Criticism of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden (أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن;  10 March 1957 – 1 May 2011), the Sunni militant Islamist founder of al-Qaeda, widely considered to be responsible for the 9/11 attacks on New York City and The Pentagon,  has come under criticism from a number of sources. This article omits most of the criticism directed at his acts of terrorism, because that is discussed on his main page.

Non-Muslims and non-Salafi
Among the Western authors who have identified or alleged errors and inconsistencies in bin Laden's arguments is The Economist’s Mideast correspondent, Max Rodenbeck, writing in The New York Review of Books.
 * He criticized bin Laden's contention that: "the US had no mentionable role" in "the collapse of the Soviet Union ... but rather the credit goes to God and the mujahidin in Afghanistan ...," when in fact the United States delivered $3 billion worth of arms and money to mujahideen between 1981 and 1989.
 * Bin Laden denounces democracy as a "religion of ignorance" that violates Islam by issuing man-made laws, but later compares the Western democracy of Spain favorably to the Muslim world - Spain's economy being bigger than that of all Arab countries combined - because "the ruler there is accountable." "Evidently, [bin Laden] has never heard theological justifications for democracy, based on the notion that the will of the people must necessarily reflect the will of an all-knowing God," Rodenbeck comments. It is worth noting that Spain was once under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate.
 * Rodenbeck asks why, if as bin Laden asserts, infidels are "attacking Muslims like people fight over a plate of food," planning to "enslave" Muslims or to "annihilate" Islam, they have not simply attacked Mecca.
 * "The idea that America "robs" Arabs of their oil will certainly be news to American consumers, as much as to the very wealthy citizens" of Muslim Gulf states like Kuwait.
 * Bin Laden "repeatedly" accuses the Christian West of having waged war on Islam "for 80 years," a period during which European imperialism was in retreat and the events he describes as the most "penetrating and brutal" acts of imperialism - Dutch conquest of the East Indies, the French invasion of Algeria in the 1830s, or Britain's crushing of the 1857 Indian Mutiny - happened outside the period.
 * In 1997 he condemned the United States government for its hypocrisy in not labeling the bombing of Hiroshima as terrorism. In November 2001, he maintained that revenge killing of Americans was justified because he wrongfully claimed that Islamic law allows believers to attack invaders even when the enemy uses human shields. "However, this classical position was originally intended as a legal justification for the accidental killings of civilians under very limited circumstances -- not as a basis for the intentional targeting noncombatants."
 * A few months later in a 2002 letter, he made no mention of this justification but claimed "that since the United States is a democracy, all citizens bear responsibility for its government's actions, and civilians are therefore fair targets."
 * But yet another critic points out that bin Laden contradicts this democracy-creates-responsibility position in another, more typical, Islamist description of Western democracy (specifically American democracy) as `the law of the rich and wealthy, who hold sway in the political parties.`

Still other critics have pointed out that


 * Bin Laden invokes democracy both as an example of the deceit and fraudulence of western political system — American law being "the law of the rich and wealthy, who hold sway in the political parties" — and as the reason civilians are responsible for their government's actions and so can be lawfully punished by death.
 * claims "Muslims are starving to death" because "the United States is stealing their oil" by paying too little for it, but bases the claim of theft on the assumption that oil prices would continue to climb following the massive price increases of 1973 and 1974;
 * and claims that the high infant mortality rates in Iraq from American-supported economic sanctions were "the greatest slaughter of children that mankind has known", while praising the Taliban for making Afghanistan "the only Islamic country" in existence, though that regime also facilitated extremely high infant and young children mortality rates by expelling international aid groups.

Osama bin Laden is also heavily criticised for orchestrating the September 11 attacks. Critics argue that bin Laden should find ways of expressing his political views that do not cause severe civilian loss of life, such as political debates, press conferences or television advertisements.

