Osama Bin Laden: The Declaration of Jihad

Osama bin Laden: The Declaration Of Jihad

By: Gareth Browne

HIST*1150

NOVEMBER 16, 2016

The declaration of Jihad against America is directly related to the intersection of several currents in late-twentieth-century Muslim politics, including the evolution of Islamic revivalist ideologies, the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan of the 1980s and more significantly the rise of terrorism in a global age. The document, “Osama bin Laden, Declaration of Jihad Against Americans Occupying The Land Of The Two Holy Mosques” by Osama himself, issued in August 1996, highlights the severe persuasion to Muslims that the United states is the primary enemy of Muslims and more notably the first call for jihad against America. August 1998, Osama established the militant Islamist organization labeled as al-Qaeda, which began as some sort of logistical network to support Muslims fighting against the Soviet Union during the Afghan War. With that being said, al Qaeda desired the U.S to remove and withdraw troops from the Arabian Peninsula. Osama had deciphered the Quran as asserting that no non- Muslim could “control” the holy land. By having military troops there (which the United States assigned throughout the 1991 Gulf War), Osama viewed this a violation against Islam and craved to use any tactic possible to oust the U.S presence.

Social Educations article, “Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden: The Background to September 11” discusses how Osama bin Laden used his beliefs about Islam to justify his methods and attacks against the U.S. and the background necessary to emulate the rise of global terrorism. Osama bin Laden’s public statements plot his justifications for the assaults against U.S troops in Arabia and communicated outrage about the presence of U.S troops in the sacred lands of Islam (Social Education, 2011). Osama saw their attendance as an approach for the U.S to fight against and disgrace the peoples of Islam in the region. Bin Laden believed that the United States actions amounted to a declaration of war by the U.S on God and Muslims (Social Education, 2011). With that being said, Osama exhibited his invitation to battle as a protection of Islam, a battle against an enemy whom he believed needed to destroy the Islamic culture and religion. In interviews and public statements with news agencies and organizations, Osama warned repeatedly that he would take revenge on the U.S for humiliating Muslims (Social Education, 2011).  Osama bin Laden actually viewed the U.S soldiers as reflections of evil entities that would harm the culture and religion of Islam. This is readily apparent in the article when Social Education conveys a quote by Osama himself stating “We call upon Muslim scholars, their faithful leaders, young believers, and soldiers to launch a raid on the American soldiers of Satan and their allies of the Devil.” –Osama bin Laden, 1998. This article is relevant because it explained what thought process Osama bin Laden had, to announce the declaration of jihad against America. It was prominent that the fear and insecurity of having the presence of Americans troops occupying holy land lead to the declaration being launched.

“Osama bin Laden”, a book written by Michael Scheuer brings attention to the factors that enforced the wage of jihad on America and the repercussions they had to face. Al Qaeda’s first significant fear based oppressor operation, the 1998 assaults on American embassies in East Africa, would push Bin Laden to the front line of the Islamic militant current (Scheuer, 2012). The U.S responded by launching cruise missile assaults on an al Qaeda base somewhere located in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical organization in Khartoum, Sudan, that Washington suspected with assembling and manufacturing biological weapons. These assaults neglected to hinder al Qaeda from pursuing jihad against the United States (Scheuer, 2012). Michael Scheuer Investigating Bin Laden's advancement from a serene Saudi nonconformist to America's Most Wanted and revealing insight into his improvement as a scholar, media manipulator, and military officer, Scheuer produces a firmly contemplated, legitimate picture of America's most decided enemy. Disparaging winning cases that delineate bin Laden as superfluous or irrelevant, Scheuer's genuinely necessary corrective demonstrates a figure of wonderful authority aptitudes, strategic genius, and extensive explanatory capacities that was fundamentally underestimated by the West. This book indeed relates to the primary document as it focuses not only on Osama and his terror-led campaign against the U.S but also sheds light on the rise of terrorism. However, in order for this book to be more relevant as a secondary source, it needs to focus more on the declaration of jihad waged against the United States.

The article “Scheuer, Michael. Osama bin Laden” by J.P Dunn provides a critical analysis to the book “Osama bin Laden” written by Michael Scheuer in 2011. Before Osama bin Laden's turned into a commonly recognized name in 2001, only a couple of people knew the Saudi fear monger superior to counter-psychological militant operator Michael Scheuer, leader of the CIA's bin Laden unit from 1996-99. In various meetings and compositions, Scheuer tested the myths about bin Laden, who was portrayed as a judicious individual with a thoroughly thought out motivation (Dunn, 2011). Scheuer clarified that a right representation of the real as opposed to the nonexistent man was basic to counter the al Qaeda danger (Dunn, 2011). Incidentally, this best and fullest portrayal of the man and al Qaeda was distributed similarly as bin Laden's passing changed the book's concentration from contemporary occasions to the domain of history. Nonetheless, the book is a top of the line class act study, all around contended and composed for a wide group of onlookers; it holds its esteem for comprehension of al Qaeda in the post-bin Laden time (Dunn, 2011). Despite the fact that Scheuer does not wish to lionize bin Laden, he regarded his enemy’s devotion, honesty, commitment, knowledge, and abilities. This article by Dunn and book by Scheuer is relevant as it retains its value for understanding al Qaeda’s ambitions and more notably their ‘agenda’ in regards to acting against the U.S.