Egyptian physician,Ayman al Zawahiri, arranged from their Afghan headquar-
ters for an Arabic newspaper in London to publish what they termed a fatwa
issued in the name of a "World Islamic Front." A fatwa is normally an inter-
pretation of Islamic law by a respected Islamic authority, but neither Bin Ladin,
Zawahiri, nor the three others who signed this statement were scholars of
Islamic law. Claiming that America had declared war against God and his mes-
senger, they called for the murder of any American, anywhere on earth, as the
"individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it
is possible to do it."
kill a single American soldier than to squander his efforts on other activities,"
he said.Asked whether he approved of terrorism and of attacks on civilians, he
replied: "We believe that the worst thieves in the world today and the worst
terrorists are the Americans. Nothing could stop you except perhaps retalia-
tion in kind. We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As
far as we are concerned, they are all targets."
mention, we chose to refer to individuals by the last word in the names by which they are known: Nawaf al Hazmi as Hazmi,
for instance, omitting the article "al" that would be part of their name in their own societies.We generally make an exception for
the more familiar English usage of "Bin" as part of a last name, as in Bin Ladin. Further, there is no universally accepted way
to transliterate Arabic words and names into English.We have relied on a mix of common sense, the sound of the name in Ara-
bic, and common usage in source materials, the press, or government documents.When we quote from a source document, we use
its transliteration, e.g.,"al Qida" instead of al Qaeda.