On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 02:21:53 GMT, "-=jd=-"
wrote:


Oh look! A retired federal employee hawking a book. Well Now! Since he's
selling a book about it, I'm sure we don't need to consider the fatwa's
that contradict his assessment. That would be foolish of us to listen to
the radical islamic extremists that are calling for the destructin of the
west. Why, we should just listen to this one guy's opinion. After all, he's
selling a book about it! LOL!

-=jd=-
You have fallen into the trap of dismissing the messenger when the
message doesn't conform to your mistaken beliefs.

Bin Laden's message has been consistent. He reiterates the same
points on all his tapes. Here's the original deal:
__________________________________________________ ________________
Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans
Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998

Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman
al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu- Yasir Rifa'i
Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Sheikh Mir Hamzah,
secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and Fazlul Rahman, leader
of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh

Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats
factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are
past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize
them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of
war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said
"I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no
one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow
of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who
disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula has never--since God made it
flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas--been stormed by
any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts,
consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is
happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people
fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and
the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events,
and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.

No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we
will list them, in order to remind everyone:

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the
lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula,
plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its
people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the
Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring
Muslim peoples.

If some people have formerly debated the fact of the occupation, all
the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it.

The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against
the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though
all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end,
still they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation
inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and
despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million...
despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the
horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted
blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and
devastation.

So now they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to
humiliate their Muslim neighbors.

Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and
economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert
attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims
there.

The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the
strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all
the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan
into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to
guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade
occupation of the Peninsula.

All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear
declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have
throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an
individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was
revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al-
Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam
in his books, where he said "As for the militant struggle, it is aimed
at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed.
Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is
attacking religion and life."


On that basis, and in compliance with God's order, we issue the
following fatwa to all Muslims
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and
military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any
country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the
al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for
their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and
unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of
Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all
together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or
oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."

This is in addition to the words of Almighty God "And why should ye
not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are
ill-treated and oppressed--women and children, whose cry is 'Our Lord,
rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for
us from thee one who will help!'"

We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and
wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans
and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also
call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid
on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them,
and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a
lesson.

Almighty God said "O ye who believe, give your response to God and His
Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And
know that God cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to
whom ye shall all be gathered."

Almighty God also says "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you,
that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God, ye cling so
heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the
hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with
the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous
penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in
the least. For God hath power over all things."


Almighty God also says "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For
ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

__________________________________________________ _______________

You wish that these people were insane, but they are merely operating
in self-defense.