Salafi scholars
Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee (Salafee Scholar of Saudi Arabia) said: "Those who set off the explosions in the Kingdom admitted with their own mouths, that they were affected by the Jamaa'atut-Takfeer (One of the Egyptian Qutubist groups) and that they were from the group of Usamah bin Laadin and al-Mas'aree, and they were spreading their literature. Usamah bin Laadin; who taught this man?  Who educated him in Sharee'ah?  He is a businessman, this is his field of specialization... they admitted, as we said, with their own mouths, we saw it and read it in the newspapers, and I have it here with me recorded with their own voices, that they were affected by some of the people of takfeer (from the Qutubist groups) of Afghanistan. The majority of our youth that returned from the jihaad in Afghanistan to our country were affected, either by the ideology of the Ikhwaan (The Muslim Brotherhood) in general, or by the revolutionary, takfeeree ideology. So they left us believing that we were Muslims, and they returned to us believing that we were disbelievers. So with that, they saw us as being disbelievers, the rulers, and the (Salafi) Scholars, not to mention the common-folk. They labeled the (Saudi "Wahhabi") state apostate, and they rendered the major ("Salafee") Scholars apostate. They admitted this with their own mouths. They made takfeer (label of disbelief) of the scholars, and mentioned specifically the two Shaykhs, Shaykh 'Abdul-'Azeez ibn Baaz and Shaykh al-'Uthaymeen, may Allaah preserve them. They mentioned their connection with al-Mas'aree and Usaamah bin Laadin. Did they get this from the scholars of Salafism? No! Rather they got it from the people of Takfeer (Qutubi, Ikhwani, Sufee ideology)."

Shaykh 'Abdul-'Azeez Ibn Baaz (died 1999), the former head of the council of scholars for Saudi Arabia, warned people about the destructiveness of al-Mas'aree, bin Laadin, and their followers' ideology: "'...It is obligatory to destroy and annihilate these publications that have emanated from al-Faqeeh, or from al-Mas'aree, or from others of the callers of falsehood (bin Laadin and those like him), and not to be lenient towards them. And it is obligatory to advise them, to guide them towards the truth, and to warn them against this falsehood. It is not permissible for anyone to co-operate with them in this evil. And it is obligatory upon them to be sincere and to come back to guidance and to leave alone and abandon this falsehood. So my advice to al-Mas'aree, al-Faqeeh and Bin Laadin and all those who traverse their ways is to leave alone this disastrous path, and to fear Allaah and to beware of His vengeance and His Anger, and to return to guidance and to repent to Allaah for whatever has preceded from them.  And Allaah, Glorified, has promised His repentant servants that He will accept their repentance and be good to them. So Allah the Glorified said: 'Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves. Do not despair of the Mercy of Allaah; verily, Allaah forgives all sins.' Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.' [39:53]."

Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan (Head of the Permanent Committee of Scholars of the Salafee Scholars in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) also warned of the dangers of this revolutionary call when he said, "'...and Bin Laadin, who was also ungrateful, deviated from the path of the People of the Sunnah to the methodology of the Khawarij, and began to spread chaos and turmoil in the earth, and circulating corruption, but your Lord lies in wait of him and his kind.'"

Shaykh Muqbil Ibn Hadee al-Waadi'ee (died May 2001) one of many of the Salafee scholars of Yemen have also warned the people about the deviance and plots of Usaamah bin Laadin and the Khaarijite Qutbists. In the past few years, there have been unfounded accusations in certain Western media circles attempting to link the late Shaykh Muqbil Ibn Haadee al-Waadi'ee to Usaamah bin Laadin. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, as Shaykh Muqbil was known to be severe in his criticism towards all religious innovators, particularly those who attempted to stir up trouble in the land and harm the call to "Tawheed and the Sunnah. Shaykh Muqbil refuted Bin Laden and his way, calling him a "murderous man."

Family
On January 21, 2008, bin Laden's son Omar Osama bin Laden issued a public request to his father to stop killing civilians.