Eric Cantor in OnTheIssues Fact Checking


On Foreign Policy: FactCheck: Jihadists resent US occupation, not our beliefs

Eric Cantor writes that Islamic jihadists "resent our beliefs" (p. 78-79). That's a standard riposte--that al Qaeda opposes the American way of life--but it is factually incorrect. Osama bin Laden opposed the US military occupation in Saudi Arabia, & the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Bin Laden's "fatwa" of Aug. 1996 is entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places." That means Mecca and Jerusalem, or more generally, the Arabian Peninsula and Israel/ Palestine. Bin Laden's conclusion is: "...asking you to take part in fighting against the enemy--the Americans and the Israelis--...to expel the enemy, humiliated and defeated, out of the sanctities of Islam."

In bin Laden's 1998 fatwa, "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders", he writes, "for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula." He adds the expulsion of US forces from Iraq to the 1996 list of Mecca and Jerusalem.

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Young Guns, p. 78-79 May 2, 2011

The above quotations are from Presidential Primary Fact Checking by OnTheIssues.org.
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