An Open Letter to Osama Bin Laden

Does It Matter That Mr. Bin Laden Has Reintroduced Polytheism to the Arab Peninsula?

Dear Mr. Bin Laden,

This open letter to you is not to discuss the morality or immorality of what has been attributed to the Al Qaeda organization. I will leave that between you, ALLAH and the governments of the world who are trying to kill or capture you.

The questions I have are in the theological category. As you and I both know, two of the main accomplishments of the Prophet Muhammad were to rid the Arab Peninsula of polytheism and to emphasize the Oneness of ALLAH. But from what I have read of what you believe there is little doubt in my mind that you have brought polytheism back to the Arab Peninsula. In bringing up this question, I am not trying to put myself in the category of Jerry Falwell or Salmon Rushdie who both have been accused of dishonoring the Prophet. So when I say that you have re-introduced polytheism to the Arab Peninsula, I know that you have not intended to commit this crime against ALLAH of bringing back polytheism, if I am actually correct in my analysis.

First of all, I will discuss how I believe you have exalted Jihad to the status of another Deity in addition to ALLAH.

Jihad as A Deity

The Prophet Muhammad participated in many Jihad’s against idolatry during the first century of Islam. In some of these Jihads, many of the Muslims fighting with him lost their lives and the Prophets own life was often at risk. But there is no question about whether the Prophet elevated the Jihad’s importance or eminence to the extreme degree to which you and your associates, Mr. Bin Laden, have now exalted it.

Through the ideology that you have developed, you have exalted Jihad to the level of Deity. Therefore, without realizing the serious apostasy you have committed, you are influencing those associated with Al Qaeda to become polytheists.

In your zeal to struggle against idolaters and hypocrites, you have decided that you are justified in deliberately choosing to target and to murder innocent men and women. (Children are not ordinarily targeted for murder by you but they do die if they happen to be present when murders are occurring.) When you reason that you have the right under the banner of a holy jihad to choose life or death for innocent persons, you demonstrate that you have exalted Jihad to the level of Deity for it is ALLAH and only ALLAH who has the power over life and death for the innocent. But you justify the murders by classifying all the victims as enemies of Islam. But:

Being born in America to Christian parents does not automatically make a person an enemy of Islam.

Working in an office building in New York City does not automatically make a person an enemy of Islam.

Even working in an American Embassy attempting to provide food and shelter for your children does not automatically make a person an enemy of Islam.

Therefore Al Qaeda, by bestowing on Jihad the power over life and death for the innocent, has made Jihad a partner of ALLAH.

Though the Prophet definitely did practice Jihad in the first century in order to fight idolatry, Al Qaeda has gone far beyond what the Prophet either practiced or tolerated. Therefore, when Al Qaeda assumes for one second that they are pleasing ALLAH and are walking in the path of the Prophet by practicing this kind of Jihad, they are very wrong. This is not the Prophet’s way of purifying Islam. If he were to witness the kind of Jihad, which you are attempting to integrate into Islam, he would most certainly strongly condemn it. Quite likely the Prophet Muhammad’s evaluation would be that Al Qaeda has deviated from the Straight Path of Islam. So he would be exceptionally disappointed that you have brought Polytheism to the Islam that the Prophet had worked so hard to deliver Islam from when it first began. To exalt Jihad to the level to which it has been exalted is a devastating blow against Islam. But it is a blow from which Islam will undoubtedly recover.

The Shari’a as Deity

Mr. Bin Laden, it is my understanding that ideologically you fit into the general framework of an extremist Salafi. I have read that extremist Salafis build on a pre-supposition that the Shari’a (law) was delivered by ALLAH with such forceful authority that abiding by legislation other than the Shari’a is equivalent to worshipping a pagan deity. My understanding is that you think that contemporary law makers have themselves created this Deity by creating law other than the Shari’a. You believe this because of your conviction that all true law comes only from ALLAH’s Domain. This supposition, though it sounds quite inspired, clearly creates a serious dilemma for those of you who rigidly attempt to enforce the implications of this concept. This supposition that new law created by well meaning men in order to benefit ALLAH’s contemporary people, has achieved the status of Deity, is not valid. For if it is valid, the definite implication is that new law cannot possibly be considered as a new deity unless you have also imputed the status of Deity to the Shari’a.

