A RABBI ANSWERS A SHEIK: A RESPONSE TO OSAMA BIN LADEN
The response is to Spengler’s text published in the Asia Times Online
(below) which is accurate in terms of previous statements by Osama bin
Laden and the actual pre-election text (below). Both texts like all
other theological and political writings need a commentary. It is
impossible to answer bin Laden directly because his text is a diatribe
based on polemics, not on the moral values of Islam. Bin Laden
justifies the deaths of over 3,000 civilians in the World Trade Center
on the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon ‘with American approval’ and
‘Bush Sr. invasion of Iraq’ in 1991.
The Qu’ran states ‘Slay not your children . . . slay not the
soul, the slaying of which Allah has forbidden (17:32,34).
We already know how bin Laden would have us live our lives: the Islamic
State of the Taliban.
Girls hide at home and do not go to school
Boys go to a midrassa’s memorizing the Qur’an.
Music whether heavy metal or Beethoven are forbidden.
All of TV including my favorite ‘National Geographic’ is forbidden
The West may be called Post Modernism, a difficult and contentious term
to define. If modernism began as part of the enlightenment as some have
argued then that post-modernism’s forefathers were Freud, Joyce,
Picasso and Einstein. Secularism came out of the enlightenment, an
ideology based on reason. In its origin secularism was anti-religion;
as Voltaire stated ‘if god did not exist we would have to invent him’.
Religion no longer finds it necessary to conflict with reason, the two
can in fact co-exist. Post-modernism is counter to the
enlightenment and to secularism. Post –modernism does not believe in
reason or any objective reality or absolute truth. It believes in
individualism, exploitation, materialism and not in value systems.
As an example of Post Modernism the author saw recently an
advertisement (perhaps two meters by three meters in size) at a bus
stop in Dublin, Ireland. There was a large word ‘Achtung’ written in
black. In the background behind that single word was an illustration of
the Auschwitz death camp with its chimneys, the railroad tracks and
steel meshed fence seemingly electrified. At the bottom in much lesser
letters was the advertisement for a non-alcoholic soft drink.
At the fin de siecle ending the twentieth century and the ending of the
cold war came the ethnic cleansing of Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, the
Balkans, the exacerbating problems of religious conflicts in India and
the worsening of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Extreme national
identities resulted in ethnic cleansing and are part of the post-modern
phenomena. Post modernism is a system of subjective and
contradictory moral and ethical values.
The recently deceased French-Jewish philosopher Jacques Derrida taught
us that any text’s meaning is in the eye of the beholder. This would
seem to be particularly true of the three monotheistic scriptural
texts; the Hebrew text of the Jews, the original words of Jesus spoken
in Aramaic and the words of Muhammad written in Arabic. All of these
Semitic languages are written with alphabets that exclude - in the
original texts – vowels; only the consonants are printed. The vowel
signs and diacritical marks when written are above, below and in
between the letters are required for reading as well as the correct
punctuation, meter and other grammatical modifications to words.
Rabbi Babya ben Asher (a thirteenth century commentator) and the actual
writer of the Torah text authorized by Maimonides and used today noted
‘The scroll of the Torah is [written] without vowels, in order to
enable man to interpret it however he wishes . . . without vowels man
may interpret it [extrapolating from it] several [different] things,
many marvelous and sublime.’ The Talmudic Sage Rabbi Ben Bag Bag stated
about the Torah ‘Turn it, and turn it for all is in it’ (Pirke Avot,
5:26). From this Jews surmised that the Torah has seventy sides or
interpretations. Neither Rabbi believed in relative moral or relative
ethical values. They did however believe that exegetical analysis of
textual interpretations had to be relative based on our knowledge and
our understanding. They understood that attempting to understand God
was not like understanding other human beings.
The monotheistic religions believe that a part of God’s soul is
embedded in every human being (Gen 1:26). We are all made in God’s
image. What does that mean? In a God-like manner we must have the right
of choosing God/Life or Evil/Death (Deut. 30:19).
