Jump to Start of Post, or to Osama bin Ladin’s Letter:
1. Why are we fighting and opposing you?
2. What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
3. Conclusion

With the recent release of an—almost certainly fake—“Osama bin Ladin” voice recording, “experts” are being quoted to attribute motives and interpretations to the late Usama bin Ladin that are completely at variance with statements repeatedly attributed to him that seem to have been forgoten. To refresh memories, this post therefore reproduces a 2002 letter that is representative of numerous other early messages attributed to Usama bin Ladin when he was alive.

The letter, attributed to Osama [sic.] bin Ladin, has been published in Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, Edited and Introduced by Bruce Lawrence, Translated by James Howarth, Verso, London and New York, pp. 160-172.

According to the editor, the “letter was posted on the Internet in Arabic on October 14, 2002, and later in English translation; it was issued in response to unidentified articles by American writers examining the reasons behind radical Islamic attacks, and responses to them.” Reportedly, the English translation appeared in the London Observer of 24 November 2002, citing a 14 October 2002 posting on the “Al-Qala’h” website, which has “since been shutdown”.

Not having access to the original Arabic, the translation is reproduced, despite its odd phraseology at several places, largely without changes. However, translations of the Holy Qur’an have been replaced by the Yusuf Ali translation (not because it is the best, but because it is the most widely available: e.g. online). Also some typographical errors have been corrected.

The reader should note that ‘sharia’ and ‘Islamic Law’ are interchangeable expressions, as are Allah and God, and ‘umma’ and ‘nation’—it is unclear why the translator chooses one over the other at different places, but the effect at places is either to make alien, unecessarily, what are simple statements, or to inappropriately politicise apolitical expressions.

Footnotes, and words and expression in square brackets [ ] are in the original; those in curly brackets { } have been added, as have all graphics.

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Jump to Start of Post, or to Osama bin Ladin’s Letter:
1. Why are we fighting and opposing you?
2. What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
3. Conclusion