah accepts the repentance of
whom He wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." [Quran9:13-1]
The Nation of honour and respect:
"But
honour, power and glory belong to Allah, and to His Messenger (Muhammad-
peace be upon him) and to the believers." [Quran 63:8]
"So do
not become weak (against your enemy), nor be sad, and you will
be*superior ( in victory )if you are indeed (true) believers" [Quran
3:139]
The Nation of Martyrdom; the Nation that desires death more than you desire life:
"Think
not of those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are
alive with their Lord, and they are being provided for. They rejoice in
what Allah has bestowed upon them from His bounty and rejoice for the
sake of those who have not yet joined them, but are left behind (not yet
martyred) that on them no fear shall come, nor shall they grieve. They
rejoice in a grace and a bounty from Allah, and that Allah will not
waste the reward of the believers." [Quran 3:169-171]
The Nation of victory and success that Allah has promised:
"It is He
Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad peace be upon him) with guidance
and the religion of truth (Islam), to make it victorious over all other
religions even though the Polytheists hate it." [Quran 61:9]
"Allah
has decreed that 'Verily it is I and My Messengers who shall be
victorious.' Verily Allah is All-Powerful, All-Mighty." [Quran 58:21]
The
Islamic Nation that was able to dismiss and destroy the previous evil
Empires like yourself; the Nation that rejects your attacks, wishes to
remove your evils, and is prepared to fight you. You are well aware that
the Islamic Nation, from the very core of its soul, despises your
haughtiness and arrogance.
If the
Americans refuse to listen to our advice and the goodness, guidance and
righteousness that we call them to, then be aware that you will lose
this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which
you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home
in great silence and disgrace. If the Americans do not respond, then
their fate will be that of the Soviets who fled from Afghanistan to deal
with their military defeat, political breakup, ideological downfall,
and economic bankruptcy.
This is
our message to the Americans, as an answer to theirs. Do they now know
why we fight them and over which form of ignorance, by the permission of
Allah, we shall be victorious?