September 14, 2005

DUKE WEIGHS IN: BIN LADEN, A "VERY HIGH MINDED AND WELCOME VOICE IN GLOBAL POLITICS."

Not to be outdone by Harvard, a Duke University scholar confirms: bin Laden has been misunderstood. "Only days after the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a Duke professor is trying to explain the motivations of the tragedy’s organizer—jihadist Osama bin Laden.

Bruce Lawrence, professor of religion, edited and wrote the forward to the book Messages to the World—The Statements of Osama bin Laden. The text, which goes into print today and will arrive in bookstores in the fall, is the first to include the translations of the Arabic writings of bin Laden.

The book features a collection of 22 speeches and interviews given by the leader of the terrorist organization al Qaeda between 1994 and 2004.

Verso Books, a British publishing company, approached Lawrence in March, asking him to write the introduction and analyze bin Laden’s writings.

“No one has ever looked at all of his writings,” Lawrence said, adding that most of the resources about bin Laden are not written down, existing primarily as audio-cassettes or videos from al-Jazeera, an Arabic-language news network.

Lawrence said the new book focuses on understanding what makes bin Laden tick.

“If you read him in his own words, he sounds like somebody who would be a very high-minded and welcome voice in global politics,” Lawrence said.

Posted at 09:15 PM by Stephen
• Middle East

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I looked up Bruce online. Why am I not surprised? A guy with a Master of Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School whose most recent book is the "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Religions Online." What's next, "A Post-Modernist Deconstruction and Re-evaluation of the Essential Spiritual Nature of 'Mein Kampf'"? It's enough to make one reconsider the Inquisition.

Posted by: Mark_Belt at September 15, 2005 01:17 PM

Well, at least he realizes that 9/11 was perpetrated by Bin Laden. That's a step up from the academic moonbats who think that the US did it to itself.

Posted by: John at September 18, 2005 07:51 AM

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