" Binladen is regarded as something of a holy man throughout much of the Muslim world for his strict adherence to his beliefs"
You sir are soo far in left field you can't even see the ball. I have many friends who are muslim and a few good ones who are also Afghani...BinLaden's actions are not based on a strict adherence of Islam. He is a fraud.... as for respect from his Islamic brothers, he distorts the belief system and garners the most respect from the uneducated sheeple and hate filled fanatics of the middle east.
With the way you speak of Bush referring to him as Shrub, I guess you relate well to the hate filled fanatics...
You still can't deal with the election can you?
I disagree totally. Many of the christians that I know find Pope John Paul, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell to be poor christians and disgusting people preaching a distorted version of Christ's message, but all of them have followings in the millions. Unlike Baptists, however, Muslims do not accept hypocracy or lying by their leaders (except for Muhommed himself, but that belongs in another forum). If Binladen tells me that he did or didn't do something I would take it with a grain of salt since I know that he considers me an infidel. When he tells religious leaders of his own faith the same thing I would tend to believe it. The consequences of lying are too great, and it's out of character for a devout Muslim.
Of course he gains the most respect from the poor, ignorant and uneducated. Pretty much every religion I've seen relies on the great unwashed masses for support, especially those sects with fringe or violent tendencies. That's just history.
Want to see who did it? Follow the money. Al Queda had little to gain and much to lose by carrying out the WTC operation (as we've seen). Why did the CIA's proxy in Pakistan, the ISI, send Mohommed Atta $100,000 a few weeks before the attacks? What was the "business" the head of the ISI was conducting in the US during the two weeks before the attacks? Who did the short selling of American and United before their attacks, and why did they run their transactions through the CIA's favorite bank, A.B. Brown? Who had apparently just finished pumping around $100 million in credit card transactions through the system the moment the attack occurred?
Biggest question: Why won't the U.S. just show the world the evidence of Binladen's guilt, unless it doesn't exist?
(No, I'm not over it. I never liked Gore, but I think that the manner that the presidency was stolen is disgusting and should be condemmed for the crime that it was. That's neither here nor there.)