Breaking Al-Qaeda Code Islamically: New OBL Video Possibly Announcement Of His Death
Filed under: Suicide, Terrorism, Islam, Politics, Religion ? eteraz @ 8:56 pm
Osama Bin Laden recently emerged in a new video from Al-Qaeda in a 37 second clip, praising martyrdom. The rest of the forty minutes of the video was some kind of collage/montage of Al-Qaeda activity.
As quickly uncovered, the images of Osama are from a video shot in October 2001. Compare the pictures, including the leaves above him and the mountains behind him (h/t Hot Air):
The last time Osama corresponded with the world wasn?t in a video. It was in an audiotape posted last July when he was talking about Iraqi Shi?a doing genocide upon the Sunnis. Why didn?t they do a video of him then? I suspect that he was either too ill or too injured to make one. Add to that the fact that Zawahiri has been all over the place with the videos, as well as the fact that in a forty minute video, Osama Bin Laden barely gets one minute, and you start to suspect that Osama bin Laden is either dead or incapacitated (or in a condition that his appearance wouldn?t arouse any confidence). That?s not it.
I am most intrigued by the actual statements that Osama is saying in this, the most recent clip. He essentially repeats this hadith:
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 54:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, ?By Him in Whose Hands my life is! Were it not for some men amongst the believers who dislike to be left behind me and whom I cannot provide with means of conveyance, I would certainly never remain behind any Sariya? (army-unit) setting out in Allah?s Cause. By Him in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to be martyred in Al1ah?s Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred and then get resurrected again and then get martyred.
This is obviously speculation, but given the fact that I?ve done Muslim sermons, I know that it is sometimes the case that the khatib will use a verse of the Quran, or a hadith narration, instead of using his own words. The reason for this is that by appealing to the religious texts, you are able to make a higher, more authoritative appeal. It is possible, therefore, that whoever edits the Al-Qaeda videos ? presumably under Zawahiri?s direction ? might be putting the idea of Osama Bin Laden?s love for martyrdom out in the mainstream in order to prepare the troops for the imminent(?) announcement of his death as a ?martyr.? They may have been saving this clip just for that reason. This way they might be able to say: ?ah, brother bin Laden was always seeking his own martyrdom, just a few months ago we saw him appeal to that martyrdom hadith, and now look how prophetic were his words!?
This would be great theological marketing because a) it allows Al-Qaeda to spin Osama as a martyrdom seeking dead guy (despite the fact that he always avoided personal combat, preferring running and hiding to fighting); b) it allows Al-Qaeda to set the ground for presenting Osama Bin Laden as a prophet, who had prophesized his own death. This trick, in a far more trivial way, was used by both Tupac and Biggie Smalls? handlers who, after the death of the rappers, released two songs that seemed to predict their killings (in Tupac?s case it was the Makavelli video). Such trickery is called reverse engineering a prophecy. It occurs with leaders all over the place. Even Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr?s handers insisted that those two leaders had a premonition of their killing before it happened.
Unless there is actual confirmation from Al-Q or the CIA that Osama is dead, nothing will be certain. It should be noted that it goes against Al-Qaeda?s interests to reveal Osama?s death?just now. They probably want to make Zawahiri?s publicity blitz (8 videos in one year) get off the ground and link him to some ?success? before they say that the mantle has been passed. Who knows, maybe the ?doctors bombing? in London was supposed to set the stage. A bunch of doctors carry out a massive killing and then the physician Zawahiri uses that to announce his ascension. Point is, Zawahiri is on the up and up, and Osama Bin Laden is speaking in hadith-form about martyrdom. This is not a coincidence.
Yes, it is possible that Al-Qaeda wants to take the pressure off OBL by *suggesting* that OBL is dead so he can continue master-minding in relative peace. A terrorist leader presumed to be dead is far more dangerous than a terrorist leader presumed to be alive (that was actually the plot of a Bollywood film about Kashmiri terrorists).
I realize that by the time I appeal to a Bollywood film, the speculative nature of the post becomes even more clear.
Still, I can?t get past the correlation between Zawahiri?s rise, the appeal to that particular hadith, Osama?s longstanding absence from video appearances, and the general way that Muslims often intersperse their speech with appeals to Quran and hadith.
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