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In February 1998, Osama
bin Laden and his close associate Ayman
al-Zawahiri endorsed a fatwa under the banner of the "International
Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders." This fatwa, published
in the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi on February 23, 1998, stated that
Muslims should kill Americans -- including civilians -- anywhere in the
world where they can be found. A translated version of the text as it appeared
in the Washington
Post is below.
World Islamic Front Statement
23 February 1998
Shaykh Osama Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin
Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt
Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group
Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan
Fazlur Rahman, amir 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 spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its
plantations. All this is happening at a time in which 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 in the past argued about 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, but 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,
which has exceeded 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 here 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 fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending
sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. 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 [Mecca] 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."
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