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Text of al Queda statement by Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
10/10/2001By The Associated Press
Translation of the statement in Arabic Tuesday by Osama bin Laden spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Abu Ghaith opened with a verse from the Quran instructing Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as their leaders, saying that would make them part of them:
``Peace be upon Mohammad our prophet and those who follow him.
``I direct this message to the entire Islamic nation, and I say to them that all sides today have come together against the nation of Islam and the Muslims.
``This is the crusade that (President) Bush has promised us, coming toward Afghanistan against the Islamic nation and the Afghan people. We are living under this bombardment from the crusade, which is also targeting the whole Islamic community.
``We have a fair and just case.
``The Islamic nation, for more than 80 years, has been suffering. The Palestinian people have been living under the Jewish and Zionist occupation; nobody moves to help them. Here we are, this is an Arab land, this is a land that is being desecrated, people have come to take its wealth.
``The nation must know that terror and the terror of the United States is only a trick. Is it possible that America and its allies would kill and that would not be called terrorism?
``And when the victim comes out to take revenge, it is called terrorism. This must not be acceptable.
``America must know that the nation will not keep quiet any more and will not allow what happens against it. Jihad today is a religious duty of every Muslim if they haven't got an excuse. God says fight, for the sake of God and to uphold the name of God.
``The American interests are everywhere all over the world. Every Muslim has to play his real and true role to uphold his religion and his nation in fighting, and jihad is a duty.
(A second Quran verse, saying Muslims should fight those who oppress them.)
``I want to talk on another point, that those youths who did what they did and destroyed America with their airplanes did a good deed. They have moved the battle into the heart of America. America must know that the battle will not leave its land, God willing, until America leaves our land, until it stops supporting Israel, until it stops the blockade against Iraq.
``The Americans must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop, God willing, and there are thousands of young people who are as keen about death as Americans are about life.
``The Americans must know that by invading the land of Afghanistan they have opened a new page of enmity and struggle between us and the forces of the unbelievers. We will fight them with the material and the spiritual strength that we have, and our faith in God. We shall be victorious.
``The Americans have opened a door that will never be closed.
``At the end, I address the sons and the young Muslims, the men and women, for them to take their responsibility. The land of Afghanistan and the mujahedin are being subjected to a full crusade with the objective of getting rid of the Islamic nation. The nation must take up its response and in the end I thank God for allowing us to start this jihad. This battle is a decisive battle between faithlessness and faith. And I ask God to give us victory in the face of our enemy and return them defeated.