Gysgt,
In his pronouncements, Bin Ladden made frequent references to history.
And he sadly has an argument.
He is not alone. Khomeini also used history to excite the masses, though he usually twisted it before passing it on to the ignorance that followed him.
Khomeni is an interesting, twisted fellow...not recognized by most muslims (sunnis) as being one. The problem I have with Islamic 'scholars', and in particular the Shia is how much they diverge and turn islam into their private tribal cult. Khomeni proclaimed odd, unorthodox things, and he definately used the rightful revolution to his own advantage to advance the shia cult.
Sayyid Qutb's extensive works contributed significantly to modern perceptions of Islamic concepts such as Jihad and Ummah and he is best known in the West as "the man whose ideas would shape Al-Queda."
Sadly, the west is wrong here. He is nonetheless an influential sunni scholar. Primairily within the egyptian muslim brotherhood.
Al-Qaeda is one heck of an interesting phenomonon, I would like to go into a little more detail in discussing this, but Ill wait for you to instigate a discussion.
These charismatic leaders are always the same. They enlist the past to fight the present dangers of modernization and social growth.
Not really, they have alot of arguments for the present...and Ill give you examples...
Binladen cited 3 grievences with the west..
1) Biased support for Israel's occupation and subjegation of palestinians
2) American government monopoly over Saudi Oil
3) The presence of American troops on the holy soil of the prophet's arabia.
Khomeni cited:
1) The imposed dictatorship of Reza Shah
2) The Support for Saddam, who he viewed as a secularist infidel dictator
3) The Monopoly of American/British corporations on Iranian Oil
In this, they are united and it doesn’t matter that they are Sunni or Shi’ite.
They are united with their view of American/Western exploitation. They dont unite much further than that. Sunnis follow the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet, Shia follow those and the teachings of the shia 'imams'... Who for the mostpart strayed into their own cult. Big difference in the Islam of Tradition and 'Islam' of khomeni.
Even though they struggle against one another for superiority within Islam
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Shia Islam has not had much of an influence in the arab world as an 'expanding faith' since the decline of the Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt and their defeat by Salahudeen Ayyubi. Shia minorities lived in arab land but never were a majority except in Iraq.
they do swim in the same stream. Since the death of Muhammed, it has always been the Sunni that controlled Islam and even though the Shia have never forgotten the early persecutions of their leaders and of those who they saw as the rightful heirs to Islam (Muhammed’s dissidents)
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The split was primarily a political one. Over the course of centuries, the shia imams adopted their own religeous practices alien to Islam.
The death of Hasan and Hussain was a tragic event for muslims. But the 'shia' decided to Idolize them along with Ali, Muslims must idolize none and fear none and declare sainthood to none.. There is one God, and all mankind is his creation. For shia to claim near divinity for mere mortals is contrary to the teachings of Islam. Muhammad, peace be upon him and all the messengers before him, is but a man...as is Jesus son of Mary the messiah. The shia and their practices cannot be taken into serious consideration as those pertaining to Islam.
they have managed to live together uneasily through one prescription or the other.
I agree..all 'monotheistic' religeon lived together uneasily for the last dozen centuries, but It must be made clear that they lived togther under Islam. This cannot be said about Christian empire, where groups not belonging to the church in power was genocided/ethnically cleansed.
Through all his decrees and excuses for terror upon the West, for what really is just a bunch of smokescreens to fool the ignorant
Not really smokescreens.. Bin laden, for the terrorist he is, is one hell of an excellent presenter of fact.
, Bin Ladden explicitly told the world what this is all about, but few seemed to notice. His most dramatic historical mention in his October, 2001 videotape was of the "humiliation and disgrace that Islam has suffered for more than eighty years." Focuses on Israel or focuses on Arab oil is the most successful scam going in the Arab world today.
People who buy into binladen's jihad, are well informed about the hegemony of America/Israel. I disagree with their methods of fixing this, but it is disingenuous to call it a scam.
Not only does it have many in the West fooled, but it has many Muslims fooled as well. And what happened eighty years ago that would have Bin Laden and others consistently mentioning it in their messages to their people?
A little more than eighty years ago...
Radicals throughout the Middle East know very well of this significance. Don't you Jenin?
LOL!
Remember those times I have mentioned how European colonialists whipped out crayons and slashed lines across tribes and formed new countries? In 1918 the Ottoman Sultanate, the last of the great Muslim Empires, was finally defeated – its capital, Constantinople, occupied, its sovereign held captive, and much of its territory partitioned between the victorious British and French Empires.
Yes indeed, the last caliphate was destroyed, the unity of All arabs was lost and this marked the begining of pan-arabism, lead by the likes of Gamal abdul nasser to unite the arab states. This failed with the cia-backed Israeli opposition to it. The United Arab Republic was a weak unity between syria and Egypt. I must admit, it is a fantasy to see those imperial borders erased and all arabs united under one nation. You must note that the arabs revolted against the ottomans but never had real grievances because their unity was intact, a fellow muslim was their ruler and they were not subject to colonization in it's rawest form as occurred in North Africa by france and in Palestine by the zionist ethnic cleansing and the repopulation of it by european zionists.
The Arabic-speaking former Ottoman provinces of the Fertile Crescent were divided into three new entities, with new names and frontiers.
Yes. Then from that period onward, arabs revolted against the empires subjecting them to colonization. That goes from a little before too. You fail to mention this.
Two of them, Iraq and Palestine, were under British Mandate and the third, under the name Syria, was given to the French. Later, the French subdivided their mandate into two, calling one part Lebanon and retaining the name Syria for the rest.
Creating more antagonism against the west.
The British did much the same in Palestine, creating a division between the two banks of the Jordan.
Transjordan is an artificial drawing made precisely for the chilren of Sharif Hussein, the (architect of the revolt against the ottomans) to reward them.
The eastern segment was later called Jordan and the name Palestine was retained for the Western segment.
Disingenuous. Palestine is known to be the land from the river to the sea. The land of Canaan. To assert Lebanon as part of palestine is closer to truth than to assert jordan is. Jordan, in it's modern form, was a drawing created by such wonderful racist imperialists as Lloyd George, who maintained that it be a land drawn to maintain a 'facade' government (the children of sharif hussein) in order which to rule over the middle east and exploit their resources.
this is fact.
The Arabian peninsula, consisting largely of barren and inaccessible deserts and mountains, was at that time considered not worth the trouble of taking over, and its rulers were allowed to retain independence.
Huge amounts of light weapons were poured into the desert and supplied to The children of Saud. 'Lawrence of Arabia' was sent on a special mission. The arabian peninsula was of great strategic importance to the brits and for decades before the collapse of the ottoman caliphate, Muhammad Ali Pasha's (the sultan's man in egyt) troops and Arab tribes backed by the brits skirmished and battled in the desert for control.
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Ill continue this later... I have some things to do...
