Al-Jazeera
aired only four minutes of Osama bin Laden's videotape
released last week, leaving the media to guess about
what the remaining 14 minutes might contain. An
anonymous source sent me what purports to be a
transcript of the rest of the tape. I cannot
vouch for its authenticity, but it is just what I would
have said if I were Osama bin Laden.
Here is
what Osama bin Laden supposedly said:
"People of
America, it does not matter whom you choose as
president. Islam will prevail. We do not have to fight
you; we merely have to let you destroy yourselves. The
Great Satan is a monster that devours its children.
"Slanderers claim that I represent an
authoritarian form of Islam. But what has the freedom of
the modern world done to your Christianity? Religion has
died in Europe. You have done even worse. Like
everything in the Greater America of globalization, you
have turned religion into a consumer goods. Americans
choose among 139 major brands of Christianity. Your old
churches close for lack of worshippers, and you build
new churches in shopping malls where religion is sold
along with sausages. [1]
"You have made a modern
world, and you brand us as relics of a tenebrous past.
You say that we are violent, but you have raised your
children in a nightmare of violence unlike anything the
world has seen before. By the time an American child
reaches the age of 18, he will have seen on television
40,000 murders and 200,000 other acts of violence. [2]
"Slanderers in your midst say that Islam
oppresses women. Islam protects the modesty of women
with purdah and the veil. You turn your women
into whores. You cannot turn on your television without
hearing a vulgar mention of sex every three minutes. [3]
"Not only do your children incessantly observe
violence and sex, but you give them the means to play at
it. The most popular computer game for American
children, called Grand Theft Auto, encourages the player
to buy relations with a prostitute and afterward beat
her to death.
"Slanderers in your midst claim
that Islam promotes violence against women. Your worship
of the flesh provokes women to commit violence against
themselves. At American universities, two out of five
female students starve themselves or vomit up their food
in a perverse attempt to fit the criteria for sexual
attractiveness established by your fashion industry. [4]
"Your evil will destroy your seed. It is not
merely the fatherless and despised, the poor and
outcast, who wither and perish in the contaminated soil
of America, but the coddled offspring of your prosperous
elites. You have given your young people freedom, but it
has only brought them misery. You have depraved them
with your false promise of freedoms and left them with
nothing but terror of the world, to the point that one
in six of your university students suffers a mental
illness. [5]
"People of America, your leaders
falsely tell you that jihadis love death rather than
life. It is true that life to us means more than the
material existence on this Earth, but also life
everlasting - but did not your prophets tell you the
same thing? If we hate life, why do we have more
children than you? The population of the Arab world
doubled during the 20 years between 1978 and 1998, and
between 1998 and 2010 will have grown by yet another
third. [6]
"It is you, not us, who foster a culture
of death. Where in the Muslim world can you find a form
of music such as 'death metal', which revels in the
putrefaction of human flesh? Groups with names like
Cannibal Corpse have sold scores of millions of records.
This, O Americans, is the blessing progress which you
propose in your benevolence to bestow upon Muslim youth?
It would be better to learn from us how to cut a flute
from a reed. [7]
"One candidate tells you that he
will enlist foreign allies in your crusade against us.
These supposed allies are the ones who love death. In
half a century the number of Europeans will fall by 50
million, because the Europeans no longer love life
enough to bring new life into this world. Three hundred
and twenty years ago a Muslim army stood before the
gates of Vienna, and Europe barely escaped conversion to
the true faith at swordpoint. During the next
half-century Muslims will wander into Europe and
replenish the half-empty towns with people, and the
sound of children's voices once again will be heard -
but in Arabic.
"Because they hate life, your
supposed allies are cowards. Half a millennium ago the
Spanish empire drove Islam from its territory; this year
a few bombs at a railway station panicked the pathetic
remnants of Spain into retreat from Iraq. You are fools
to count on them. Even the Zionist Bernard Lewis admits
that Islam will prevail in Europe before the end of this
century.
"People of America, your soldiers are
brave but your leaders are fools. You tremble at the
loss of a thousand lives in Iraq. Perhaps with another
thousand, and a thousand more, you will establish the
peace of the cemetery in the cities of the Mesopotamian
plain for another month or another year. We do not think
in terms of next month, or next year. We look with hope
and resolution toward the victory of our children's
children, who will dominate Europe. Their children's
children will dominate America.
"Abandon the
false hope of freedom and submit to Allah. You cannot go
back to the traditional life of your forefathers,
because the monster of globalization has plowed it
under. Not an American in 20 could find his way back to
the village of his great-grandfather. You cannot go
forward, because your souls are too weak to find a way
through the pitfalls of the modern world. Like the
Europeans, you too will become weary of life, weary of
raising children, weary of your mastery - and the world
will belong to us.
"Have a nice day."
Notes
[1] US megachurches bring shopping mall theology to thirtysomethings. 'As Americans like going to shopping malls for all their consumer needs in one spot, so self-styled "megachurches" are the fastest growing form of service in the country. They offer a one-stop spiritual supermarket. A cafe sells food and drinks. Baptisms are conducted at a pool to one side where "warm water" is promised. There are picnic spots and walks through manicured gardens in addition to church softball and basketball teams. Parties are held for singles to meet fellow believers. The church's target market is the thirtysomethings, many now with young children, who are seeking to return to religion. Having grown up in an era of consumerism they are looking not only for God in a church, but also a variety of facilities.'
[3] Wired for Raunch. "The overall combined per-hour rate of sexual references, use of coarse language, and instances of violence was 21.7."
[4] Psychology Today, November/December 2004, p 62: "Anorexia or bulimia in florid or subclinical form now afflicts 40 percent of women at some time in their college career."
[5] Loc Cit. "The University of Michigan Depression Center … estimates that 15 percent of college students are suffering from that disorder alone."
vouch for its authenticity, but it is just what I would
have said if I were Osama bin Laden. 
