Product Description

Despite the saturation of global media coverage, Osama bin Laden's own writings have been curiously absent from analysis of the "war on terror." Over the last ten years, bin Laden has issued a series of carefully tailored public statements, from interviews with Western and Arabic journalists to faxes and video recordings. These texts supply evidence crucial to an understanding of the bizarre mix of Quranic scholarship, CIA training, punctual interventions in Gulf politics and messianic anti-imperialism that has formed the programmatic core of Al Qaeda.

In bringing together the various statements issued under bin Laden's name since 1994, this volume forms part of a growing discourse that seeks to demythologize the terrorist network. Newly translated from the Arabic, annotated with a critical introduction by Islamic scholar Bruce Lawrence, this collection places the statements in their religious, historical and political context. It shows how bin Laden's views draw on and differ from other strands of radical Islamic thought; it also demonstrates how his arguments vary in degrees of consistency, and how his evasions concerning the true nature and extent of his own group, and over his own role in terrorist attacks, have contributed to the perpetuation of his personal mythology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254249 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 225 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Notable for its scope and comprehensiveness, this collection of 24 newly translated public statements by Osama bin Laden offers a nuanced and revealing view of Public Enemy No. 1. Best suited for those whose knowledge of bin Linden is based upon brief, pixilated clips or quotes gleaned from news accounts, the book will provide those who have studied the man and his rarified interpretation of Islam with little, if anything, that is new. Tracing bin Laden's ascendancy from the disgruntled Saudi exile of 1994 whose letters of complaint had a nearly timid tone (in a December 1994 letter to a Saudi judicial leader, bin Laden addresses the recipient as "Honorable sheikh" and writes, "we pray that you do not take these words out of turn or consider them to overstep the limits of etiquette.") to the bombastic jihadist leader in hiding with a $50-million bounty on his head, his statements depict not only a fiery communicator with a knack for manipulating traditional Islamic beliefs, but a revolutionary figure whose romanticized view of himself and his cause carries echoes of iconic revolutionaries past. Familiarity with the Koran will help readers contextualize and evaluate bin Laden's claims (footnotes citing Koranic passages accompany each invocation), though even the uninitiated will have no trouble in identifying arguably willful misinterpretations. (Bin Laden cites, for instance, a verse that concludes, "God has endless bounty and knowledge," to support cautioning "Muslims to be very wary and careful about befriending Jews and Christians.") Those looking for a comprehensive and unexpurgated explanation of the man behind contemporary radical Islam have a powerful reference here.
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Review
"A magnificent piece of eloquent, at times even poetic Arabic prose ... in devising strategies to fight the terrorists, it would surely be useful to understand the forces that drive them." - Bernard Lewis, Foreign Affairs "Western Media have made no consistent effort to publish bin Laden's statements, thereby failing to give their audience the words that put his thoughts and actions in cultural and historical context ... Bin Laden has been precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us. None of the reasons have anything to do with US policies and actions in the Muslim world." - Michael Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris: Why The west Is Losing The War On Terror, was a senior CIA analyst and former chief of the bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999 "Despite the religious rhetoric and the bloody means, bin Laden is a rational man. There is a simple reason why he attacked the US: American imperialism. As long as America seeks to control the Middle East, he and people like him will be its enemy." - Michael Mann, Incoherent Empire

About the Author
Bruce Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University. He is the author of New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life, Shattering the Myth, and Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age.

Customer Reviews

Defeating Through Decoding
From the very first speech in this collection, I began to realize how little I knew about bin Laden's ideas--and yes, he has ideas--and how most of what I thought I knew was wrong. I had heard, repeatedly, that he was a relative latecomer to the Palestinian cause, that he had essentially declared solidarity with them merely to gain popularity in the larger Islamic world. That is not borne out by this book. In his very first speech, dated to 1994, bin Laden is already sounding the notes that reverberate throughout this collection: the entire Muslim world is under seige, from Afghanistan, to Palestine, to Iraq, to Chechnya and Bosnia; the humiliation (and emasculation) of Islam by the western world is the implicit goal. Now, clearly, one can quarrel with his analysis, but such a message has broad appeal. The editor and translator are to be commended for striking just the right balance here; they provide imformation, really crucial information, without taking immediate sides and without claiming a false neutrality either. As the editor has emphasized in his interviews about this book, to defeat bin Laden's ideas, "one must decode them, first." This book is an essential part of that decoding process. Perhaps the most salient interview is one granted by bin Laden to a Spanish Muslim. That man, who gives what is by far the most confrontational interview, questioning bin Laden's orthodoxy, among other things, was subsequently jailed for his trouble. That is perhaps the most fitting parable for this book: the very attempt to engage in a dialogue with this man and his ideas will be suspect to some. But it is the critical task before us, and the editor and translator are to be commended for enabling this dialogue, and for having done so with the moral seriousness it demands.

Know Your Enemy!
Bruce Lawrence (the compiler) points out that while occasional fragments of bin Laden's words are cited, official pressures have ensured that, for the most part, his voice has been tacitly censured - as though too dangerous to hear. This collection of 24 items include interviews with Arab and Western journalists, handwritten letters, and video recordings.

Lawrence also helps one to understand why bin Laden is a heroic figure for millions of Muslims, including many with no sympathy for terrorism. This is based not just on his success in eluding Americans and their allies, but because his personal reputation for probity, austerity, dignity, and courage - contrasting starkly with the mismanagement, lavishness, and arrogance of most Arab regimes.

