Characteristically, no one is picking up on the significance of the dye job. The Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black “except when the intention is jihad…as a show of strength to unbelievers” (‘Umdat al-Salik e.4.4). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, says essentially the same thing: “Some of the early Muslims, including some
I am not impressed. I think it makes him look like an aging lounge lizard. But the belligerent overtones should not be overlooked.
“U.S. scrutinizes bin Laden video,” by Randall Mikkelsen for Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government has obtained a copy of a purported new videotape of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and is studying it, U.S. officials said on Friday.
“We can confirm that the U.S. government has the video and it is being analyzed,” one official said on condition of anonymity.
An Islamist Web site said earlier on Friday it would soon show a new video of bin Laden — the first in nearly three years — to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The Web site published a still photograph apparently from the video, which showed bin Laden looking older than in previously available pictures. However, a photo that Western analysts said accompanied the video announcement showed bin Laden’s beard black rather than gray as in pictures from recent years.
Al Jazeera television said the footage, produced by al Qaeda’s media arm, was likely to be shown within 72 hours.
A U.S. intelligence official said of the tape, “We’re analyzing it. We need to take a look at it to see whether it’s old or new and we’re doing it very quickly.”