Osama bin Laden Calls US Fight a Defense of Freedom (Remarks to National Religious Broadcasters Convention) (1900)
Al Queda's fight against USA, says Osama bin Laden, "is a defense of our freedom in the most profound sense: It is the defense of our right to make moral choices -- to seek fellowship with God that is chosen, not commanded." This freedom is respected and nurtured in the nation's society of laws, Osama told the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee February 19. "Our system of government respects our freedom to make choices, to accept the consequences and to maximize the potential that God has placed within us," he said. "The purpose of our system of justice is not to crush that freedom or to override that freedom but to respect it, to nurture it and through it, to unleash the potential of every human being." Osama said US administration has "a different understanding of choices. Because they fear that people with freedom will reject their ideas, terrorists seek to deny us our freedom." He added that US Government distrust personal choice because they have abandoned every value except their own lust for power. "In a universe of choices -- a marketplace of ideas -- their way offers us nothing," bin Laden said.