If you say that the acceptance of man made legislation is equivalent to worshipping a new deity, to be consistent, you must also acknowledge that you have elevated the Shari’a itself to a status equivalent to Deity. For the basis upon which you are imputing Deity on man made legislation is that this legislation derives its status of Deity from its attempt to infringe in the domain of ALLAH’s Law, the Shari’a. Therefore, if man made legislation derives its status of Deity from the Shari’a, this is definitely imputing the status of Deity on the Shari’a, which at all times and in all circumstances you view as always being superior to man made legislation. For if you consider that man made legislation has become Deity, the Sharia must also have become Deity in order to remain superior to that upon which you have now imputed the status of Deity. For that which is not Deity cannot possibly be superior to that which is Deity.

It must constantly be kept in mind that it is not the creators of the contemporary legislation who have imputed to it the status of Deity. Rather, it is you who claim that you are protecting the Sharia who are the only ones who consider that the newer legislation has attained Deity status. So you must acknowledge that you also have elevated the Sharia to the status of Deity. New man-made legislation that is viewed by you as being used to replace the Shari’a, could only be considered Deity on the basis of the new legislation’s relationship to something superior to itself. So the Shari’a is most certainly being treated by your theorists as Deity.

This has to be the case because legislation which has been created to have contemporary authority can only be thought of as Deity on the basis of its relationship to the Shari’a. And the only way it could possibly obtain this status of Deity is on the basis of its relationship to something superior to itself. That which is superior would have to be Deity in order to maintain its superiority over what you are now openly classifying as Deity. For if the inferior is thought by you to have attained Deity, then that which is superior must also have attained the status of Deity because that which is not Deity cannot be considered superior to that which has become Deity.

If your theorists attempt to say that because the new legislation is only a “Pagan” Deity and so it does not have any superior status, your dilemma cannot be solved so easily for this reason:

Your theorists have maintained that what has caused the new legislation to be Deity is its infringement on ALLAH’s Domain of Law which ALLAH expresses to man through the Shari’a. So you have imputed on the Shari’a a status of Deity that is well beyond the “pagan” label, because the Shari’a must be considered as Deity to be able to impute any kind of Deity on man made legislation. This remains true whether your theorists label the Deity pagan or not pagan.

Simply put, without realizing what you are doing, or without acknowledging what you are doing by your insisting on imputing deity on man-made legislation, you are also imputing Deity on the Sharia. You cannot have it both ways. Either the man made legislation is not a deity of any kind and the Shari’a is also not Deity, or the man made legislation has become Deity and the Shari’a has also become Deity.

So if you continue to accuse the keepers of man made law as worshipping a pagan deity, then it follows that you yourselves continue to exalt the Shari’a so that it becomes a partner with ALLAH. Thus, when you add your Deity of the Shari’a with the Deity you have created from your exaltation of Jihad to the status of Deity, and you add ALLAH, you have created a Trinity. This remains true unless you are willing to no longer accuse the legislators and rulers of creating a Deity and to also refrain from exalting Jihad to the high level to which you have exalted it. If you are unwilling to make these modifications in your theories, you have created a Trinity despite your excuses, rationalizations or revolutionary rhetoric. So you cannot cover the enormity of your transgression against the Oneness of ALLAH unless you are willing to not exalt Jihad and Shari’a to the extent that you have insisted that they must be exalted.

So it is one thing for you to be very upset with certain ruling regimes for stealing money from their people to support their royal family’s lavish life styles and to fatten their own Swiss Bank Accounts; who provide big money and big cars for every conceivable relative; who put their critics into prison; who pave the way for their relatives to receive large bribes from arms merchants; and who even allow American troops to use their soil to attack brother Muslim Arabs. Each of these complaints may have different degrees of legitimacy. But it is not legitimate to attempt to nail leaders theologically by claiming that they are forcing their people to worship a pagan Deity when they provide man made laws to regulate modern society.

Another reason that it must acknowledged that your line of reasoning has attributed divine status to the Shari’a is this:

When you say that the reason that following man made legislation is equivalent to worshipping a pagan deity, you justify your conclusion by the following rationale:

Man-made legislation has attained Deity status because the law is ALLAH’s Domain and man-made law has invaded ALLAH’s Domain.

However, the very life that each of us has, has been given us by ALLAH, so we each are a small part of ALLAH’s Domain. So each time we make a choice which is not a choice ALLAH would have us make, we have in a matter of speaking, violated ALLAH’s Domain. But this does not mean that we have created a new Deity each time we have made a choice, which is contrary to being submitted to ALLAH.

