Bin Laden’s Vision

The Telegraph reports on a newly published collection of Osama bin Laden’s writings:

Osama bin Laden wants the United States to convert to Islam, ditch its constitution, abolish banks, jail homosexuals and sign the Kyoto climate change treaty.

The first complete collection of the Saudi’s statements published today portrays a world in which Islam’s enemies will take the first steps towards salvation by embracing the “religion of all the Prophets”.
…
His terms for America’s surrender appeared after the September 2001 suicide attacks and include demands that amount to the abandonment of much of western life.

Alcohol and gambling would be barred and there would be an end to women’s photos in newspapers or advertising.

Any woman serving “passengers, visitors and strangers”, presumably anyone from air stewardesses to waitresses, would also be out of a job.

The West must “stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you” and has become the “worst civilisation witnessed in the history of mankind”.

So there you have. Like previous Islamists including Sayyid Qutb, Osama bin Laden identifies the West with the dar al-Harb (realm of war) that must be stopped and destroyed if it does not convert to Islam. Moreover, the freedoms, including women’s freedoms, that we enjoy, he regards as contributing to the West’s warlike nature.

So when the left calls for the US to withdraw from Iraq, and to perform general penance for all of the sins it’s commited against non-Western peoples, don’t forget that included among those sins are freedom for women and lots of other things the left also prizes.

The article makes no mention of al-Qaeda’s 7 point plan, though bin Laden’s call for the transformation of the West would be consistent with that.