Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden
Bruce Lawrence (the compiler) points out that while occasional fragments of bin Laden's words are cited, official pressures have ensured that, for the most part, his voice has been tacitly censured - as though too dangerous to hear."Messages to the World" contains interviews with the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and various statements attributed to him. There is something obscene about reading the self-justifications of an acknowledged mass murderer. But what makes the collected speeches, interviews, Web postings and other public statements of Osama bin Laden different from, say, "Helter Skelter," is that bin Laden is not clinically mad. He gives reasons for his actions that, while …show more content…
I had heard, repeatedly, that he was a relative latecomer to the Palestinian cause, that he had essentially declared solidarity with them merely to gain popularity in the larger Islamic world. That is not borne out by this book. In his very first speech, dated to 1994, bin Laden is already sounding the notes that reverberate throughout this collection: the entire Muslim world is under seige, from Afghanistan, to Palestine, to Iraq, to Chechnya and Bosnia; the humiliation (and emasculation) of Islam by the western world is the implicit goal. Now, clearly, one can quarrel with his analysis, but such a message has broad appeal. The editor and translator are to be commended for striking just the right balance here; they provide imformation, really crucial information, without taking immediate sides and without claiming a false neutrality either. As the editor has emphasized in his interviews about this book, to defeat bin Laden's ideas, "one must decode them, first." This book is an essential part of that decoding process. Perhaps the most salient interview is one granted by bin Laden to a Spanish Muslim. That man, who gives what is by far the most confrontational interview, questioning bin Laden's orthodoxy, among other things, was subsequently jailed for his trouble. That is perhaps the most fitting …show more content…
It turns out that Bin Laden often quotes various Quranic verses out of context. Often, he only quotes the seemingly violent or intransigent part of a verse, leaving out the rest, which may be more moderate. As for Palestine, while it's true that Bin Laden always condemned Israel, he originally emphasized other issues as well, most notably the claim that Saudi Arabia is occupied by the US Crusaders. After 9/11, his attacks on Saudi Arabia mysteriously vanished, leaving only Palestine, no doubt because both Muslim and Western public opinion would consider the Saudi angle as somewhat esoteric. A few years later, during the war in Iraq, Bin Laden returned to the Saudi issue, now more militantly than ever
Bruce Lawrence (the compiler) points out that while occasional fragments of bin Laden's words are cited, official pressures have ensured that, for the most part, his voice has been tacitly censured - as though too dangerous to hear."Messages to the World" contains interviews with the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and various statements attributed to him. There is something obscene about reading the self-justifications of an acknowledged mass murderer. But what makes the collected speeches, interviews, Web postings and other public statements of Osama bin Laden different from, say, "Helter Skelter," is that bin Laden is not clinically mad. He gives reasons for his actions that, while …show more content…
I had heard, repeatedly, that he was a relative latecomer to the Palestinian cause, that he had essentially declared solidarity with them merely to gain popularity in the larger Islamic world. That is not borne out by this book. In his very first speech, dated to 1994, bin Laden is already sounding the notes that reverberate throughout this collection: the entire Muslim world is under seige, from Afghanistan, to Palestine, to Iraq, to Chechnya and Bosnia; the humiliation (and emasculation) of Islam by the western world is the implicit goal. Now, clearly, one can quarrel with his analysis, but such a message has broad appeal. The editor and translator are to be commended for striking just the right balance here; they provide imformation, really crucial information, without taking immediate sides and without claiming a false neutrality either. As the editor has emphasized in his interviews about this book, to defeat bin Laden's ideas, "one must decode them, first." This book is an essential part of that decoding process. Perhaps the most salient interview is one granted by bin Laden to a Spanish Muslim. That man, who gives what is by far the most confrontational interview, questioning bin Laden's orthodoxy, among other things, was subsequently jailed for his trouble. That is perhaps the most fitting …show more content…
It turns out that Bin Laden often quotes various Quranic verses out of context. Often, he only quotes the seemingly violent or intransigent part of a verse, leaving out the rest, which may be more moderate. As for Palestine, while it's true that Bin Laden always condemned Israel, he originally emphasized other issues as well, most notably the claim that Saudi Arabia is occupied by the US Crusaders. After 9/11, his attacks on Saudi Arabia mysteriously vanished, leaving only Palestine, no doubt because both Muslim and Western public opinion would consider the Saudi angle as somewhat esoteric. A few years later, during the war in Iraq, Bin Laden returned to the Saudi issue, now more militantly than ever