Book Looks at Osama Bin Laden’s Views Through His Own Words
A major goal of the book is to show, through his own words, how bin Laden's views differ from mainstream Islam and even other radical Muslim thought, Bruce Lawrence says
Monday, July 25, 2005
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Bruce Lawrence can be reached for additional comment at bbl@duke.edu (preferred) or (919) 660-3506.
Durham, N.C. -- Osama bin Laden became the international symbol of radical Islam
on Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly four years later, despite intense media
scrutiny, his unique brand of violent, apocalyptic Islam remains
baffling to many in the West.
A new translation of bin Laden’s own writings, edited and introduced by Duke University religion professor Bruce Lawrence, tries to address that confusion. The book is scheduled to be released in November.
“Messages to the World –- The Statements of Osama bin Laden” (Verso Books) collects writings, public statements, interviews, faxes and video recordings issued under bin Laden’s name from 1994 to 2004. James Howarth, an expert on modern Arabic poetry, translates –- and often re-translates -- these statements from their original Arabic; Lawrence sets them into religious, historical and political context through annotations and a critical introduction.
“If you are going to educate anyone about the Muslim world today, you’re going to have to talk about Osama bin Laden,” said Lawrence, the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke. “And you can’t just take a snippet here and an excerpt there and understand either the man or his message.”
A major goal of the book is to show, through his own words, how bin Laden’s views differ from mainstream Islam and even other radical Muslim thought, said Lawrence, the author of several books on Islam, including “Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age” (1989), “Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence” (1998) and “New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims & Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life” (2002). By reviewing the decade-long record of his public declarations, readers can better grasp how bin Laden shifts his interpretations of the Quran and manipulates his audiences to his own ends.
“It is not enough to say he is a terrorist and the scum of the Earth,” Lawrence said. “I think we need a balance. We need to better understand how bin Laden has wrapped himself in the cloak of Islamic legitimacy to support his cause and to attract followers.
“The majority of the Muslim community supports peace, equity and living in a way that balances the good and condemns the bad,” he observed. “Radical Islam exists on the fringes, yet attempts to co-opt the center, with a significant number of extremists drawn to bin Laden and his message of anger and vengeance against the world.
“My hope -– and it is the best hope, I think -- is to have more Americans, both Muslim and non-Muslim, understand the goal of bin Laden and then reject it in search of a common agenda for productive change.”
“Messages to the World” is the first of three upcoming books by Lawrence that, to varying degrees, look at bin Laden.
“The Quran –- A Biography: A Book of Signs Over Time” (Grove/Atlantic, fall 2005) reviews different approaches to “the lodestone of Muslim belief and practice, including bin Laden’s dissident and dissonant voice,” Lawrence said. The book will be one in a series to be published under the logo Ten Books That Changed the World, in separate American and British editions.
“The Chain of Violence: An Anthology” (Duke Press, spring 2006) is a critical appraisal of current theorists of violence, among them bin Laden, who, according to Lawrence, “plays to modern media in projecting his notions of holy warfare.” Lawrence is co-authoring the book with Xavier College professor Aisha Karim.
