Critically Examining OBL's Statements

Patrick Dancoes

Prof. Shirk

POL-357B

Critically Examining OBL 

4/12/18

The Persuasive Rhetoric of Osama Bin Laden

Up until the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden was not a name known to the American public. But four years later the book, Messages to the World revealed to American audiences the reasons why Bin Laden himself waged war against America. In his statements he many times employed persuasive language to explain his beliefs, while simultaneously used rhetoric that placed the entirety of the blame onto America. The importance of recognizing and understanding his rhetoric is that it can ultimately help us understand the motivations, not only of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda but also other groups who have pitted themselves against America. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pointed language of Osama Bin Laden, being a prominent terrorist figure who seeks to sway listeners with his words; and how his anti-American ideology could be dangerous because of its persuasion. 

The first section of reading, the "Ladenese Epistle" is a letter from Bin Laden to his Muslim brothers. Right off the bat, Bin Laden characterized himself and the people of Islam as being afflicted with oppression and injustices. He labels the perpetrators of these afflictions “the supporters of the Judeo-Christian Alliance,” (Pg.25) making it clear that Muslims were the victims and that non-Muslims were the enemy. This comparison is a common theme in Bin Laden’s writing and is synonymous with the beliefs of other radical Islamic groups like HAMAS and the PLO. 

Also included in this section is Bin Laden’s critique of American forces forcibly removing Muslim scholars in Saudi Arabia. He wrote, “the scholars of Islam underwent an enforced absence- enforced due to the oppressive Crusader campaign led by America in the fear that these scholars will incite our Islamic umma against its enemies.” (25-26) Bin Laden exposed this situation in a way that pinned down America’s fear of Islam incitement and implied America to be the evil-doers. He focused his attention on America’s oppression and brought religious prosecution into his argument, being those removed were pious scholars of Islam.

A more grounded passage from Bin Laden in this first section was when he described the economic conditions that surrounded Saudi Arabia. He wrote, “People are struggling even with the basics of everyday life, and everyone talks frankly about economic recession, price inflation, mounting debts, and prison overcrowding. Low-income government employees talk to you about their debt in the tens or hundreds of thousands of riyals.” (27-28) This quotation provides the framework of how Bin Laden characterized people’s life in Saudi Arabia. On first glance this passage looks to be describing what Bin Laden feels his homeland is suffering from; but in reality, this describes the conditions of almost any country, even the US. Including this economic element in his letter helps forward Bin Laden’s seek for change as if what he was after was simply fiscal management. Interesting to note, an economical suggestion from Bin Laden was to cut off American trade. He wrote, “Depriving these occupiers [America] of the huge returns they receive from their trade with us is a very important way of supporting the jihad against them, and we expect you to boycott all American goods.” (29) This advice probably wouldn’t have aided their economy however it again portrays America as an occupying power that is targeting the Arabian Peninsula, in this case for their economic resources. 

In the second section, while Bin Laden was being interviewed by Taysir Alunni, he overtly stated many times that the actions of himself and his network were executed in self-defense. Bin Laden insisted, “that historically the United States has been the intruder and in the Middle East, and that in striking back at it, Muslims are acting in self-defense.” (106 intro) The role portrayed by Bin Laden and his network during the entire interview was that of a reactionary position forced upon them by international intruders. He goes on to explain that the urge to combat these previous injustices is how he “roused them [Al-Qaeda] to action.” He said that their actions were only “in self-defense, defense of our brothers and sons in Palestine, and in order to free our holy sanctuaries.” This explanation interestingly is Bin Laden’s plea as to why he and his organization are not terrorists. He suggest they are freedom fighters and holy warriors on a crusade for their sacred land. He adds, “and if inciting for these reasons is terrorism, and if killing those that kill our sons is terrorism, then let history witness that we are terrorists.” (107) This passage comes full swing and attempts to redefine peoples view of terrorism. Bin Laden used a logical progression to explain his position, and this gained him a surface-level of legitimacy. Though he mentioned only one-sided events and focused a lot of attention on the Palestine injustices (mostly as a recruiting tool) to point the finger at America. His goal in this interview was to expose who the real terrorists were – America.

By the end of the reading, Bin Laden’s involvement in radical violence can be explained in two quotes.  The first speaks to why radical violence is necessary; he said, “They [America] evidently won't wisen up without the language of beatings and killings. So, as they kill us, without a doubt we have to kill them, until we obtain a balance in terror.” (Pg. 114) The second reveals how his behavior was only reactionary; he said, “We treat others like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they stop doing so.” (Pg. 119) Bin Laden seems to operate under an eye-for-an-eye type of system where America has already blinded the Islamic eyes and thus merited their behavior. 

Ultimately Bin Laden wanted to defeat America by bleeding its economy dry; he hoped that with America bankrupt they would have to withdraw from the Middle East and cut aid to Israel. Bin Laden said his authority to attack America came from his beliefs that reflected a type of Hammurabi’s Code and he spread his anti-American ideology by directing his words and statements at his enemies. He did this to expose the double standards he felt America held terrorism’s definition against and to highlight themes of justice, humiliation, and his suspicion of the Bush administration. His rhetoric is dangerous to the degree that it legitimized radical violence in a logically barbaric fashion, and if that is influential enough to the influence the modern ignorant, then it becomes an issue.

Source

Bin Laden, Osama. Messages to the world: the statements of Osama Bin Laden.Verso. London.   

2005. Pgs. 23-30; 106-129; 133-138