Beliefs and Ideology of Osama Bin Laden - Killing of Civilians

Killing of Civilians

According to bin Laden's ideology civilians may be deliberately killed in jihad. This position evolved from an earlier, less violent one. In a 1998 interview, he alleged that in fighting jihad "we differentiate between men and women, and between children and old people," unlike hypocritical "infidels" who "preach one thing and do another." But two years later he told another interviewer that those who say "killing a child is not valid" in Islam "speak without any knowledge of Islamic law", because killing children and other civilians may be done in vengeance. In other words, bin Laden's interpretation of Islamic doctrine allows retaliation against civilians because of perceived indiscriminate US aggression against Muslims. To another question by a Muslim interviewer about the Muslims killed in the 9/11 attack, bin Laden replied that "Islamic law says that Muslim should not stay long in the land of infidels," although he suggested Muslim casualties in the attack were collateral not deliberate.