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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900888/posts?page=7#7

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900888/posts

His mentor turns on bin Laden
International Herald Tribune ^ | September 21, 2007 | Fawaz A. Gerges

Posted on 09/22/2007 11:41:12 PM PDT by bad company

After Osama bin Laden reappeared on the world’s television screens on the sixth anniversary of 9-11, commentaries focused on his newly blackened beard and his changed message. But more important was the reaction of a Saudi cleric. In an open letter, one of bin Laden’s most prominent Saudi mentors, the preacher and scholar Salman al-Oadah, publicly reproached bin Laden for causing widespread mayhem and killing. “How many innocent children, elderly people, and women have been killed in the name of Al Qaeda?” asked al-Oadah in a letter on his Web site, Islamtoday.com, and in comments on an Arabic television station. “How many people have been forced to flee their homes, and how much blood has been shed in the name of Al Qaeda?” Al-Oadah is a prominent Salafi preacher with a large following in Saudi Arabia and abroad. In the 1990s, he was imprisoned by the Saudi regime along with four leading clerics for criticizing the kingdom’s close relationship with the United States, particularly the stationing of American troops there after the 1991 Gulf war. It is worth noting that the decision to post American forces in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, was the catalyst for bin Laden’s murderous journey. Throughout the 1990s, he frequently cited al-Oadah as a critic of the Saud royal family and fellow Salafi who shared his strict religious vision and world view.

(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...