Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden Paperback - 2005

“A magnificent piece of eloquent, at times even poetic Arabic prose ... in devising strategies to fight the terrorists, it would be useful to understand the forces that drive them.”—Bernard Lewis, Foreign Affairs

“Expertly edited.”—Boyd Tonkin, Independent

“Western media have made no consistent effort to publish bin Laden’s statements, thereby failing to give their audience the words that put his thoughts and actions in cultural and historical context ... Bin Laden has been precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us. None of the reasons have anything to do with our freedom, liberty and democracy, but have everything to do with US policies and actions in the Muslim world.”—Michael Scheuer

“Despite the religious rhetoric and the bloody means, bin Laden is a rational man. There is a simple reason why he attacked the US: American imperialism. As long as America seeks to control the Middle East, he and people like him will be its enemy.”—Michael Mann

“This vital collection of Bin Laden’s statements ... provides an invaluable insight into his thinking by bringing his disparate pronouncements within a single set of covers.”—Malise Ruthven, Sunday Times

“Here, with a shrewd, scholarly introduction from Bruce Lawrence, is the complete bin Laden reader.”—Peter Preston, Observer

“Collectively, these messages are the closest we will ever have to the terrorist leader’s Mein Kampf.”—Mary Braid, Independent on Sunday

“The first complete collection of the Saudi’s statements published today portrays a world in which Islam’s enemies will take the first steps towards salvation by embracing the ‘religion of all the Prophets.’”—Daily Telegraph

Osama bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founding leader of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.

Bruce Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University. He is the author of New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life, Shattering the Myth, and Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age.