Fatawā Of Osama Bin Laden
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Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
authored two
fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...
s in the late 1990s. The first was published in August 1996 and the second in February 1998. At the time, bin Laden was not a wanted man in any country except his native
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
, and was not yet known as the leader of the international jihadist organization
al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
. These fatwas received relatively little attention until after the August
1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in two nearly simultaneous car bomb, truck bomb explosions in two East African capital cities, one at the Embassy of the Uni ...
, for which bin Laden was indicted.Copy of indictment
USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies,
Monterey Institute of International Studies Established in 1955, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies, located in Monterey, California, is a graduate institute and satellite campus of Middlebury C ...
The indictment mentions the first fatwā, and claims that Khalid al-Fawwaz, of bin Laden's Advice and Reformation Committee in
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, participated in its communication to the press.


1996 fatwa

Bin Laden's 1996 fatwa is entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places". This document is sometimes called the ''Ladenese epistle'', a term derived from bin Laden's nasab. It is a long piece, and complains of American activities in numerous countries. It was faxed to Arabic-language newspapers internationally but particularly in England. Bergen, Peter, '' Holy War, Inc.'', 2001, p. 4 It first appeared in the London-based Arabic paper '' Al-Quds Al-Arabi''.


1998 fatwa

The 1998 ''fatwa'' reached ''Al Quds Al Arabi'' by fax, and was signed by five people, four of whom represented specific Islamist groups. The signatories as a group were identified as the "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders". *Osama bin Laden *
Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...
, "emir of the Jihad Group in Egypt", probably meaning Islamic Jihad * Ahmed Refai Taha, alias Abu Yasser, of
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (, "Islamic Group") is an Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement, and is considered a terrorism, terrorist organization by the United Kingdom and the European Union, but was removed from the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations i ...
(in Egypt). His endorsement was later retracted because of the enormous unpopularity of terrorism in Egypt following the November 1997 Luxor massacre of tourists and Egyptians by al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Taha rationalized his signature to fellow members of the Islamic Group by saying he had only been asked over the telephone to join in a statement of support for the Iraqi people. * Mir Hamzah, "secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan" * Fazul Rahman, "emir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh", probably Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh or HUJI-B; HUJI itself is in Pakistan. This fatwa complains of American military presence in Saudi Arabia, the
sanctions against Iraq A sanction may be either a permission or a restriction, depending upon context, as the word is an auto-antonym. Examples of sanctions include: Government and law * Sanctions (law), penalties imposed by courts * Economic sanctions, typically a b ...
, and American support for
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. Claiming that the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
has been using its military bases in the
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as "a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples", the ''fatwa'' purports to provide religious authorization for indiscriminate killing of Americans and their allies combatant or civilian everywhere. It appeared in February 1998 and the embassy bombings followed in August.


World Islamic Front

The World Islamic Front is the organization that issued the World Islamic Front Statement of 23 February 1998, "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders",Original Arabic text
of the fatwa.
listing the actions of
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that they claim conflict with "God's order", and stating that the Front's "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." Terrorism experts consider the "World Islamic Front" synonymous with
al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
. The 9/11 Commission uses the text of the 23 February 1998 fatwa as evidence that linked
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
,
Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...
, and
al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
to the
September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
in
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,
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, and near
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.


Effects of the World Islamic Front Statement

The 23 February 1998 fatwa is the first known official order of the World Islamic Front. The
fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...
calls upon each individual member of the existing
Ummah ' (; ) is an Arabic word meaning Muslim identity, nation, religious community, or the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers ( '). It is a synonym for ' (, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective com ...
to, "in accordance with the words of Almighty God, '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.'" The fatwa is widely regarded by terrorism experts as the founding document of the World Islamic Front.


See also

* Motivations of the September 11 attacks * List of fatwas


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatawa of Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden Fatwas 1996 documents 1998 documents Al-Qaeda propaganda 1996 in Islam