[NYTr] Bin Laden's new image: younger, more Marxist

Thu Sep 13 18:08:10 EDT 2007

[Interesting... Looks like Hugo Chavez is having an effect even in the
mountains of Pakistan-Afghanistan -NYTr]

Christian Science Monitor - Sep 13, 2007
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0913/p09s01-coop.html

Bin Laden's new image: younger, more Marxist

The former multimillionaire now blames global capitalism and class for
the tragedies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Fawaz A. Gerges
BRONXVILLE, N.Y.

AFTER A THREE-YEAR absence, Osama bin Laden has resurfaced in another of
his rousing videotapes, only this time with a new image and a new
message. Projecting a younger look, Mr. bin Laden gives his most
ideological address since the early 1990s with an assault on capitalism
and liberal democracy loaded with Marxist and socialist terms. Indeed,
this new bin Laden sounds more like Che Guevara, the Marxist
revolutionary, than some of his rifle-toting Al Qaeda cohorts.

Gone is bin Laden's vintage militaristic appearance. He has exchanged
his fatigues and Kalashnikov for a white robe, circular cap, and beige
cloak, giving him an aura of clerical wisdom. The new bin Laden
portrays himself as a spiritual figure, not a grizzled soldier.

His gray beard is dyed black and trimmed neatly, which is actually an
old tradition dating back to the birth of Islam; the prophet Muhammad
reportedly dyed his hair and recommended, while at war, that his
commanders and soldiers dye theirs to strike fear in the enemy.

In the video, bin Laden addresses Americans and rails against the ills
of economic exploitation, multinational corporations, and
globalization. He tells them to liberate themselves from "the
deception, shackles, and attrition of the capitalist system." Similar
to his incitement of Muslims against their oppressive, "apostate"
rulers and the meddlesome West, bin Laden now seems to be trying to
galvanize Americans against their own harsh socioeconomic and political
system.

"Poor and exploited Americans, unite against your capitalist laws that
make the rich richer and the poor poorer," the former multimillionaire
businessman tells the camera. Never before has bin Laden utilized the
grandiose language of Marxism in his statements to the American people.
And yet, he says, Muslims and Americans are alike; they are both victims
of the capitalist system, which "seeks to turn the entire world into a
fiefdom of the major corporations under the label of 'globalization' in
order to protect democracy."

While in the past bin Laden emphasized the clash of cultures and
religions as the basis for confrontation, he now talks about
commonalities of victimhood and suffering. He blames the global system
of capital and class for the tragedies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the
poverty of Africa, and "the reeling of many [Americans] under the
burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes, and real estate
mortgages." According to the new bin Laden, big capital, class
interests, and multinationals  not religion or culture are responsible
for perpetuating war and killing.

Similarly, bin Laden had never before made distinctions between the
American people and their leaders, but now he says that Americans, like
Muslims, are victims of profiteering and the corporations that control
the political process and media.

Even though this new video is a dramatic departure from his usual
religious rhetoric, bin Laden tells Americans to convert because Islam
will set them "free," ridding them of the "warmongering owners of the
major corporations." Religion is offered as a means to resolve the
crisis of exploitative capital and war industry.

Surprisingly, the son of Arabia, known for his religious intolerance and
fanaticism, is eager not to offend the religious sensibility of
Americans. He urges them to read the Koran and learn firsthand about
Islam and how the "prophet" Jesus and his mother are mentioned dozens
of times. "Don't be turned away from Islam by the terrible situation of
the Muslims today," he says, reading from papers in front of him, "for
our rulers in general abandoned Islam many decades ago, but our
fore-fathers were the leaders and pioneers of the world for many
centuries, when they held firmly to Islam."

Intentionally or unintentionally, bin Laden is venturing into a new
ideological terrain. He is blurring the lines between jihadist
messianism and Marxist utopia, which might, in turn, throw his die-hard
Salafi supporters off balance.

Militant Salafism, a hard-line sect within Sunni Islam, follows a
literalist interpretation of the Koran and is suspicious of
philosophical innovation. Marx's conception of material history,
rendered exclusively in terms of economic impulses, is thus
incompatible with Al Qaeda's brand of Islamicism.

What will Salafis make of bin Laden's recent choice to emphasize a
socialist critique of Western capitalist-democracy rather than Koranic
legitimization? Militant Islamists are most likely elated by the
emergence of their beloved sheikh, but at the same time bewildered by
his ideological language and terms of references.

While US officials scrutinize the video for clues of new attacks, they
seem to be losing sight of its strategic propagandist value. Bin Laden
does not have to give signals to strike inside the US. Al Qaeda Central
and the US are already waging war, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's No.
2, is apparently the operational commander these days, not bin Laden.

Bin Laden's address is a new twist in the ideological struggle for
hearts and minds, mostly because it targets Westerners and Americans.
Obviously, bin Laden and his senior associates feel confident to expand
their propaganda campaign in the other war  the war of ideas.

[Fawaz A. Gerges, who has just returned from a 15-month sabbatical in
the Middle East, is a professor at Sarah Lawrence College and author of
"Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy" and "The Far Enemy:
Why Jihad Went Global." ]