Life is defined as following the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17), the
Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:3-10) and the Sura (17:22-39) commandments.
If God wanted the world peopled by Angels we would have created Adam and Eve as Angels and not as human beings.
The author has children and raised them in America - the Great Satan
that according to bin Laden ‘devours its children’. He and his wife
decided what TV programs their children would watch (and it included
the National Geographic) and helped them choose their clothing. Despite
the materialism of the American society and our daughter’s involvement
in the Women’s Liberation movement (which we approved) she chose not to
become a ‘whore’ but a Professor at Oxford University. She also chooses
not to have a TV in her own home.
We chose LIFE and not DEATH.
Ps: I believe it does matter whom the Americans (I included) choose as
their President.
Asia Times On Line – Nov. 1, 2004
What Osama might have told America
By Spengler – On Halloween Day
Al-Jazeera aired only four minutes of Osama bin Laden's videotape
released last week, leaving the media to guess about what the remaining
14 minutes might contain. An anonymous source sent me what purports to
be a transcript of the rest of the tape. I cannot vouch for its
authenticity, but it is just what I would have said if I were Osama bin
Laden.
Here is what Osama bin Laden supposedly said:
"People of America, it does not matter whom you choose as president.
Islam will prevail. We do not have to fight you; we merely have to let
you destroy yourselves. The Great Satan is a monster that devours its
children.
"Slanderers claim that I represent an authoritarian form of Islam. But
what has the freedom of the modern world done to your Christianity?
Religion has died in Europe. You have done even worse. Like everything
in the Greater America of globalization, you have turned religion into
a consumer goods. Americans choose among 139 major brands of
Christianity. Your old churches close for lack of worshippers, and you
build new churches in shopping malls where religion is sold along with
sausages.
"You have made a modern world, and you brand us as relics of a
tenebrous past. You say that we are violent, but you have raised your
children in a nightmare of violence unlike anything the world has seen
before. By the time an American child reaches the age of 18, he will
have seen on television 40,000 murders and 200,000 other acts of
violence.
"Slanderers in your midst say that Islam oppresses women. Islam
protects the modesty of women with purdah and the veil. You turn your
women into whores. You cannot turn on your television without hearing a
vulgar mention of sex every three minutes.
"Not only do your children incessantly observe violence and sex, but
you give them the means to play at it. The most popular computer game
for American children, called Grand Theft Auto, encourages the player
to buy relations with a prostitute and afterward beat her to death.
"Slanderers in your midst claim that Islam promotes violence against
women. Your worship of the flesh provokes women to commit violence
against themselves. At American universities, two out of five female
students starve themselves or vomit up their food in a perverse attempt
to fit the criteria for sexual attractiveness established by your
fashion industry.
"Your evil will destroy your seed. It is not merely the fatherless and
despised, the poor and outcast, who wither and perish in the
contaminated soil of America, but the coddled offspring of your
prosperous elites. You have given your young people freedom, but it has
only brought them misery. You have depraved them with your false
promise of freedoms and left them with nothing but terror of the world,
to the point that one in six of your university students suffers a
mental illness.
"People of America, your leaders falsely tell you that jihadis love
death rather than life. It is true that life to us means more than the
material existence on this Earth, but also life everlasting - but did
not your prophets tell you the same thing? If we hate life, why do we
have more children than you? The population of the Arab world doubled
during the 20 years between 1978 and 1998, and between 1998 and 2010
will have grown by yet another third.
"It is you, not us, who foster a culture of death. Where in the Muslim
world can you find a form of music such as 'death metal', which revels
in the putrefaction of human flesh? Groups with names like Cannibal
Corpse have sold scores of millions of records. This, O Americans, is
the blessing progress which you propose in your benevolence to bestow
upon Muslim youth? It would be better to learn from us how to cut a
flute from a reed.
"One candidate tells you that he will enlist foreign allies in your
crusade against us. These supposed allies are the ones who love death.
