| An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden: By Chevalier James R. Reese, Grand Prior of the United States
Dear Osama,
We have noted that you like to refer to America and Great Britain as "Crusader states," and you have referred to just about everybody you don't like as Crusaders.
We doubt that you really believe there are any Crusaders left, as we doubt that you really believe in God. You would not taunt Crusaders if you really believed in them, because you are a craven coward who cherishes his own flesh while admonishing your followers to blow themselves up. You are an infidel, because no one who truly believes in God would sanction the killing of innocent men, women, and children. Your actions show you to be both a coward and an infidel, because you ask your followers to do what you are afraid to do, and you don't believe there is a God who will condemn you for your vile actions against Islam and humanity.
Osama, you have been wrong on both counts. There is a God, and there are Knights Templar who still serve Him centuries after the Crusades.
This Knight Templar calls you a craven coward and an infidel. He calls you a murderer of the innocent, and a defiler of holy places. He calls you the favorite son of Satan, for you above all men on the earth have done your best to do Satan's bidding.
Not only that, but to prove to the entire world that you are a coward and an infidel, this Knight Templar challenges you to single combat in the sands of Pakistan. I challenge you to meet me with scimitar or sword, to be pitted against myself and a holy sword consecrated to our Order-a sword that was forged to destroy evil. Here's the deal: if I win, Al Qaeda is disbanded-forever. If you win, then you can set the head of a Knight Templar on a pike outside your tent, and you can claim that you slew the chief of all Crusaders in the United States.
I call you out of the shadows to face me-and to face your own fears. How long can you go on, hiding behind women and sacrificing your followers, while you-the spoiled son of a rich family-sit in safe houses and eat rich food? How long can you live a lie, pretending to be a jihadist when all you crave is to be the sultan of a new Arab empire, an empire will be secular and not Islamic?
You could, of course, send your minions to kill me before that combat occurs. But if you send others to do your fighting for you, the news of your cowardice will reverberate from the Kunjerab Pass to the beaches of Gwydar, from Riyadh to Jakarta. It will be recorded in the history books that the great Osama bin Laden, the would-be leader of jihadists around the world, quailed before a Crusader, and cried out for others to save him. The name Osama will be equated with cowardice before a Crusader, and no family will ever so name a son again. You will be known as the "Cowardly Infidel" who knew that he could not count upon his personal courage or God to deliver him, for he possessed a belief in neither.
We know, Osama, that this message will reach you. You can reply to it through Al-Jazeera, which is always happy to act as the mouthpiece for murderers. In fact, Al Jazeera can film the combat and show it on television sets across the world. You would be defeated before the eyes of millions, but at least you would have retained a shred of personal honor. You would at least have proved yourself to be a man, a goal that has so far eluded you.
If I win, it will be a victory for all persons who believe in God and who know that the God of the Torah, and of the Bible, and of the Quran is not a God who directs the killing of women and children. If you win, it will be a victory for the followers of Satan-but Satan and his followers historically have not done well when faced by Godly men and women.
My prediction, however, is that you will ignore the challenge. But be forewarned that your leadership will first be questioned in whispers, then in hushed conversations, and finally to your face. Your courage will first be questioned, then disputed, and then openly challenged. It will be the beginning of the end for you.
Your own followers will accomplish what your opponents have not yet managed to accomplish, once they realize that you are craven coward who always runs, but never stands and fights.
When we faced Saladin, we knew him to be a man of honor, a man who kept his word. He similarly regarded us as trustworthy, and our Order helped to broker a peace between him and Richard the Lion Hearted.
It is known by all Muslims that a Knight Templar never broke his word. I promise you, as a Knight Templar, that I will come to you alone, a single knight amidst thousands of your followers. You can have me killed in front of your followers . . . but then, of course, your reputation as a coward and an infidel will be sealed for all eternity. If you claim that your followers killed me in defiance of your orders, then you will be known as a weak leader who did not have th |
