The reason we've made these mistakes, he argues, is that we fail to understand that bin Laden doesn't hate us because of our freedom. Or, rather, while he does hate the licentiousness and modernity that the U.S. represents, it's not what compels him to declare war on us. Nor does an anti-modernist bent explain bin Laden's appeal across the Muslim world. Instead, it's what Anonymous identifies as six points bin Laden repeatedly cites in his communiqués:
U.S. support for Israel that keeps the Palestinians in the Israelis' thrall;
U.S. and other Western troops on the Arabian peninsula;
U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan;
U.S. support for Russia, India and China against their Muslim militants;
U.S. pressure on Arab energy producers to keep oil prices low;
U.S. support for apostate, corrupt and tyrannical Muslim governments.
Combined with his charismatic biography, bin Laden's strategic success has been to frame these arguments through a Koranic prism, "to convince everyone that U.S. policy is deliberately anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic," he says. Bin Laden's critique presents in resonant Islamic terminology a coherent jihadist explanation for practically everything Muslims can find offensive about the U.S.--the most deadly slippery slope there is. And the more Americans insist on treating bin Laden's anger with the U.S. as a pure hatred of freedom, the less equipped we'll be to answer him in a battle of ideas.
U.S. support for Israel that keeps the Palestinians in the Israelis' thrall;
U.S. and other Western troops on the Arabian peninsula;
U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan;
U.S. support for Russia, India and China against their Muslim militants;
U.S. pressure on Arab energy producers to keep oil prices low;
U.S. support for apostate, corrupt and tyrannical Muslim governments.
Combined with his charismatic biography, bin Laden's strategic success has been to frame these arguments through a Koranic prism, "to convince everyone that U.S. policy is deliberately anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic," he says. Bin Laden's critique presents in resonant Islamic terminology a coherent jihadist explanation for practically everything Muslims can find offensive about the U.S.--the most deadly slippery slope there is. And the more Americans insist on treating bin Laden's anger with the U.S. as a pure hatred of freedom, the less equipped we'll be to answer him in a battle of ideas.
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