Declaration of WAR

February 23, 1998

Statement signed by Shiekh Usama Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu-Yasir Rifai Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Shiekh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh;

Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war"; who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that non one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders."

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples. So now they come to annihilate what it left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.

If the Americans’ aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from it's occupation of Jerusalem and murder Muslims there.

All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and the Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the Jihad is an individuality if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadama in "al-Muughhni," Imam al-Kasai in “AQl-Badai,” al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said “As for the militant struggle, it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life.”

On that bases, and in compliance with Allah’s order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies-civilians and military- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it. This is an accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, “and fight the pagans all together as they fight you together,” and “fight them until there is no more tumult and oppression, and their prevail justice and faith in Allah.”

- I typed this all out (whew!) from one of my school books; Unveiling Islam by Ergun and Emir Caner, which I have been reading as part of our religion course.

These Muslim extremists are not dumb. They are not blindly and irrationally picking fights with people they happen to dislike. The Muslims are a people driven by devotion to a strict faith in Allah. They fight people because of one reason: we do not worship Allah. We, as non-Muslims, are evil, blind infidels and thus must be killed. Hence the declaration of war on America. You may wonder what the plane hijackers on 9/11 were thinking as they flew into the world trade centers. Well, I’ll tell you. Most likely they were praying to Allah, praising Him and thanking Him for this chance to die with honor. To them, it is honorable to kill and to die for Allah… to us, it is a blessing to live and give life for Christ.
If you thought that the people we are fighting are negotiable people, think again. If you are a Christian or reject Islamic thinking, than you are automatically worth killing, period. Terrorists are not nice people, and I, personally, am SO thankful to our troops for keeping them out of my home.

God bless the re-builders of such rich heritage; Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jennifer