
“The Letter to America” was published a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which to this day mark the bloodiest terror attack in history. The document had been available online for years, but only recently turned viral on TikTok, a controversial social network (particularly due to its content) closely monitored by certain governments or actually banned by others, amidst concerns it might be used by Beijing to promote part of the messages it carried or to spy on other countries.
Some of the people who comment on Bin Laden’s letter claim the document has made them understand why the United States is responsible for what is now happening in the Middle East and what exactly infuriates the Muslim community. Statements of this kind are, however, indicative of either a superficial perusal of this letter and an inability to grasp the true message of Bin Laden, or worse, a mischievous design. In actual fact, this is a spiteful discourse that reiterates, specifically for Western audiences, those arguments that had been previously included in messages designed to rally the Muslims. It is also a rebuke of Western societies and a death threat addressing most Westerners. Many pundits as well as TikTok users have understood how ludicrous this situation is, where young Americans support the very man who not only said that “the decision to kill the Americans and their allies – civilians or military – is an individual obligation for any Muslim residing in a country where this is possible”, but he actually walked the talk. Beyond the absurdity of the whole thing, there is an ironical side to this story: many of those who actually distributed “the Letter to America” are themselves allegedly targeted by jihadis. This is transparent both in Bin Laden’s messages as well as the letter itself.
Bin Laden wanted a global jihad against Westerners, both civilian and military
Bin Laden’s take on jihad, the holy war in Islam, as well as the reasons that motivated it had been known prior to the September 11 attacks. In short, the terrorist saw the Muslim world under siege, occupied by the West. Bin Laden believed in an all-out jihad against the West, targeting military and civilians alike. The Western “siege” Bin Laden referred to was military, political, economic and culture – music, films and Western attire were equally considered haram, sinful. To Bin Laden’s mind, the “occupation” did not manifest itself through military presence alone, but also by supporting “non-Islamist” regimes in Muslim countries, or in those institutions imported from the West or modern judicial systems, which did not spring from the body of Islamic law – the Sharia. Western “occupation” had spread even to the holiest sites of Islam – Mecca, Media and Jerusalem, particularly the Al Aqsa Mosque, Bin Laden argued. In the former’s case, Osama Bin Laden referred to the American military forces deployed to Saudi Arabia after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Basically, the United States had sent troops to protect Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait from forces loyal to Saddam, whose regime was, in ideological terms, an opponent of the Muslim extremism strain advocated by Islamists. No American servicemen ever had reached Mecca or Medina, and still Osama Bin Laden believed their mere presence on the territory of Saudi Arabia was a sin, since the prophet Muhammad allegedly said there should not be two religions in Arabia, and the second rightly-guided caliph Umar had driven away people of other confessions. As regards the Al-Aqsa Mosque (and the entire Palestinian territory), the fight for their “liberation” had for decades been a rallying call-to-arms for Islamists, dating back to the teachings of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna. Moreover, Osama Bin Laden’s mentor and the theorist of global jihad, Abdullah Azzam, was a Palestinian himself.
There are three documents relevant to this discussion, two of which were published before 2001, while the third was made public a few months after the terrorist attacks. First, in 1996, Bin Laden called a jihad, also mentioning the Palestinian question and the arrest of the founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin and the assassination of Abdullah Azzam at the hands of “the alliance of crusaders and Zionists” (it is unclear who killed Azzam, although Bin Laden is widely thought to have orchestrated the hit in order to take over Azzam’s organization and absorb it into al-Qaeda). The 1996 document differentiated between civilians and the military, although it did refer to the jihadis’ responsibility to die in suicide attacks: “these young people love death just as you love life”.
In 1998, Bin Laden published a fatwa, a religious opinion whereby he no longer discriminated between civilians and servicemen, writing that the killing of Westerners, both civilian and military, wherever they are, is a sacred duty to every Muslim.
A third important document was published after 9/11. The attacks had just been labeled as going against the Islamic tradition (including by leaders of extremist cells such as Ahmed Yassin), which forbids the killing of civilians. Bin Laden responded in April 2002, publishing a long document where he explained the reason behind the attacks (which was the same reason invoked by the 1996 and 1998 fatwas), naming seven conditions that would allow for the killing of civilians, which he called “protegés”. In his 2002 “Letter to America”, Bin Laden redefined the enemy as Western societies as a whole, arguing that anyone who supported the West’s military campaign against the Muslims “in thought or action or with any other type of assistance” can be killed. Anyone paying taxes is supporting the government and the US army (or any other “aggressor”) and could thus be killed. Anyone exercising their right to vote or taking part in the process whereby a government is elected could equally be killed. Anyone sharing the vaguely defined “public opinion” was now a target.
“Letter to America” – an ultimatum to the West: surrender or die
The binding ideas of the three aforementioned documents are also transparent in other works published by Bin Laden which, to a certain degree, the Al-Qaeda leader expressed in the few interviews he gave following his radicalization. These ideas were redistributed to Western audiences (that had already seen Bin Laden’s interviews) in the 2002 Letter, which has turned viral today.
In his “Letter to America”, Bin Laden criticizes what he calls the acts of aggression against Muslims in Palestine, Somalia (which were the stage of certain anti-terrorist operations) or Iraq (at the time under an international embargo amidst fears it had not discarded its WMD arsenal). Bin Laden made it clear those Americans who pay taxes that are then used to fund the army (which at any rate is also part and parcel of the American nation), make for legitimate targets. He implied more suicide attacks would follow, again arguing that his followers desire death more than the Americans desire life.
Bin Laden also specified the terms the Americans must comply with in order to end the jihad. He called on the United States (and the collective West as a whole) to surrender and abandon their very principles and Western way of life. First and foremost, he demanded Americans convert to Islam. This request has to do with the doctrine of classical jihad, which states that enemies of Muslims should be presented with three choices: convert, surrender and pay tribute, thus accepting a Muslim rule, or die.
His second request is that all Westerners should renounce “fornication”, substances that alter the mind such as alcohol and drugs. The West must ban homosexuality, censor showbiz and limit the presence of women outside the household, ban trading with interest (thus virtually destroying the banking system), etc. What Bin Laden wants is basically a society governed according to the dictates of Sharia, in its interpretation by Taliban extremists, Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. What that translates to in practical terms was transparent in the territories these organizations controlled, where they moved from public executions (including stoning women for adultery) to banning music and most games (kite-flying was banned in Afghanistan, for instance), preventing women from working or studying or even leaving home unaccompanied by men from their families. There were even absurd cases where people were punished for carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag or selling them on the same stall at the market.
Bin Laden’s request that Western forces should withdraw from the East only comes in third, followed by the call on the population to stop supporting leaders.
Many of the people who shared and commended Bin Laden’s letter are surely living in families that have voted or paid taxes (or have done that themselves); many probably enjoy showbiz or support the rights of sexual minorities. Not only do such women feature in video recordings (which would prompt any jihadi to pick up the stick), but they also show themselves in public without a headscarf or wearing makeup. Beyond all that, we are dealing with Westerners, and their mere belonging to Western societies justifies their killing, according to Bin Laden’s “Letter”.