Bin Laden points out that his terrorism acts are only retaliation, and that the West has killed far larger numbers in the region within living memory - poison gas and strafing of Iraqi villages by Britain in the 1920s, crushing the Palestinian uprising of the 1930s, France's colonial war in algeria in the 1950s-60s, and deaths through malnutrition and disease of Iraqi children in the 1990s due to the U.N. sanctions. Bin Laden estimates 1.5 million were killed in the preceding - Lawrence estimates it as 300,000.

Bin Laden began his massive undertaking against the U.S. after seeing the mujahidin victory over the Red Army in Afghanistan, and the withdrawal of American forces from Somalia in '93. Unfortunately, bin Laden greatly underestimated the special circumstances associated with both - the U.S. and Pakistani support in Afghanistan, and the inconsequentialness of the U.S. landings in Somalia.

Bin Laden on 9/11 (10/21 interview): ". . . they have done this . . . in self-defense, defense of our brothers and sons in Palestine, and in order to free our holy sanctuaries." "the defeat of America . . . is easier for us . . . than the defeat of the Soviet Empire previously. We have already fought them . . . as in Somalia. We have not yet found a significant force of note." ". . . America, has lost its values and appeal . . . Freedom, Human Rights, and Equality . . . were revealed as a total mockery."

On Surviving Tora Bora: Bin Laden reports that bombing was around the clock, every second. There were about 300 mujahidin dug into 100 trenches, spread over one square mile in ten degree below zero temperatures - only about 18 were killed by the combination of ground and air attacks. Certainly this had to have been an easy opportunity for American ground forces if they had been deployed at that time, instead of outsourcing the job to Afghans!

Bin Laden also speaks of how Iraqis should resist the U.S., describing a guerilla campaign like that actually waged.

"Messages to the World" is essential to understanding bin Laden, America's "Public Enemy #1" - especially for counteracting the incomplete and misleading statements provided by our own government.

Timely in the Extreme
This collection of translated and annotated statements by Osama bin Laden is the sort of primary source collection I had begun to fear would never be published.

In order to understand the "War on Terror" environment in which we currently live, it is imperative to understand the rhetoric of both sides. Regardless of which viewpoint one supports, it is important to know exactly what the other side is fighting for. This knowledge is abundant on the non-terrorist side, but has so far been available on the terrorist side purely through analyses by expert commentators. Thus, being able to read the actual words of the major ideologue of world terrorism at the moment is a considerable boon.

I say "ideologue" for very good reason. As these statements and their accompanying (and copious) notes and introductions demonstrate, there is a distinct ideology involved in this movement. It may be an ideology directed against everything the West holds dear, but it is an ideology nonetheless. Osama bin Laden has clearly thought about a great many issues prior to initiating the campaigns of violence he has.
As case in point, the significance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often debated by academics and policymakers: Is it central to the globalisation of terrorism, or is it merely a convenient justification to use when asked? As even the earliest statements here demonstrate, this is a key plank in al-Qa'ida's ideology - perhaps even more so than many writers have realised.

While one particular statement (the "Declaration of Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders") will be familiar to any reader interested in this conflict as it has been included in a great many works (Gunaratna's "Inside Al-Qaeda" being the most well-known), many of these statements appear never to have been translated fully into English before. In this case, the team involved in this collection deserve even more praise for enabling those with an interest in understanding these issues to do so - particularly when, as they frequently note, the websites originally hosting these messages have been shut down.

The scope of these statements will probably be debated for many years to come. One review here makes the dogmatic assertion that these are not all of the statements made by bin Laden, for example. While this may be true - and bear in mind that many of these statements have been excerpted by various news outlets at various times, which may create the impression of there being more than there are - it seems rather immaterial. Far from only presenting a reasoned side of the man, these statements present his ideas in a clear form. Those translated from audio and video tapes, for example, never make mention of any gestures or tones of voice, since to do so would be rather pointless in my opinion.

Taken as a whole, these statements tend to appear rather repetitive - the only notable change from one to the next being a slightly different emphasis on particular events as they've changed. That said, reading the book cover to cover is probably not the best way to go about it anyway.

The copious amounts of footnotes and introductory matter are also a great strength of this collection. While it is possible to criticise the scholars involved (and it's almost a hobby for some of the reviewers here already), they have at least attempted the difficult task of placing Osama bin Laden in context. He's not a representative of all Muslims, but neither is he the "monster under the bed" for the new millennium.
The footnotes, too, provide a wealth of Qur'anic and Hadith references - including remarks on when the verse or tradition has been taken out of context or deprived of a section of text. Similarly, key figures and events (both past and present) referenced in the text are explained concisely in the notes.
Unfortunately, the sheer volume of these notes has presumably caused the poor proofreading which some statements suffer from. There are a number of words and phrases footnoted which do not have an accompanying note below, and some of these are germane to the text.
Further, one of the introductory notes makes the comment that Yemen is a "military dictatorship" (along with Pakistan and Nigeria). In reality, Yemen is a multi-party democracy (the only such in the Arabian Peninsula) and was so both at the time the book was written and at the time the statement was made. Admittedly, the country may not have a stable and entrenched tradition of democracy, but it is far from the military dictatorship described in this note.

In conclusion, "Messages to the World" is an invaluable aid to those who want to understand the current conflicts "from the source" as it were. It is somewhat heavy reading in places and will remain a controversial book for much of the foreseeable future. Its publication, however, represents a great step forward for much of the world.