Al Queda's 3 Foundations

The New Republic Online: On Message Here is a recent message by Al Qaeda, who's name means "The Foundation". Translation from Arabic by Joseph Braude. I have merely adjusted the formatting.

"Our freedom is a freedom of

• monotheism
• and morals
• and probity
• and asceticism
• and justice.
  

The freedom that we are striving toward is on three foundations:

• The first is the rule of the Shari'a. The Shari'a, revealed by Almighty God, is the path that is obligatory to be followed. ...
  

• The second foundation, upon which reform must be established--and this is a corollary to the first foundation--is the freedom of the lands of Islam and their liberation from every robbing and looting aggressor. It is unimaginable that any reform may be realized for us while we are under the coercion of American and Jewish occupation.
  

• As for the third foundation, which is also a corollary of the first foundation, it is the liberation of man. The Ummah [pan-Islamic nation] must snatch back its right to choose its ruler and call him to account and criticize him and depose him, and snatch back its right to enjoin good and end that which is abominable. ... The Ummah must undertake [to end] repression and brute force and theft and fraud and corruption and dynastic succession in rule, which our rulers are practicing with the blessings and support of the United States."

It is interesting to note the parallels of Al Qaeda (The Foundation) with Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. And there is speculation that Bin Laden used the books for inspiration.
In the Foundation Trilogy, One man, Hari Seldon, recognized that the Galactic Empire was corrupt and soon to fall into a 30,000 year dark age. Just before the Fall, he set up a foundation to bring about a new empire in a mere 1000 years. He also set up a second foundation, a secret elite group which quietly manipulated events for the benfit of the first foundation (which remained unaware of its benefactor.)

I suggest that Bin Laden sees himself as a type of Hari Seldon. He sees the corruption of the Arabic peoples by the West. He greatly resents Islam's loss of glory and faded civilization. So he set up his own foundation to solve the problem. He is using his foundation to restore Islam to it's foundations.