Bin Laden was no stranger to the classical tradition of Islamic scholarship. He occasionally draws on the authority of medieval Hanbalis such as Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qudama in his speeches and interviews. The prophetic command he cited was well established, and its order of expulsion was not limited to pagan Arabs alone. In another authenticated Hadith, Muhammad declared: ‘Indeed I will expel the Jews and the Christians from the Peninsula of the Arabs so that I leave only Muslims.’ This was not accomplished until the reign of the second caliph, Umar, who acted on the Prophet’s order and
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