On October 7, 2001, “Osama bin Laden issued a statement on the 9/11 attacks. ‘There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that. What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation [the Islamic world] has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds.’ ”
– Rowenna Davis, “Bin Laden: The War in His Words,” The Guardian, May 2, 2011