In a statement issued on February 23, 1998, and titled Al-Qaeda’s Declaration of War Against Americans, Osama bin Laden wrote: ” ‘Never since Allah made the Arabian peninsula flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas has it been stormed by any force like the Crusader hordes that have spread in it like locusts, […]
Category: quotes
2/23/1998
“On February 23, 1998, the ‘World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders’ issues a fatwa, a declaration of war, signed by bin Laden. (Bin Laden had taken control of the group only weeks before, according to Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper that serves as a bulletin board for militant Muslims.)” – Richard […]
2/23/1998
Regarding the possible Iraq/al Qaeda connection, author Richard Miniter wrote: “Bin Laden’s February 23, 1998, call for jihad lists three grievances: that U.S. warplanes use bases in Saudi Arabia to patrol the skies of Iraq, that United Nations sanctions have caused grievous suffering in Iraq, and that America’s Iraq policy is designed to divert attention […]
2/23/1998
“Dr. [Ayman] al-Zawahiri, the surgeon who had become the group’s [Egyptian Islamic Jihad’s] leader, began forging an alliance with bin Laden. In February [23] 1998, he signed the declaration announcing The Islamic Front for Fighting Crusaders and Jews. Its goals included attacking American military and civilian targets. The move caused a split within Egyptian Islamic […]
2/23/1998
“In February [23] 1998, from a camp at Zawar Kili, near Khost in southern Afghanistan, Bin Laden issued a second declaration of war against the U.S., and announced a merger of Al Qaeda with organizations from Pakistan, Egypt, and from across Africa.” Bin Laden declared a new strategy: ” ‘To kill Americans and their allies, […]
2/23/1998
“On February 23, 1998, in Khost, Afghanistan, the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, founded by bin Laden…made an appeal for worldwide terror: ‘It is the duty of every Muslim to kill Americans and their allies, military or civilian, wherever possible. This obligation remains in force until al-Aksa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and […]
2/23/1998
In February 23, 1998, “Bin Laden issues [a] joint declaration with the Islamic Group, Al Jihad, the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh and the ‘Jamaat ul Ulema e Pakistan’ under the banner of the ‘World Islamic Front,’ which stated that Muslims should kill Americans including civilians–anywhere in the world.” – “Hunting Bin Laden; Who is Bin […]
2/23/1998
“On February 23, 1998, bin Laden held a press conference to present the world with a manifesto from the newly formed International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. Signed by Islamist extremist leaders from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, the document accused the United States of ‘occupying the most sacred lands of […]
2/23/1998
In bin Laden’s ‘World Islamic Front Statement Urging Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders,’ signed on February, 23, 1998, he wrote: ” ‘for over seven years, the United States has been occupying the most sacred of the Islamic lands, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and […]
2/23/1998
“Bin Laden’s declaration of war [on August 23, 1996] was followed eighteen months later by a fatwa ordering and authorizing ‘jihad against the Crusaders and Jews’ and announcing the creation of the ‘World Islamic Front against Crusaders and Jews,’ an organization composed of al-Qaeda, [Ayman] al-Zawahiri’s EIJ [Egyptian Islamic Jihad], and four other Islamist groups. […]