Walid Phares at the Counterterrorism Blog (thanks to JS) has compiled a useful summary of the main points in the Osama tape — including “twenty ‘marching orders.” Here they are, with some brief comments interspersed:
Twenty “marching orders”
* One a long attack on the Cartoons crisis: Blood is needed to cleanse the matter.
Why is this a capital offense? Not because Muhammad was depicted; otherwise the Egyptian paper that ran the cartoons would be in the same hot water. The real offense here is that infidels lampooned the Prophet — a capital offense according to the traditional dhimmi laws.
* Two, there is a Western war on Muslims and Islam.
This is laughable to any Jihad Watch reader who knows the lengths to which Western governments have gone to avoid this perception — even to the point of compromising their own security — but Osama needs to propagate this idea because there is no caliph. In traditional Islamic theology, offensive jihad can only be called by the caliph. But if a Muslim land is attacked by infidels, jihad becomes fard ayn — the individual responsibility of every Muslim. So Osama has to couch all his activity in defensive terms, both to justify it and to try to compel Muslims to join his ranks.
*Three, Western policy towards Hamas proves this aggression.
What has the West done to Hamas? Cut off the jizya. This is aggression? Yes — if your core assumption is that all the world’s bounty belongs to the Muslims, and the Infidels only hold it illegitimately. Bruce Bawer discusses another manifestation of this assumption in While Europe Slept: an Oslo imam who told his flock that since the Infidels weren’t paying the jizya, it was perfectly permissible to steal from them.
* Four, the United Nations is an infidel and criminal institution.
Osama, meet Kofi. You should find him very useful.
* Five, there is a Western-infidel aggression against Muslim Sudan. The Black southerners are bandits and the Darfur Blacks are agents of the infidels
Why aren’t Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton out there protesting against Osama’s jihadist racism? The Darfur Blacks are Muslims. They just aren’t Muslim enough for Osama. The Black southerners are Christians — this is an out-and-out jihad war against Infidels.
* Six, Iraq’s Jihad is to stop future US military bases
* Seven, a cultural invasion is underway: Arab TVs are to be stopped, Muslim liberals to be killed
For years now I have documented the threats and violence to which liberal Muslims are subjected by the mujahedin. This tends to dampen prospects for large-scale Islamic reform.
* Eight, France is to be punished for the female Hijab affair
Here again, absolute accommodation to Islam is required of the West. This is a manifestation of the assumption of Islamic supremacy. Osama wouldn’t dream of calling on Islamic states to grant equality of rights to non-Muslims. The accommodation is all one way, because non-Muslims are inferior to Muslims and don’t deserve equality.
* Nine, Bosnia’s Muslims were not salvaged by the West
Here again, Osama doesn’t know who his friends — and his useful idiots — really are.
* Ten, The independence of East Timor is a defeat to the Muslims
And it is — from the standpoint of the assumption that Islamic law must ultimately be imposed everywhere.
* Eleven, India and the Hindus are the enemies in Kashmir
* Twelve, Pakistan’s Musharraf is to be killed
* Thirteen, Russia must be punished
* Fourteen: Salman Rushdie is not to be forgotten
All justifications for more violence.
* Fifteen: The masses in the infidel lands think like their leaders. Their public (enemies) is responsible
This is a justification for attacks on civilians, a la 9/11.
* Sixteen: Calls for Dialogue with the West are to be rejected
Calls for dialogue with the West would only be acceptable to Osama if the Muslims were in his estimation losing the jihad. A hudna, or truce, is only permissible for a temporary period, to allow the Muslims to gather strength to fight again more effectively.
I know he called for a hudna some time ago. If this tape is really new, he has a better opinion of the Muslims’ prospects now.
* Seventeen: Do not trust the “traitors” including Muftis and moderate clerics
* Eighteen: King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia ignores world realities
* Nineteen: (Western) civilization is attacking ours
* Twenty: It is of the duty of all members of the Umma to offer everything for Jihad, including their lives.
Nothing much new in these. Just more justifications of violence and calls for Muslims to join the struggle.