Hunting al-Qaida: Is Bin Laden soul-searching or just changing tactics?

I’m Osama bin Laden and I approved this message

This week, Osama bin Laden’s brother Yeslam launched a perfume in Paris that he had developed a few years ago, but held off on releasing due to the antics of his younger, more infamous brother. “I expect people out of curiosity will try it,” said the Geneva-based Yeslam, “and they will find the smell out of this world.” The timing of Yeslam’s perfume launch was overshadowed, however, by a videotaped speech by Osama that had a dose of perfume of its own. Sober, unarmed, and without the Islamic rhetoric that powered previous speeches, bin Laden almost seemed like he was trying to convince himself of the reasons why he committed the acts of 9/11, even as he directly admitted his involvement for the first time (finally – would you conspiracy theorists please go away?). Some think that bin Laden is vying for attention after being discredited in much of the Muslim world, which has had enough of attacks in Islamic countries done in al-Qaida’s name. “Part of what bin Laden is trying to do is fill the vacuum of leadership in the Muslim world,” says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corporation. “Part of his game is to portray himself as a statesman.” The trouble is, the “new” bin Laden might attract new followers who buy into his new tone (indeed, 65% of Pakistanis had a favorable view of the man even before the latest statement). He is apparently feeling safe enough to send envoys to Gulf states looking for donations for his cause. bin Laden’s “good cop” speech was balanced by a ranting “bad cop” video made by someone calling himself “Azzam the American” – widely believed to be Adam Gadahn/Pearleman, a convert to Islam who slugged the imam at his mosque for opposing his extremism. Osama bin Laden’s discarding of Islamic justification in his speech coincided with an effort by Muslim intellectuals from 23 countries who signed a petition to the United Nations calling for an international treaty to ban the use of religion for incitement to violence. “There are individuals in the Muslim world who pose as clerics and issue death sentences against those they disagree with,” says Shakir Al-Nablusi, a Jordanian academic and one of the signatories. “These individuals give Islam a bad name and foster hatred among civilizations.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.