Pro Terrorism – Osama bin Laden’s 1998 Fatwa (decree)
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Terrorism is not easy to define or explain. It often involves discriminate use of violence by groups who believe their cause is just but who face opposition from a superior force. The violence often targets civilians, who are seen as legitimate victims as part of a larger effort to challenge and disrupt a society seen as oppressive. Terrorist methods often depend on relatively modern technologies, such as car bombs or hijacking planes.
This passage includes excerpts from Osama bin Laden’s 1998 Fatwa. Osama bin Laden was a member of a wealthy Saudi Arabian family who had broken with his background to lead radical Muslim resistance. By 1998, he was based in Afghanistan, where a new regime, the Taliban, gave him shelter and support while pursuing an extremely intolerant version of Islam. The whole context built upon the disruption of Afghanistan by the failed Soviet invasion of the 1980’s by the ongoing attacks on Iraq and military presence in the Arabian Peninsula by the United States and Britain after the 1991 Gulf War, and by longstanding tension between Israel and the Palestinians. The 1998 fatwa, a terrorist declaration of war, explains some of the thinking behind this new, unorthodox, and frightening military movement.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read this article you should be able to identify and explain the three charges against the United States of America, Osama bin Laden lays out in the 1998 fatwa. When this document was published on the Internet and some Middle Eastern newspapers, how might it have contributed to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement
23 February 1998
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.”
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. What major religion is being discussed? What holy text is referred to in the reading? Explain the meaning of the last sentence in the paragraph.
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 spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which 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.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. In this paragraph, Osama bin Laden makes two analogies with regards to European countries and the United States of America. Identify one of the two analogies and explain the comparison.
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 in the past argued about 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, but they are helpless.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. According to this passage, what was the first reason for the fatwa? Summarize in your own words. Do you agree or disagree with this argument? Why or why not?
Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million…despite all this, the Americans are once again 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 here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. The second charge is that the crusader-Zionist alliance is responsible for over a million deaths in the region. What is the crusader-Zionist alliance he is referencing? (You may need to do a little research.)
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 the 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.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. Based on the information in this paragraph, what is Osama Bin Laden’s view of Judaism and Israel? Give evidence to support your response.
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-Kisai in “Al-Badai,” al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: “As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life.”
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. What was the author’s purpose in identifying various authors and their writings in this paragraph?
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 [Mecca] 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.”
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. What does Osama bin Laden command Muslims to do in this paragraph and based on whose authority are they to commit these actions?
IV. Personal Reflection
1. What are the major arguments presented in this fatwa?
2. How did this document influence the events of the terrorists on September 11?
3. Write a response to the fatwa.
V. Peer Reflection
1. Read the responses posted by three students and comment on their response to the fatwa.
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Terrorism is not easy to define or explain. It often involves discriminate use of violence by groups who believe their cause is just but who face opposition from a superior force. The violence often targets civilians, who are seen as legitimate victims as part of a larger effort to challenge and disrupt a society seen as oppressive. Terrorist methods often depend on relatively modern technologies, such as car bombs or hijacking planes.
This passage includes excerpts from Osama bin Laden’s 1998 Fatwa. Osama bin Laden was a member of a wealthy Saudi Arabian family who had broken with his background to lead radical Muslim resistance. By 1998, he was based in Afghanistan, where a new regime, the Taliban, gave him shelter and support while pursuing an extremely intolerant version of Islam. The whole context built upon the disruption of Afghanistan by the failed Soviet invasion of the 1980’s by the ongoing attacks on Iraq and military presence in the Arabian Peninsula by the United States and Britain after the 1991 Gulf War, and by longstanding tension between Israel and the Palestinians. The 1998 fatwa, a terrorist declaration of war, explains some of the thinking behind this new, unorthodox, and frightening military movement.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read this article you should be able to identify and explain the three charges against the United States of America, Osama bin Laden lays out in the 1998 fatwa. When this document was published on the Internet and some Middle Eastern newspapers, how might it have contributed to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement
23 February 1998
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.”
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. What major religion is being discussed? What holy text is referred to in the reading? Explain the meaning of the last sentence in the paragraph.
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 spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which 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.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. In this paragraph, Osama bin Laden makes two analogies with regards to European countries and the United States of America. Identify one of the two analogies and explain the comparison.
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 in the past argued about 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, but they are helpless.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. According to this passage, what was the first reason for the fatwa? Summarize in your own words. Do you agree or disagree with this argument? Why or why not?
Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million…despite all this, the Americans are once again 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 here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. The second charge is that the crusader-Zionist alliance is responsible for over a million deaths in the region. What is the crusader-Zionist alliance he is referencing? (You may need to do a little research.)
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 the 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.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. Based on the information in this paragraph, what is Osama Bin Laden’s view of Judaism and Israel? Give evidence to support your response.
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-Kisai in “Al-Badai,” al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: “As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life.”
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. What was the author’s purpose in identifying various authors and their writings in this paragraph?
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 [Mecca] 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.”
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. What does Osama bin Laden command Muslims to do in this paragraph and based on whose authority are they to commit these actions?
IV. Personal Reflection
1. What are the major arguments presented in this fatwa?
2. How did this document influence the events of the terrorists on September 11?
3. Write a response to the fatwa.
V. Peer Reflection
1. Read the responses posted by three students and comment on their response to the fatwa.
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