Peter Bergen Quotes
Sheikh Rahman's fatwa was the first time that anyone associated with al Qaeda had given religious sanction to attacks on American aviation, shipping and economic targets.
Bergen, Peter. Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden. Free Press, 2001.
Slogans taken from posters listing 10 people targeted by Muslim extremists. Most were people who had said or published material that some fundamentalist Muslims had decided were offensive to Islam. One was Charlie Hebdo, the French Publisher who Islamic terrorists murdered later. Note the Americanisms that the terrorist propagandists adopted. The Wanted Dead or Alive was taken from the posters of the American West of the 19th century. The "Yes we can" was lifted from the Barack Obama 2008 campaign slogan. The "Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away" is a takeoff on the American saying "An apple a day keeps the Doctor away." One of the reasons for these Americanisms was that the founding editor was Samir Khan, self-described American traitor.
See {586916} for a passage from the Koran supporting his point.
This is one of the extremist justifications of suicide bombing. Note how he tried to turn suicide bombing into an individual right. Yet he and the Muslim Botherhood do not recognize the right of a person to choose his own religion, or the right of freedom of speech or the press. He also cites the Koran--the Muslim Holy Book--as justification. However, most mainstream Muslim clerics can find nothing in Muslim scripture that could possibley justify the murder of innocent people or the individual suicide. His views are extremist, both politically and theologially.
The Libertarians were major opponents of President George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative.
“Martyrdom” is the euphemism that fundamentalist Muslims use to denote being killed while “fighting for Islam” or on a suicide mission for same. Many believe that such people ascend directly to Paradise where they are given a bevy of virgins and other “perks.” Ironically, this was the last interview that he gave before he himself was “martyred”—he was killed by coalition troops. This mental perspective is one of the reasons that fighting fundamentalist Islamic terrorists is so difficult. They perceive victory whichever way the battle or even the war comes out.
He was the first American that who was assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency by means of a drone attack. He was a major recruiter for Al Qaeda and he preached to 3 of the 9-11 terrorists.
Peter Bergen is an American journalist, author, and producer who serves as CNN's national security analyst, New America's vice president, and as a professor of practice at Arizona State University. He produced the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997. The interview, which aired on CNN, was the first time that bin Laden was interviewed by Western media.
