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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HH who wrote (202813)	9/13/2006 1:59:26 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

bin Laden's manifesto: americandaily.com ( It's not just bin Laden. If he could run for king in Saudi Arabia, he'd WIN. ) "His principal motivation is twofold. First, he is deeply disturbed by the fact that 80 years ago the last great remnant of Islamic power was defeated when the Ottoman Empire fell in 1918 and its capitol, Constantinople, was occupied by European infidel Christians. Americans chuckle, of course, at this reliance on what to them is an obscure historical incident as a motivation for declaring war. Unlike Americans, history is extremely important to Muslims because it is the record of Allah dealing with men—all Muslims, therefore, are well versed in their history. To state it succinctly, Osama is still peeved about the decline of Islamic civilization—once the world’s greatest. Stated yet another way, he is deeply disturbed by this very bad turn in Islamic history and hopes by his holy war to correct it. His second motivation for a declaration of war against the United States arises from the fact that since the 1930s Saudi leaders have allowed foreigners into the interior of the holy land, including Americans. For centuries only the faithful were allowed into the region, Hijaz, which contained the two holy cities of Islam—Mecca and Medina. Until about 1930 visitors, including diplomats, were not allowed in at all, not even to the political capitol Riyadh. They were restricted to the coastal city of Jedda. Osama claims that this long-standing practice was sanctioned by the Prophet himself. Further, he claims that violations of this practice were a desecration of the Holy Land and called for a holy war against the foreigners, Americans in this case, and also punishment of the rulers who allowed the foreigners to come in. Thus, in Bin Laden’s view, the ruling Saudi family and Americans are targets of his wrath."