| Accuse! In 1998, Osama bin Laden was virtually unknown outside the Middle East. But this scion of a wealthy industrialist from Saudi Arabia was on a mission-to avenge the hostile acts perpetrated on his fellow Muslims by the United States and its allies. Having taken part in the successful guerrilla war against Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan during the 1980s, Osama now turned his ire on the tyrannical regimes in the Middle East and their great protector, the United States. In the following excerpts from a 1998 interview, he defends the use of terror against those whom he deems enemies of Islam. Three years later, his followers launched the surprise attacks that led to more than three thousand deaths on September 11, 2001. Interview with Osama bin Laden by His Followe (1998) What is the meaning of your call for Muslims to take up arms against America in particular, and what is the message that you wish to send to the West in general? The call to wage war against America was made because America has spearheaded the crusade against the Islamic nation, sending tens of thousands of its troops to the land of the two Holy Mosques [Saudi Arabia), over and above its meddling in its affairs and its politics and its support of the oppressive, corrupt, and tyrannical regime that is in control. These are the reasons behind the singling out of America as a target. And not exempt from responsibility are those Western regimes whose presence in the region offers support to the American troops there. We know at least one reason behind the symbolic participation of the Western forces and that is to support the Jewish and Zionist plans for expansion of what is called the Great Israel. Surely, their presence is not out of concern over their interests in the region. ... Their presence has no meaning save one and that is to offer support to the Jews in Palestine who are in need of their Christian brothers to achieve full control over the Arab Peninsula which they intend to make an important part of the so called Greater Israel. Many of the Arabic as well as the Western mass media accuse you of terrorism and of supporting terrorism. What do you have to say to that? Every state and every civilization and culture has to resort to terrorism under certain circumstances for the purpose of abolishing tyranny and corruption. Every country in the world has its own security system and its own security forces, its own police, and its own army. They are all designed to terrorize whoever even contemplates an attack on that country or its citizens. The terrorism we practice is of the commendable kind for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of Allah, the tyrants, the traitors who commit acts of treason against their own countries and their own faith and their own prophet and their own nation. Terrorizing those and punishing them are necessary measures to straighten things and to make them right. Tyrants and oppressors who subject the Arab nation to aggression ought to be punished.... America heads the list of aggressors against Muslims. The recurrence of aggression against Muslims everywhere is proof enough. For over half a century, Muslims in Palestine have been slaughtered and ted and robbed of their honor and of their property. Their houses have been blasted, their crops destroyed. And the strange thing is that any act by them to avenge themselves or to lift the injustice befalling them causes great agitation in the United Nations, which hastens to call for an emergency meeting only to convict the victim and to censure the wronged and the tyrannized whose children have been killed and whose crops have been destroyed and whose farms have been pulverized.... In today's wars, there are no morals, and it is clear that mankind has descended to the lowest degrees of decadence and oppression. They rip us of our wealth and of our resources and of our oil. Our religion is under attack. They kill and murder our brothers. They compromise our honor and our dignity and if we dare to utter a single word of protest against the injustice, we are called terrorists. This is compounded injustice. And the United Nations insistence to convict the victims and support the aggressors constitutes a serious precedent that shows the extent of injustice that has been allowed to take root in this land. What reasons does Osama bin Laden present to justify the terrorist attacks carried out by his followers around the world? How would you respond to his charges? SOURCE: From Khater, SOURCES IN THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST, 2E. © 2011 Cengage Learning. 318 CHAPTER 15 Ferment in the Middle East Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBack andereChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the averall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
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