In half a century the number of Europeans will fall by 50 million,
because the Europeans no longer love life enough to bring new life into
this world. Three hundred and twenty years ago a Muslim army stood
before the gates of Vienna, and Europe barely escaped conversion to the
true faith at swordpoint. During the next half-century Muslims will
wander into Europe and replenish the half-empty towns with people, and
the sound of children's voices once again will be heard - but in
Arabic.
"Because they hate life, your supposed allies are cowards. Half a
millennium ago the Spanish empire drove Islam from its territory; this
year a few bombs at a railway station panicked the pathetic remnants of
Spain into retreat from Iraq. You are fools to count on them. Even the
Zionist Bernard Lewis admits that Islam will prevail in Europe before
the end of this century.
"People of America, your soldiers are brave but your leaders are fools.
You tremble at the loss of a thousand lives in Iraq. Perhaps with
another thousand, and a thousand more, you will establish the peace of
the cemetery in the cities of the Mesopotamian plain for another month
or another year. We do not think in terms of next month, or next year.
We look with hope and resolution toward the victory of our children's
children, who will dominate Europe. Their children's children will
dominate America.
"Abandon the false hope of freedom and submit to Allah. You cannot go
back to the traditional life of your forefathers, because the monster
of globalization has plowed it under. Not an American in 20 could find
his way back to the village of his great-grandfather. You cannot go
forward, because your souls are too weak to find a way through the
pitfalls of the modern world. Like the Europeans, you too will become
weary of life, weary of raising children, weary of your mastery - and
the world will belong to us.
"Have a nice day."
WHAT OSAMA DID SAY!
The Full Version of Osama bin Laden's Speech
The following is the full version of Osama bin Laden's speech released
on October 29, 2004, as broadcast by Al-Sahab Institute for Media
Production, which is known to produce Al-Qaeda's video messages. A link
to the video was posted on the Islamist Al-Islah message forum,
frequented by Al-Qaeda supporters.
"O American people, I address these words to you regarding the best way
of avoiding another Manhattan, and regarding the war, its causes and
its consequences. But before this, I say to you: Security is one of the
important pillars of human life, and free men do not take their
security lightly, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. Let
him explain why we did not attack Sweden, for example. Clearly, those
who hate freedom - unlike the 19, may Allah have mercy on them - have
no self-esteem. We have been fighting you because we are free men who
do not remain silent in the face of injustice. We want to restore our
[Islamic] nation's freedom. Just as you violate our security, we
violate yours. Whoever toys with the security of others, deluding
himself that he will remain secure, is nothing but a foolish thief. One
of the most important things rational people do when calamities occur
is to look for their causes so as to avoid them.
"But I am amazed at you. Although we have entered the fourth year after
the events of 9/11, Bush is still practicing distortion and deception
against you and he is still concealing the true cause from you.
Consequentially, the motives for its reoccurrence still exist. I will
tell you about the causes underlying these events and I will tell you
the truth about the moments this decision was taken, to allow you to
reflect.
"I say to you, as Allah is my witness: We had not considered attacking
the towers, but things reached the breaking point when we witnessed the
iniquity and tyranny of the American-Israeli coalition against our
people in Palestine and Lebanon - then I got this idea.
"The events that had a direct influence on me occurred in 1982, and the
subsequent events, when the U.S. permitted the Israelis to invade
Lebanon with the aid of the American sixth fleet. They started
shelling, and many were killed and wounded, while others were
terrorized into fleeing. I still remember those moving scenes - blood,
torn limbs, and dead women and children; ruined homes everywhere, and
high-rises being demolished on top of their residents; bombs raining
down mercilessly on our homes. It was as though a crocodile swallowed a
child, and he could do nothing but cry. But does a crocodile understand
any language other than arms? The entire world saw and heard, but did
not respond.
