Osama bin Laden: Declaration of Jihad against Americans

Audience

The Declaration of Jihad was presented in print in an Arabic daily published in London. It explicitly addresses the entire Muslim world, urging believers to respond to non-Muslim aggression against believers by waging jihad in defense of their rights. It also addresses the Muslims of Arabia in particular and therefore dwells on political and economic conditions in Saudi Arabia. References to dissident Saudi religious scholars and their efforts to persuade the government to undertake sweeping reforms resonated with the influential discourse of religious dissent that arose during the crisis over Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. A third, implicit audience would have been the regional circles of militants committed to jihad against secular regimes and non-Muslim oppressors. The declaration calls on them to join the fight against the far enemy as a more effective way to turn the tide in local struggles.