Al-Tabatabai clearly shares Osama’s vision of an Islamized America. He just doesn’t think his strategy is as effective as it could be. From MEMRI (thanks to all who sent this in):
In a letter to Osama bin Laden, published in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan, Kuwaiti MP Dr. Walid Al-Tabatabai, from the Islamic bloc in the Kuwaiti parliament, praised the jihad fighters’ activities and advised him on avoiding mistakes in the jihad that Al-Qaeda is waging.
Al-Tabatabai’s letter, which came in response to the speech by bin Laden that was broadcast on September 11, 2007, appealed to bin Laden to distinguish between fighting the American invader and attacking the Muslims, and to refrain from random operations which harmed innocents because such operations damaged the image of jihad and sabotaged the spreading of Islam. Al-Tabatabai also called on bin Laden to consult with Muslim clerics in order to reassess Al-Qaeda’s activities and avoid mistakes in the future.
[…]
Al-Tabatai wrote: “…The author of this letter (i.e. Tabatabai) is one of those who appreciate and honor the jihad that you carried out during the liberation of Afghanistan from the Soviet Russian invasion… Your most recent speech, which the media broadcast several days ago, aroused in me many questions regarding its negative impact, considering that it was lacking a political dimension. Unfortunately, the speech was like a lifesaver to the American president, who is dealing with great internal pressures to withdraw his forces from Iraq… Thus, commentators said that Bush found what he wished for in this speech, since [bin Laden] provided [Bush] with clear-cut evidence of [the need] to restrain his adversaries: That is, the continued presence of the U.S. military in Iraq is for the sake of defending the entire American people from the ongoing Al-Qaeda threat… Your speech damaged all the efforts underway to speed up the American exit from Iraq — unless you are not interested in this!!
“Also, Sheikh Osama, how can you preach to the American people [to join] Islam when you boldly acknowledge that you are behind the killing of thousands of them in 9/11? Don’t you think… that this will arouse in them revulsion towards Islam? You must either call on them to join Islam by making them to want to, with beautiful words, or you must fight them. But when you declare war against them and fight them, and at the same time preach to them to join Islam — these two things do not sit well with each other; moreover, they will only increase [the Americans’] hostility towards the Muslims, their hatred of Islam, and their revulsion towards it.”
Read it all.