"In those critical moments, I was overwhelmed by ideas that are hard to
describe, but they awakened a powerful impulse to reject injustice and
gave birth to a firm resolve to punish the oppressors. As I was looking
at those destroyed towers in Lebanon, I was struck by the idea of
punishing the oppressor in the same manner and destroying towers in the
U.S., to give it a taste of what we have tasted and to deter it from
killing our children and women. That day I became convinced that
iniquity and the premeditated murder of innocent children and women is
an established American principle, and that terror is [the real meaning
of] 'freedom' and 'democracy,' while they call the resistance
'terrorism' and 'reaction.' America stands for iniquity and for
imposing sanctions on millions of people, resulting in the death of
many, as Bush Sr. did, causing the mass slaughter of children in Iraq,
[the worst] that humanity has ever known. It stands for dropping
millions of pounds of bombs and explosives on millions of children in
Iraq again, as Bush Jr. did, in order to depose an old agent and to
appoint a new agent to help him steal Iraq's oil, and other sorts of
horrible things.
"It was against the backdrop of these and similar images that 9/11 came
in response to these terrible iniquities. Should a man be blamed for
protecting his own? And is defending oneself and punishing the wicked
an eye for an eye - is that reprehensible terrorism? Even if it is
reprehensible terrorism, we have no other choice. This is the message
that we have tried to convey to you, in words and in deeds, more than
once in the years preceding 9/11. Observe it, if you will, in the
interview with Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, and with Peter Arnett on
CNN in 1997, then John Wiener [?] in 1998; observe it, if you will, in
the deeds of Nairobi and Tanzania and Aden, and observe it in my
interview with 'Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan and in interviews with Robert Fisk.
The latter is of your own and of your religious affiliation, and I
consider him to be unbiased.
"Would those who claim to stand for freedom in the White House and in
the TV stations that answer to them, would they conduct an interview
with him [Fisk] so that he might convey to the American people what he
has understood from us concerning the causes of our fight against you?
For if you were to avoid these causes, you would take America in the
right path to the security it knew before 9/11. So much for the war and
its causes.
"As for its results, they are very positive, with Allah's grace. They
surpassed all expectations by all criteria for many reasons, one of the
most important of which is that we had no difficulty dealing with Bush
and his administration, because it resembles the regimes in our [Arab]
countries, half of which are ruled by the military, and the other half
are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents with whom we have had a
lot of experience. Among both types, there are many who are known for
their conceit, arrogance, greed, and for taking money unrightfully.
"This resemblance began with the visit of Bush Sr. to the region. While
some of our people were dazzled by the U.S. and hoped that these visits
would influence our countries, it was he who was influenced by these
monarchic and military regimes. He envied them for remaining in their
positions for decades, while embezzling the nation's public funds with
no supervision whatsoever. He bequeathed tyranny and the suppression of
liberties to his son and they called it the Patriot Act, under the
pretext of war on terrorism.
"Bush Sr. liked the idea of appointing his sons as state [wilaya]
governors. Similarly, he did not neglect to import to Florida the
expertise in falsifying [elections] from the leaders of this region in
order to benefit from it in difficult moments.
"As previously mentioned, it was easy for us to provoke this
administration and to drag it [after us]. It was enough for us to send
two Jihad fighters to the farthest east to hoist a rag on which
'Al-Qaeda' was written - that was enough to cause generals to rush off
to this place, thereby causing America human and financial and
political losses, without it accomplishing anything worthy of mention,
apart from giving business to [the generals'] private corporations.
Besides, we gained experience in guerilla warfare and in conducting a
war of attrition in our fight with the iniquitous, great power, that
is, when we conducted a war of attrition against Russia with Jihad
fighters for 10 years until they went bankrupt, with Allah's grace; as
a result, they were forced to withdraw in defeat, all praise and thanks
to Allah. We are continuing in the same policy - to make America bleed
profusely to the point of bankruptcy, Allah willing. And that is not
too difficult for Allah.