So if you state that man made legislation has derived deity because it has invaded the realm of the law which is only ALLAH’s Domain, then you are also saying that that domain has the authority to impute to man-made legislation the status of Deity. Therefore, to be consistent you must also acknowledge that what has the power to impute the status of Deity must also itself have the status of Deity.

Therefore, an Islamic theorist such as you, Mr. Bin Laden, cannot have it both ways. You must acknowledge that you have gone too far when you accuse Arab rulers of making people worship a pagan Deity by having the Islamic Shari’a as their main source of law. If you and your colleagues are not willing to acknowledge that you have gone too far in saying that following man-made legislation is worshipping a pagan deity, then you must also acknowledge that you yourselves have become polytheists by elevating the Shari’a itself to the Status of Deity. Furthermore, your thinkers have imputed on the Shari’a the power to impute the status of Deity on that which these Islamic theorists now perceive as being Deity. In fact, you perceive the new Deity to be in competition with the Shari’a which you have elevated to the status of Deity.

A Solution

In reality it would seem reasonable to encourage your Islamic theorists to become more flexible in their interpretation of ultimate truth.   It would be helpful for all Muslims if your theorists could acknowledge that they did not intend to become polytheists when they elevated both the Shari’a and Jihad to the status of Deity. Rather, all of you should classify yourselves as sincere, dedicated, serious Muslims who have serious disagreement with other Muslims who you think are wrong for not giving the Shari’a the centrality that you are certain it deserves. Additionally, you think you are the only ones who are giving Jihad the emphasis it deserves. But you need to acknowledge that you have gone far beyond what the Prophet himself would have approved of by taking your disagreement far beyond disagreeing. So if you continue to insist upon calling those who have different perspectives from your own perspectives, hypocrites, idolaters, infidels and apostates for having those different perspectives, then you must also accept the reality that you yourselves have become polytheists who have imputed the status of deity to both the Shari'’ and to Jihad.

Mr. Bin Laden, your narrow insistence that all Muslim regimes must institute your version of the Shari’a as their main basis of law is close to you imputing to yourself the status of ALLAH who alone has the authority to decide what His Own Will is for every person.

As we have previously observed, your insistence that unless all Muslim governments honor only the Shari’a in this twenty-first century, that they are worshipping a pagan deity, is actually you worshipping a new Deity of your own creation. This extreme interpretation and rigidity reveals an unreasonableness that the Prophet would never have approved of. By Al Qaeda insisting that when a government authority enacts any legislation, that government has opposed ALLAH’s Law, it is Al Qaeda who is opposing ALLAH and not the government. By Al Qaeda’s unreasonable dogmatism, you have made your own decision to decisively limit the Power of ALLAH.

(It just may be that ALLAH does not agree with your decision to limit HIS ALMIGHTY POWER.)

Of course the law is exclusively ALLAH’s Domain. However, this does not mean that ALLAH is unable to oversee the writing of laws needed for 21^st century conditions. ALLAH is certainly able to guide Muslims who have submitted themselves to His guidance so that they are able to enact appropriate laws. To believe otherwise is to believe that ALLAH is quite limited in both His power and His authority.

Therefore, to insist that the Shari’a and the Shari’a alone must be the only basis for all Islamic governments, is to exalt Shari’a to the level of Deity.   So, if you continue to do that, you must also acknowledge that you have added both Shari’a and Jihad to ALLAH, thus creating your own private Trinity. Then Al Qaeda encourages their Muslim followers to worship and to serve your own private Trinity. But all of this happens without Al Qaeda and the majority of Muslims realizing that polytheism has been reintroduced to the Arab peninsula. This strange twist of regrettable events has subtly reintroduced polytheism to the exact Arab land which the Prophet Muhammad fought so courageously to cleanse from this exceptionally deceptive and destructive false teaching.

Most Sincerely,
Tom Griffith

Abu Toma

P.S. Mr. Bin Laden, I realize that I have spoken somewhat dogmatically in this letter. However, I am open to being shown that some of my arguments are in error. However, I sincerely request that any dialogue I might have with you or your supporters might be carried out with words and not with weapons of violence.

I will acknowledge however, that I do consistently use one weapon in addition to the weapon of words. For myself, I view prayer to the Almighty in the name of the only man to totally defeat death, to be my non-violent weapon of choice.