In case anybody finds discrepancies with the year calculations: in the Islamic calendar, years are somewhat shorter than ours (one Islamic year is exactly 12 moons). The difference is 11 days, or 3%, less. 33 Gregorian years are approximately equal to 34 Islamic years.

Hilmar.

>It is on the CNN chat site. Here is an exceprt:
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>CHAT PARTICIPANT: How does attacking the towers, which is obviously a horrendous loss of civilian life, further this movement's media campaign among anyone but the few thousand radicals that are directly supportive?
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>HAYKEL: I have some distressing news to relate. A recent survey of upper-class Saudi citizens was conducted, and the question was whether they approved of bin Laden or not. 100 percent of the women polled said they approved of bin Laden, and 85 percent of the men approved of him. His appeal as a symbol of Muslim resistance to Western domination is extremely widespread in the Muslim world.
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>[considering how abusive the Taliban is to women, this 100% is amazing. -jlk]
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>CHAT PARTICIPANT: Is it not true that one of bin Laden's aims is to overthrow the Middle East governments to establish his own united Islamic country?
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>HAYKEL: That is absolutely correct. That is his main aim.
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>CNN: Why does bin Laden talk about "80 years?"
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>HAYKEL: The reference to 80 years, I believe, pertained to the end of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924. This happened in the Muslim year 1342, and we are now in the Muslim year 1422, and it is exactly 80 years to the month that the caliphate was abolished. I believe it is a reference to his vision of re-creating the caliphate, and uniting the Muslim world under a single and unified political and spiritual leadership. The caliphate refers to the spiritual and political leadership of the Muslim world.
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>CHAT PARTICIPANT: There are many English translations of the Koran on the Internet. They sound like a terrorist manifesto -- kill all nonbelievers: is that what this is about - fulfilling the Koran view of Christians and Jews?
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>HAYKEL: It is true that the Koran contains verses that are antagonistic to Jews, Christians and non-Muslims. That said, the Koran also has verses that are positive and favorable to Christians and Jews. It is important to know that the Koran cannot be interpreted without the knowledge of the wider body of legal and theological Islamic literature. Verses don't stand on their own without context, and the context is always much more nuanced and sophisticated than the literal meaning of the verse.
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>[The question I asked in a previous message -- "with the terrorists hiding among the liberal Muslems how does one tell the difference" -- is still relevant, when one reflects on that Saudi 'poll'. -jlk ]