"Whoever says that Al-Qaeda triumphed over the White House
administration, or that the White House administration lost this war -
this is not entirely accurate, for if we look carefully at the results,
it is impossible to say that Al-Qaeda is the only cause for these
amazing gains. The White House policy, which strove to open war fronts
so as to give business to their various corporations - be they in the
field of armament, of oil, or of construction - also helped in
accomplishing these astonishing achievements for Al-Qaeda. It appeared
to some analysts and diplomats as though we and the White House play as
one team to score a goal against the United States of America, even
though our intentions differ. Such ideas, and some others, were pointed
out by a British diplomat in the course of a lecture at the Royal
Institute for International Affairs; for example, that Al-Qaeda spent
$500,000 on the event [9/11] while America lost in the event and its
subsequent effects more than 500 billion dollars; that is to say that
each of Al-Qaeda's dollars defeated one million American dollars,
thanks to Allah's grace. This is in addition to the fact that America
lost a large number of jobs, and as for the [federal] deficit, it lost
a record number estimated at a trillion dollars.
"Even more serious for America is the fact that the Jihad fighters have
recently forced Bush to resort to an emergency budget in order to
continue the fighting in Afghanistan and in Iraq, which proves the
success of the plan of bleeding [America] to the point of bankruptcy,
Allah willing.
"Indeed, all of this makes it clear that Al-Qaeda won gains; but on the
other hand, it also makes it clear that the Bush administration won
gains as well, since anyone who looks at the scope of the contracts won
by large dubious corporations like Halliburton and other similar ones
that have ties to Bush and to his administration will become convinced
that the losing side is in fact you, the American people, and your
economy.
"We agreed with the general commander Muhammad Atta, may Allah have
mercy on him, that all operations should be carried out within 20
minutes, before Bush and his administration would become aware. We
never imagined that the Commander in Chief of the American armed forces
would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face this
great horror alone when they needed him most. It seemed to him that a
girl's story about her goat and its butting was more important than
dealing with planes and their 'butting' into skyscrapers. This allowed
us three times the amount of time needed for the operations, Allah be
praised.
"It should be no secret to you that American thinkers and intellectuals
warned Bush before the war: all that you [Bush] need in order to assure
America's security by ridding [Iraq] of weapons of mass destruction,
assuming there were any, is at your disposal, and all the countries of
the world are with you in the matter of carrying out inspections, and
the U.S.'s interest does not require you to drive it into an
unjustified war, whose end you cannot know.
"However, the blackness of black gold blinded his sight and his
perception and he gave preference to private interests over America's
public interest. And so there was war and many died. The American
economy bled and Bush became embroiled in the quagmire of Iraq, which
now threatens his future.
"His case is like that [described in the parable]:
"He is like the ill-tempered goat that dug out of the ground the sharp
knife [with which it would be slaughtered].
"I say to you: more than 15,000 of our people were killed and tens of
thousands were wounded, just as more than 1,000 of you were killed and
more than 10,000 wounded, and Bush's hands are sullied with the blood
of all of these casualties on both sides, for the sake of oil and to
give business to his private companies. You should know that a nation
that punishes a weak person if he is instrumental in killing one of
that nation's sons for money, while letting go free a high-class man
who was instrumental in killing more than 1,000 of its sons, also for
money [sic]. Similarly your allies in Palestine intimidate women and
children and murder and imprison men. [inaudible]
"Keep in mind that every action has a reaction, and finally you should
consider the last wills and testaments of the thousands who left you on
9/11, waving their hands in despair. These are inspiring wills, which
deserve to be published and studied thoroughly. One of the most
important things I have read regarding their hand-waving signals before
they fell is that they were saying 'We were wrong to let the White
House carry out unchecked its aggressive foreign policy against
oppressed people.' As though they were telling you, the American
people, 'You should call to task those who caused our death.' Happy is
he who learns a lesson from the experience of others. A verse that I
have read is also relevant to their [last] signals:
"Evil kills those who perpetrate it,
"And the pastures of iniquity are harmful.
"There is a saying: a small amount spent on prevention is better than a
great amount spent on treatment. You should know that it is better to
return to that which is right than to persist in that which is wrong. A
rational man would not neglect his security, property, or home for the
sake of the liar in the White House.
"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your
security is in your own hands, and any [U.S.] state [wilaya] that does
not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security.
"Allah is our guardian but you have none.
"Peace be upon whoever follows the true guidance."