Osama Bin Laden : Holy Warrior Or Treacherous Murderer?

“Fight in the name of God and in the ‘path of god’. Combat those who disbelieve in God.” The quote above is an excerpt from Matthew Gordon’s book, “The Rise of Islam”. Throughout the course of history, many religions have had a profound effect on western civilization. During the early 5th century a religion arose that had an extremely important impact on western civilization. The Arabic prophet Muhammad founded the religion known today as Islam. Violence, diplomacy, Arabic tradition, and public law played a vital role in the rise and conquest of Islam. These four key elements that fostered the rise of Islam helped establish one of the largest religions in western civilization.

Islam is the belief in one Allah and the belief in heaven or hell. A religious affiliation that follows these beliefs are AL-Qaeda and that affiliation was the one responsible for the attack on 9/11. AL-Qaeda wants to get rid of americans and all american influence out of muslim nations. AL-Qaeda feels it is the duty of Muslims around the world to wage holy war on the U.S., American citizens, and Jews. Muslims who do not heed this call are declared apostates (people who have forsaken their

After his first visit to Afghanistan during the first few weeks of the Soviet Invasion, he became involved in supporting the mujahdeen, a ruling party in Afghanistan at the time. After this point, he became heavily involved in fighting jihad, or holy war, and began to build up his own military training camps (Frontline: A biography). Beginning in his childhood, Osama was inundated with a strict Islamic way of life. Looking at the people who played the biggest roles in his life at this time: his authoritarian father, Islamic scholars, movement leaders, and Afghani soldiers fighting jihad, the reasons for him being who he is become more apparent. He has been fighting holy wars since he was a teenager (Frontline: Edicts), and jihad has become a way of life for him.

E- Despite following Islamic religion, he formed Al Qaeda. He’d reward money to those that helped, and punish those that didn’t. The one that was a transactional leader, Osama Bin Laden could influence anyone with his cunning words.

The assassination of Osama Bin Laden was justified because he murdered thousands of innocent people, and trained and armed other terrorist organizations. However, some think that his assassination was not justified because he was killing for his religion.

Contrary to popular opinion claiming it to be righteous retribution for his acts of radical Islamist terror, the assassination of Osama bin Laden by the US government was unjustified because it was illegal under international law, morally wrong, and detrimental to national security.

Although many in the US view middle eastern resentment towards them a result of its position for freedom and democracy, another factor may involve the disagreement with US foreign policy. In a survey of 2,620 men and women living in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, most participants voiced hostility towards the United States because of US policy and position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Munson, 2004). Although the majority of the middle eastern populations do not wish physical harm to American citizens, their views on US policy are shared with some of the fanatics in those areas. One Islamic extremist and organizer for the terrorist attack on 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, cited the suffering of Palestinians as a grave injustice supported by the United States and one of his reasons for opposition against America (Munson, 2004). Despite the fact that many other contributors to middle eastern disapproval of US policy exist, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has created much debate and disdain from around the

Bin Laden openly perpetuates conflict between Islam and the West. “This battle is not between al-Qaeda and the U.S.,” the al-Qaeda leader said in October 2001, yet “this is a battle of Muslims against the global crusaders.” From Bin Laden’s perspective, this “clash of civilizations” between Americans and the West has been under way for centuries and it is just the most recent incarnation of the Christian Crusaders. In October 2001, the Arabic satellite news channel aired an interview in which Bin Laden expressed his views on Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis. The following is a summary of bin Laden’s points in this interview:

One of the world’s deadliest terrorists, Osama bin Laden, has cause havoc throughout the world by committing terror acts carried out by his Islamic extremist group, Al- Qaeda. Bin Laden has caused many problems throughout the world by his terrorism and this all came to an end on May 2, 2011. Seal Team Six was sent into his bunker and put an end to his life and his 10-year hide out after the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center. Osama has been the leader of Al-Qaeda since 1988 and since then has committed numerous amounts of terror attacks on all parts of the world. Osama bin Laden has developed over time as a leader of Al-Qaeda, and through his beliefs of Muslim brotherhood, he developed into an extreme Islamic terrorist.

The European colonialism, and the British, greatly helped the rise of Islam. The European colonialism gave them the strength to rise against their oppressors. The Wahhabi movement was started as a result of the European colonialism. The British helped groups of Islam by giving them weapons as well as the financial support that they needed as well as aiding them in setting up a central form of government. Muhammad Iqbal called for a bold reinterpretation of Islam that would take the best of Western ideas, but recast them according to Islamic principles and values. He wanted to reconstruct the religious thought in Islam so that it would be more significant in the modern world. On the other hand, Osama bin Laden pushed his ideas on the people of Islam and used great force. He created a group called Al Qaeda, whose purpose was to drive the U.S. out of Arabia, overthrow the Saudi government, liberate Islam’s holy sites, and support revolutionary groups around the world. Osama bin Laden was among the founders who issued a fatwa that states that it is the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens and their allies.

Jihad – a dispute or war between followers of Islam faith and those who do not follow the Islam faith; a struggle within a Muslim between good and evil (Dictionary)

Jihad as a political word was first recorded during the struggle of the Meccan establishment by Prophet Mohammed. The early movement of Muslims, first under their Prophet and later his passing, advanced both religion and political dynamics. In addition to the five tenets of faith, the organizations of the community were centered on structure, movements, decision-making systems and political agendas. The five pillars of the faith are: witness, prayer, pilgrimage, alms, fasting. Jihad main interest is the global jihad and they were looking for pure jihad. They have continued to dominate the scene in South Asia and the Middle East, their influence has reduced in the western diaspora.

The concept of Jihad was not widely known in the western world before the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Since then, the word has been woven into what our media and government feed us along with notions of Terrorism, Suicide Bombings, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and now, Jihad. Our society hears exhortations resounding from the Middle East calling the people to rise up in Jihad and beat back the imperialist Americans. Yet, if we try to peel back all of these complex layers of information we can we attempt to find out what Jihad really means. Webster’s Dictionary defines Jihad as “a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty or a crusade for a principle or belief” (1). Often, media depicts

In light of recent events in the global community, one word that is used frequently but rarely truly understood is the Islamic word Jihad. Jihad has become a very volatile word, so it is necessary that those who use it should understand exactly what it means, what it entails, and what significance it has in current global events.

453). A prime example of an Islamic Fundamentalist movement is al-Qaeda which was a new militant Islamic group when it emerged in 1988. It followed on from the spread of strong religious beliefs and codes that was common in Africa and the Middle- East (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson, 2007, p. 150). Al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, its goal when established was to spread the word of God and to make his religion to most triumphant religion of all. A main characteristic of Islamic Fundamentalism is to create a theocracy which is a regime based on religious principles (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson, 2007, p. 150). Al-Qaeda is most known for its attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the USA in 2001, whom they openly claimed responsibility for and motivated the USA's war on terror (Goodwin, 2007, p. 432).