Translation of bin Laden's Videotaped Speech
NewsMax.com
Monday October 8, 2001
I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammad is his
messenger.
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 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.
When God blessed one of the groups of Islam, vanguards of Islam, they
destroyed America. I pray to God to elevate their status and bless them.
Millions of innocent children are being killed as I speak. They are
being killed in Iraq without committing any sins, and we don't hear
condemnation or a fatwa (a religious decree - ed.) from the rulers. In these
days, Israeli tanks infest Palestine - in Jenin, Ramallah, Rafah, Beit
Jalla, and other places in the land of Islam, and we don't hear anyone
raising his voice or moving a limb.
When the sword comes down, after 80 years, hypocrisy rears
its ugly head. They deplore and they lament for those killers, who have
abused the blood, honor and sanctuaries of Muslims. The least that can
be said about those people is that they are debauched. They have
followed injustice. They supported the butcher over the victim, the
oppressor over the innocent child. May God show them His wrath and give
them what they deserve.
I say that the situation is clear and obvious. After this event, after
the senior officials have spoken in America, starting with the head of
infidels worldwide, Bush, and those with him. They have come out in
force with their men and have turned even the countries that belong to
Islam to this treachery, and they want to wag their tail at God, to
fight Islam, to suppress people in the name of terrorism.
When people at the ends of the earth, Japan, were killed by their
hundreds of thousands, young and old, it was not considered a war crime,
it is something that has justification. Millions of children in Iraq is
something that has justification. But when they lose dozens of people in
Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Iraq was struck and Afghanistan was struck. Hypocrisy stood in force behind the head of
infidels worldwide, behind the cowards of this age, America and those
who are with it.
These events have divided the whole world into two sides. The side of
believers and the side of infidels, may God keep you away from them.
Every Muslim has to rush to make his religion victorious. The winds of
faith have come. The winds of change have come to eradicate oppression
from the island of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
To America, I say only a few words to it and its people. I swear by God,
who has elevated the skies without pillars, neither America nor the
people who live in it will dream of security before we live it in
Palestine, and not before all the infidel armies leave the land of
Muhammad, peace be upon him.
God is great, may pride be with Islam. May peace and God's mercy be upon
you.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
War on Terrorism