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President Bush's remarks on the South Lawn five
days after the attacks were widely disseminated in the Arab-speaking world.
In his brief remarks, considered by many to be a significant public relations
gaffe, President Bush used the word "evil" nine times and the word "crusade"
to characterize the war on terrorism.
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But we need to be alert to the fact
that these evil-doers still exist. We haven't seen this kind of barbarism
in a long period of time . . . This crusade, this war on terrorism
is going to take a while. (George W. Bush 9-16-01) |
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Osama Bin Laden's first public statement after
the attacks, which was aired on Al-Jazeera television, capitalized on Bush's
rhetoric.
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The entire West, with the exception
of a few countries, supports this unfair, barbaric campaign. The positions
of the two sides are very clear . . . This clearly indicates the
nature of this war. This war is fundamentally religious. The people of
the East are Muslims. They sympathized with Muslims against the people
of the West, who are the crusaders. (Osama Bin Laden 10-7-01) |
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In his next statement, Bin Laden mentions the
word "crusade" or "crusader" seven times.
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After the US politicians
spoke and after the US newspapers and television channels became full of
clear crusading hatred in this campaign that aims at mobilizing the West
against Islam and Muslims, Bush left no room for doubts or the opinions
of journalists, but he openly and clearly said that this war is a crusader
war. He said this before the whole world to emphasize this fact. (Osama
Bin Laden 11-3-01) |
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