Osama bin Laden: Messages to the World ja In His Own Words

Kaksi kokoelmaa Osama Bin Ladenin julkilausumia ja julistuksia, kirjoituksis ja haastatteluja.

Messages to the World. The Statements of Osama bin Laden. Verso 2005, 320 sivua, pehmeäkantinen. alkupuolella merkintöjä.

Osama bin Laden. America’s Enemy in His Own Wirds. Randall B. Hamud. 2005, 353 sivua, Pehmeäkantinen.

Despite the saturation of global media coverage, Osama bin Laden’s own writings have been curiously absent from analysis of the “war on terror.” Over the last ten years, bin Laden has issued a series of carefully tailored public statements, from interviews with Western and Arabic journalists to faxes and video recordings. These texts supply evidence crucial to an understanding of the bizarre mix of Quranic scholarship, CIA training, punctual interventions in Gulf politics and messianic anti-imperialism that has formed the programmatic core of Al Qaeda.

In bringing together the various statements issued under bin Laden’s name since 1994, this volume forms part of a growing discourse that seeks to demythologize the terrorist network. Newly translated from the Arabic, annotated with a critical introduction by Islamic scholar Bruce Lawrence, this collection places the statements in their religious, historical and political context. It shows how bin Laden’s views draw on and differ from other strands of radical Islamic thought; it also demonstrates how his arguments vary in degrees of consistency, and how his evasions concerning the true nature and extent of his own group, and over his own role in terrorist attacks, have contributed to the perpetuation of his personal mythology.

Synopsis

The book is a compilation of 20 statements issued by Osama Bin Laden between 1994 and 2004 that have been translated into understandable English. The first book is the first of its kind in English. The book's extensive editorial commentary and 923 endnotes enable the reader to comprehend Mr. Bin Laden's words in their cultural and political context. The book offers a prescription to victory in the global war on terrorism based on Mr. Bin Laden's own words.

Randall B. Hamud, J.D., is a San Diego-based native-born, Arab-American lawyer, Muslim, and nationally known civil rights advocate. Since 9/11 he has fought hard against negative depictions of Arabs and Muslims in the media and governmental excesses in the name of the war on terrorism.

From the Back Cover

In an Islamic world thirsty for modern heroes, poems will be written about Mr. Bin Laden, millions will adore him, and most worrisome, millions will emulate him. 9/11 was the "Big Bang." A resulting Holy War against the world's 1.2 billion Muslims will create and inflationary universe of religious hatred with unimaginable losses of human life. A focused, secular war on terrorism will create a finite...

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From the Inside Flap

This book is about saving lives - yours, mine, and countless others.

* * * Honorable Sheikh: * * * We mention the above to remind you of your sacred duty before Islam and to remind you of your great responsibility and of your obligations to the religion and to the Ummah [Islamic nation]. "Reminder benefits the believers." We wanted to remind you now of your responsibility because falsehood has ballooned and its followers...

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