Forum jihahis discuss how many virgins can dance on the head of a pin. Seriously, Stephen Ulph of Jamestown Foundation reports on the jihadi reaction to Bin Laden's latest audio tape, particularly the purpose of his call for "truce:"
While Western observers may point to bin Laden's inability to declare a truce on operational grounds—given the fact that, contrary to bin Laden's assurances in the tape, Spanish intelligence forces have had to foil recurrent attempts at attacks since the April 2004 Madrid bombings—Ibn Umar cast his doubts in terms of Islamic law. "Does bin Laden represent himself," he asks, "or al-Qaeda, or all Muslims? It is actually the Amir al-Muslimeen [Mulla Umar] who is the only one qualified to offer a truce in the name of the Nation."
For Nusayr Muhyi al-Sunan, writing on the same forum, the point has been reversed: there is no legitimacy problem for bin Laden declaring a truce since he is actually turning down an appeal for a truce made by the United States. As evidence, he points to bin Laden's use of the term ijabatikum ("responding to you") in his statement above: "a response, as is well known, only comes to a previous request." Others still underscore the actual impossibility of a truce, other than as a military tactic. "The Sheikh [bin Laden] cannot alter this path honored by God," writes an analyst and writer signing himself "Hussein bin Mahmud." "For this path is the Qur'an and the Sunna: And fight them until tumult is no more, and religion is all for Allah" (Qur'an VIII, 39). "This a matter of war and deception," he continues, "Bin Laden has never, and will never, offer peace to the infidel." There is a difference, he explains, between peace and a truce: "A truce is conditional upon just conditions," but "since the belief and the policy of the infidel is built only upon tyranny," such justice "can only be [made if it is] in the interest of the Islamic Nation." A truce, therefore, so construed "can only be understood by one who understands the true nature of the struggle."
In fact, bin Laden's genius, according to this analysis, is in cornering the enemy into being unable to respond either way to the tape. Indeed, the threat of an attack, bin Mahmud insists, has already achieved its purpose. It keeps the Americans "living in fear, exhausting themselves and expending resources on [contingency] planning, divided their ranks and damaged their economy." Yet, according to this argument, the Americans cannot afford to ignore the new threat, "which will have the same effect on them!" As to the form of the coming attack: "it will be a light or moderate blow, designed to show them his capability and the seriousness of the issue; an unexpected type of attack, revealing the inventiveness of the soldiers of Islam, following which it will be of a wholly different order" (www.alsakifah.org/vb).
