APFN

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders


Sat Oct 13 13:42:40 2001


FAS Note: The following statement from Usama bin Laden and his associates purports to
be a religious ruling (fatwa) requiring the killing of Americans, both civilian
and military. This document is part of the evidence that links the bin Laden network to the
September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The original Arabic text of
this statement may be found here.
Pubished in the Arabic Newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi (London, U.K.) on 23 February, 1998, p. 3.
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm
World Islamic Front Statement

23 February 1998

Shaykh Usamah 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."

Middle East & Islamic Studies, URL:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast

Religions of the Middle East
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/religns.htm
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