by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n A<\/span>s with every message directed to the West, Osama bin Laden\u2019s most recent address begins and ends with his hallmark sentence: \u201cPeace to whoever follows guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n What exactly are Americans and Europeans to understand by this simple statement?<\/p>\n Considering that it is always anchored in messages rife with grievances and accusations, which culminate with threats of reciprocal treatment, those addressed most likely assume that bin Laden\u2019s \u201cguidance\u201d is for the West to terminate hostilities against the Islamic world, and thereby purchase peace for itself.<\/p>\n In fact, \u201cpayback\u201d \u2014 you attack us, we attack you \u2014 is the over-arching theme of al Qaeda\u2019s propaganda. For instance, in this last message he states early on, \u201cAn eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.\u201d In past communiqu\u00e9s, bin Laden has said things like: \u201cThe time to settle accounts has arrived: just as you kill, so shall you be killed; just as you bomb, so shall you be bombed. Expect more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n In context, then, the overall impression that bin Laden gives, suggests that whoever follows \u201cright guidance\u201d \u2014 i.e. whoever follows his advice and deals \u201cjustly\u201d with Islam \u2014 will have peace. Live and let live.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, a long and bellicose history revolves around this seemingly peaceful proverb \u2014 \u201cpeace to whoever follows guidance\u201d\u2014 and it is a history of which those addressed are often quite unaware. Bin Laden is not the originator of this statement; it was, in fact, first uttered by the prophet of Islam, Mohammed, and had nothing to do with \u201cpayback,\u201d or a desire to live and let live.<\/p>\n After Mohammad had converted most of Arabia to Islam by the power of the sword, he set his sight on his neighbors \u2014 including the Byzantine Christians to the north and west (known in the Arabic sources simply as \u201cthe Romans\u201d).<\/p>\n I<\/span>t is in this context of war and rumors of wars that bin Laden\u2019s oft-quoted proverb was first made. Addressing the Christian emperor, Heraclius, Mohammed sent the following terse message in the year 628 AD:<\/p>\n In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the Roman emperor. Peace to whoever follows guidance. To the point: Embrace Islam and you shall have peace [al-Tabari,\u00a0Tarikh al-Rusul wa\u2019l-Muluk<\/i>\u00a08:104-105].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In Arabic, \u201cEmbrace Islam and you shall have peace\u201d is simply a two-word pun:\u00a0aslam taslam<\/i>, which most literally means \u201cSubmit, have peace.\u201d In fact, perpetual warfare \u2014 that is, jihad \u2014 has been the true legacy of Mohammed\u2019s ominous missive to the Christian emperor. After Heraclius refused to submit to Islam, an infinite barrage of jihad campaigns erupted, for centuries, until Constantinople \u2014 seat of Christendom \u2014 was finally conquered by, and incorporated into, the Abode of Islam in 1453.<\/p>\n In classical terminology, the \u201cAbode of Islam\u201d (Dar al-Islam) denotes all the regions that are governed under Islamic law. During the 800 years when Mohammed first made his demand of Heraclius, and the subsequent fall of Constantinople, the Abode of Islam grew into a vast empire through jihad, an empire that extended from Spain to India. Constantinople, first attacked by Muslim hordes in the\u00a0<\/sup>seventh century, was often seen as the \u201cultimate\u201d prize \u2014 but by no means was it the\u00a0final<\/i>\u00a0goal.<\/p>\n A fundamental tenet of Islam is that jihad must persevere until the entire globe is either converted to, or at least governed by, Islam. When the \u201cAbode of War\u201d \u2014 i.e. the non-Islamic world \u2014 has been subsumed into the \u201cAbode of Islam,\u201d then and\u00a0only<\/i>\u00a0then will there be peace.<\/p>\n Indeed, the above scenario best explains the etymological relationship between the words \u201cIslam\u201d and \u201cpeace\u201d \u2014 a relationship often distorted through conflation. Even though \u201cIslam\u201d and the Arabic word for \u201cpeace\u201d are formed from the same three-lettered root \u201cs-l-m\u201d \u2014 and thus are in fact related \u2014 only the word \u201cSalam\u201d means \u201cpeace.\u201d \u201cIslam\u201d means \u201csubmit\u201d or \u201csurrender.\u201d The connection between the two words, then, is clear: In Islam, peace\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0the goal, but\u00a0only<\/i>\u00a0through submission \u2014 just as Mohammed plainly proclaimed to Heraclius.<\/p>\n E<\/span>ven though bin Laden prudently omits the conclusion of Mohammed\u2019s message when addressing the West, he achieves three goals by constantly quoting the famous opening line \u2014 \u201cPeace to whoever follows guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n First, powerful allusions and imagery \u2014 and thus context \u2014 are established, earning bin Laden more legitimacy within the Islamic world. For now, he is seen as walking in the footsteps of Mohammed, using his exact terminology \u2014 even if incomplete \u2014 and repeatedly addressing it to the spiritual descendants of Heraclius and Christian Rome, that is, the West, as the age-old struggle between Islam and Infidelity, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War, rages on. Indeed, by always relying on this symbolic sentence, bin Laden, is transformed from a murderous thug into a pious Muslim leader \u2014 a modern-day caliph of sorts, attacking his infidel neighbors in the name of Islam.<\/p>\n Second, as with all of Mohammed\u2019s habits, his approach to infidels \u2014 first demanding that they submit, then attacking them if they refuse \u2014 has become standardized. In other words, before attacking infidels, Muslims, like their prophet, should first call on them to submit to Islam. By evoking the opening sentence of Mohammed\u2019s paradigmatic message, bin Laden somewhat legitimizes the subsequent terror he visits upon the infidels.<\/p>\n Third, and most importantly, he accomplishes all of the above while simultaneously fooling the people of the West, who, according to their own epistemology assume that the \u201cguidance\u201d through which bin Laden predicts peace is simply a poetic way of saying \u201cLeave us alone and we\u2019ll leave you alone.\u201d Yet the all-important historical and religious connotations \u2014 much acknowledged and appreciated in the Islamic world \u2014 are altogether missed in the West.<\/p>\n Thus, wily bin Laden satisfies both diametrically opposed audiences: The liberal West, which honors peace and therefore must appreciate his apparently prudent guidance, \u201clive and let live,\u201d and the Islamists, for using the same uncompromising approach the Muslim prophet did whenever he called upon infidels \u201cto submit \u2014 or else.\u201d<\/p>\n Raymond Ibrahim is the editor of the\u00a0Al-Qaeda Reader<\/i>, translations of religious texts and propaganda.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More al Qaeda double talk by Raymond Ibrahim National Review Online As with every message directed to the West, Osama bin Laden\u2019s most recent address begins and ends with his hallmark sentence: \u201cPeace to whoever follows guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,754],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1pC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5528,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/twisted-proverb\/","url_meta":{"origin":5432,"position":0},"title":"Twisted Proverb","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Osama bin Laden's \"Peace to whoever follows guidance\" by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Whenever Osama bin Laden addresses the West he always prefaces his message with the simple statement, \u201cPeace to whoever follows guidance.\u201d What exactly is bin Laden\u2019s purpose, and what exactly are Americans and Europeans to understand by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5390,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-encouraging-revelation-bin-ladens-latest-message-in-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":5432,"position":1},"title":"An Encouraging Revelation: Bin Laden’s Latest Message in Context","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Full of the same old complaints, threats of retaliation, and victim status role that have become mainstays of al Qaeda propaganda, Osama bin Laden\u2019s latest release would seem to offer nothing new. 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