Osama bin Laden, Founder of Al-Qaeda, October 6, 2002

“[Y]ou [Americans] are the worst civilization witnessed in the history of mankind.  You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the sharia of God in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire.  You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.”Bruce Lawrence, trans., Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden (London: Verso, 2005), 166-167.