From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Sat 16 Nov 2002 - 23:46:52 GMT
Try this, Lawry.
http://www.ict.org.il/articles/fatwah.htm
Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans
Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998
Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin;
Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu-
Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Sheikh
Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and
Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh
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." 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 now spreading in it
like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations.
All this is happening at a time when 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.
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 formerly debated 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, still they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation
inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and
despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million...
despite all this, the Americans are once against 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 now they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to
humiliate their Muslim neighbors.
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 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.
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-Kisa'i in "Al- Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his
interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he
said "As for the militant struggle, it is aimed at defending sanctity
and religion, and it is a duty as agreed. Nothing is more sacred
than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion
and life."
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 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."
This is in addition to the words of Almighty God "And why
should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being
weak, are ill-treated and oppressed--women and children, whose
cry is 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are
oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'"
We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in
God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill
the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever
they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and
soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's
supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are
behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
Almighty God said "O ye who believe, give your response to God
and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you
life. And know that God cometh between a man and his heart, and
that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered."
Almighty God also says "O ye who believe, what is the matter
with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God,
ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world
to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared
with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a
grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would
not harm in the least. For God hath power over all things."
Almighty God also says "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair.
For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."
> Grant, I must challenge you again, I'm afraid. You said "He feels
> anything done to the infidel is justified, and says as much in words
> and deeds." Let's leave aside the deeds as they are subject to
> interpretation, as our earlier discussion demonstrated. So: to the
> words: What words has bin Laden said that state that 'he feels
> anything {sic] done to the infidel is justified.' I have been reading
> quite a bit of bin Laden material, and haven't seen anything like this
> at all. It would be especially helpful if you could give actual
> examples (one would do!) of these words, rather than arguing by
> inference.
>
> Cheers,
> Lawry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On
> Behalf Of Grant Callaghan Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 9:59 AM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: The terrorism meme
>
> >
> >At 07:02 AM 15/11/02 -0800, you wrote:
> > >Jeremy,
> > >
> > >If the people of Iraq were fighting for freedom using terrorist
> > >tactics,
> >I
> > >could buy that. Even the Palestinians have a fair claim to being
> > >held captive. But how can anyone compare a worldwide terrorist
> > >organization
> >to a
> > >people held captive and fighting for their freedom? Freedom from
> > >whom?
> >
> >As has been said before, and what makes this a valid list discussion,
> >is that this is a clash of meme-teams. The perception of AlQ, and
> >their supporters, is that Western cultural imperialism is enslaving
> >their world. It is the imposed values, compulsory memes which ride on
> >this domination, which are unacceptable.
> >
> > >These terrorists are fighting to enslave the rest of the world
> > >under
> >their
> > >concept of the will of God. They are the ones people need to be
> > >set free from. We all need to be set free from mindless terror
> > >carried out for no rational purpose other than to scare the hell
> > >out of people.
> > >
> > >Grant
> > >
> >
> >IMHO both sides are fighting to free the world from evil. It is just
> >that their memetic constructs are at varience. I love you Grant, but
> >I can't agree that mindfull and rational terror is any better than
> >the mindless and irrational sort. After all these subjective
> >adjectives, like good and evil, are only relevant within meme-team.
> >Jeremy
> >
>
> I never said one type of terror was better than the other. Both are
> irrational to my mind. But I can't see people belonging to a
> worldwide organization who travel freely to carry out terrorist acts
> against civilians of all nations as "freedom fighters." In every case
> where they have made attacks on embassies in foreign countries, they
> killed more civilians of that country than they did Americans. In
> other words, they don't care how many collateral deaths they cause in
> a country if they can kill one American. They are only "freedom
> fighters" in their own minds, not in the minds of the rest of the
> world. The fact that bin Laden praises such acts shows that it is a
> clash of cultures and what he is out to destroy is all non-Muslim
> governments and unbelievers. He feels anything done to the infidel is
> justified, and says as much in words and deeds.
>
> Grant
>
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> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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