Message From al-Qaeda
Vol: 9 Issue: 23 Sunday, June 23, 2002
In a tape aired on Qatari-based al Jezeera, an al-Qaeda spokesman took responsibility on behalf of al-Qaeda for the suicide attack at a Tunisian synagogue in April. The spokesman also said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was “alive and “in good health.”
It was the first direct claim of al Qaeda involvement in the blast near El Ghriba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba in April which killed 21 people, including 14 Germans.
“This operation was carried out by al Qaeda network. A youth could not see his brothers in Palestine butchered and murdered…(while) he saw Jews cavorting in Djerba,” Sulaiman bu Ghaith said in the undated recording broadcast by al-Jazeera.
“So this spirit of jihad surged and he (the al Qaeda member) carried out this successful operation, may God accept it,” said bu Ghaith, who emerged as an al Qaeda spokesman after the September 11 attacks, which Washington blames on al Qaeda.
Bu Ghaith said the United States had not defeated al Qaeda during its military campaign on Afghanistan and warned the United States to get ready for another attack.
“As long as America insists on its unjust and biased policy toward Muslims in favor of Jews and Christians around the world, then God willing we will continue to hit it anywhere in the world,” said bu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti-born cleric.
“America knows the truth of what we say. We have the ability to carry out our threats and in the coming days and months we will prove to world the truth of what we say,” he said.
“I want to reassure Muslims that Sheikh Osama bin Laden is in good health, thank God, and that all that is rumored about Sheikh Osama bin Laden being injured or sick in Tora Bora is not true,” he said. “The whole world…will discover that in an interview with Osama bin Laden soon, God willing, which will appear on television screens.”
According to Abu Bu Ghaith “98 percent” of al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Zawahri, had survived the Afghanistan campaign and were “going about their work.”
Assessment:
Is this more propaganda? Probably, but for propaganda to be successful, it must contain a kernel of truth at its core to give in authenticity. For example, if bin-Laden is alive, and presents himself holding a dated newspaper, then the part about ‘98% of al-Qaeda’s leadership surviving’ will likely be accepted by the Western press as fact, whether true or not.
bu Ghaith told al Jezeera — and the Arab world — “God gave us a historic and great victory that broke the backs of Americans and broke the back of the greatest power in the world.”
And having it reported in the Western press that al-Qaeda remains intact as fact is all the bona fides al-Qaeda needs to convince the disaffected Muslim peasant that maybe America’s back can be broken, after all.
The tape also contained an element of truth one can only hope the Western world can grasp before it is too late. America is a target because of its ‘biased policy that favors Jews and Christians’.
In this statement is a logical syllogism. Since America is the enemy because it ‘favors Jews and Christians’ — then it follows that Jews and Christians are the real enemy.
America is merely a place where they are conveniently concentrated.
This is a religious war. A war against Christians and Jews, according to someone who ought to know, considering he is the one making that declaration. This isn’t a political war, it is a war of ideologies.
A Spiritual War
America is hardly a Christian nation in practice, but, despite what the ACLU would have us believe, it is a Christian nation in principle and was so intended by its Founders. Our founding documents acknowledge America as a republic and asked for [and was granted] the blessing of God. The God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. The God of both Christian and Jew. America remains governed by those same principles, as much as our courts attempt to deny it.
Thus, ‘American’ is the semantic equivalent to ‘Christian or Jew’ to our enemy. It is as much a war against God as it is against America and Israel. Those nations are merely visible symbols of Islam’s real, traditional enemy.
The god of Islam is Allah. Allah is not the God of the Christians and Jews. God says of Himself “I change not”.
For Allah and God to be the same Deity would require God to reinvent Himself more times than Yasser Arafat.
Our enemy is more than just al-Qaeda, it is the spiritual philosophy behind it. To deny that is to deny reality.
America s Trojan Horse
al Jezeera aired the statements from al-Qaeda in short segments for maximum effect. The Arab network says the recorded statements were taped recently because he referred to the controversy in the United States about whether U.S. authorities might have had information to prevent the devastating attacks on U.S. cities.
In al-Qaeda’s view, “We believe we are still at the beginning of the war and it is only a stage and we are still at the beginning of the road.”
Islamic apologists claim that real Islam does not endorse suicide attacks. One can cite chapter and verse justification for killing those who do not convert to Islam directly from the Koran.
Islam is a very demanding religion, requiring great material sacrifice on the part of its adherents.
So demanding that it is hard to imagine someone submitting to its rigid requirements if they didn’t believe it was all true.
Another argument often offered is that the Bible also contains exhortations to war, especially in the Old Testament.
The Bible gives accounts of the wars of the Jews. That is not the same as making war an element of doctrine.
The facts are these. The philosophy [or spirit, if you will] of Islam is at war with the philosophy [or Spirit] of Judeo-Christianity.
Not all Americans are Christians or Jews, but all are enemies of al-Qaeda. But ALL of al-Qaeda is Muslim.
Is this, then, a logical syllogism that proves all Muslims are al-Qaeda? I would argue that it does not.
Instead it establishes a logical truth that is even more dangerous. It proves that all Muslims are potentially al-Qaeda. There’s no way to tell which is which.
Not until after it is too late.
Omegaletter 