by Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes’ Weblog*
September 2, 2006
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/661
* Cross-posted with permission

In a statement today, Al-Qaeda’s American rep, Adam Gadahn (né Adam Perlman, whom the FBI seeks “in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States”), has this to say:

If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam.”

So, Al-Qaeda wants me and my “sword” (a reference, presumably, to my computer keyboard) to join its efforts. My response to Gadahn:

I note your offer for me to change sides in the current war. But I am faithful to my own religion, to my own country, and to my civilization. I will do my part to defeat radical, totalitarian Islam and to usher in the emergence of a modern, moderate, and good-neighborly Islam in its place.

By way of postscript, Gadahn praises three Westerners: Seymour Hersh, George Galloway, and Robert Fisk. This is in keeping with Osama bin Laden’s praising William Blum.