Osama Bin Laden’s Claimed Motivations for 9/11 are False Essay

Osama Bin Laden’s Claimed Motivations for 9/11 are False Where did the animosity which lead to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001 originate? It is obvious at this point in time that the leader of the al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden, was the mastermind behind the attacks, but the reasons why the attacks occurred and the fact that a small majority of people can support such acts remains very unclear. Osama bin Laden stated in his February 1998 Fatwah, â€Å"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies- civilians and military- is an individual duty for every Muslim.† When examining the three direct reasons given by Osama bin Laden to kill Americans his reasoning based on factual evidence veers far from the truth and his reasoning based on religion is not a true reflection of the Islamic religion thus creating an illogical argument. Osama bin Laden’s reasons for killing Americans and their allies are insufficient in the sense that his claims about United State’s motivations are wrong and that his justific ations are not rooted in the Muslim religion. In looking specifically at each of Osama bin Laden’s reasons their invalidity as well as, their true purpose, to create an uprising amongst his followers to succeed in his Fatwah, to kill Americans and their allies becomes apparent. Osama bin Laden refers to his reasons as facts. In his first fact he addresses the issue of the United States presence in Holy Middle Eastern places. He believes that the United States is there for the wealth and not only to harass Iraq, but other Muslim countries. Osama bin Laden must have forgotten that in Iraq invading Kuwait it was a breech of International Law and had that not happened the United States presence would not have r... ... Islamic countries. Bernard Lewis also raised an additional point that Osama bin Laden felt he had to fight the United States because there was no one else who could since the fall of the Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden has made such allegations against the United States not because they are true, but only to help him in his ultimate goal of proving to the World that the Islamic world can defend itself and that he is capable of it. He also made such allegations to try to unite the Islamic world in hopes that an Islamic state may rise. Works Cited Alexander, Yonah, and Swetnam, Michael S., Usama bin Laden’s al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network, Transnational Publishers, September 2001 Bergen, Peter, Holy War, New York: Free Press, 2001 Lewis, Bernard, The Revolt of Islam, The New Yorker, November 19. 2001 Miller, Judith, Interview PBS, 2001