> >What Muslim would write: 'The time of fun and waste is gone'? > > > > >Robert Fisk > > >29 September 2001 > > >Fearful, chilling, grot-esque -- but also very, very odd. If the >handwritten, five-page document which the FBI says it found in the baggage >of Mohamed Atta, the suicide bomber from Egypt, is genuine, then the men >who murdered more than 7,000 innocent people believed in a very exclusive >version of Islam -- or were surprisingly unfamiliar with their religion. > >"The time of Fun and waste is gone,'' Atta, or one of his associates, is >reported to have written in the note. "Be optimistic ... Check all your >items -- your bag, your clothes, your knives, your will, your IDs, your >passport ... In the morning, try to pray the morning prayer with an open >heart.'' > >Part theological, part mission statement, the document -- extracts from >which were published in The Washington Post yesterday -- raises more >questions than it answers. > >Under the heading of "Last Night'' -- presumably the night of 10 September >-- the writer tells his fellow hijackers to "remind yourself that in this >night you will face many challenges. But you have to face them and >understand it 100 per cent ... Obey God, his messenger, and don't fight >among yourself [sic] where [sic] you become weak ... Everybody hates >death, fears death ..." > >The document begins with the words: "In the name of God, the most >merciful, the most compassionate ... In the name of God, of myself, >and of my family.'' > >The problem is that no Muslim -- however ill-taught -- would include his >family in such a prayer. Indeed, he would mention the Prophet Mohamed >immediately after he mentioned God in the first line. Lebanese and >Palestinian suicide bombers have never been known to refer to "the time of >fun and waste'' -- because a true Muslim would not have "wasted'' his time >and would regard pleasure as a reward of the after-life. > >And what Muslim would urge his fellow believers to recite the morning >prayer -- and then go on to quote from it? A devout Muslim would not need >to be reminded of his duty to say the first of the five prayers of the day >-- and would certainly not need to be reminded of the text. It is as if a >Christian, urging his followers to recite the Lord's Prayer, felt it >necessary to read the whole prayer in case they didn't remember it. > >American scholars have already raised questions about the use of "100 per >cent'' -- hardly a theological term to be found in a religious exhortation >-- and the use of the word "optimistic'' with reference to the Prophet is a >decidedly modern word. > >However, the full and original Arabic text has not been released by the >FBI. The translation, as it stands, suggests an almost Christian view of >what the hijackers might have felt -- asking to be forgiven their sins, >explaining that fear of death is natural, that "a believer is always >plagued with problems''. > >A Muslim is encouraged not to fear death -- it is, after all, the moment >when he or she believes they will start a new life -- and a believer in the >Islamic world is one who is certain of his path, not "plagued with problems''. > >There are no references to any of Osama bin Laden's demands -- for an >American withdrawal from the Gulf, an end to Israeli occupation, the >overthrow of pro-American Arab regimes -- nor any narrative context for the >atrocities about to be committed. If the men had an aspiration -- and if >the document is above suspicion -- then they were sending their message >direct to their God. > >The prayer/instructions may have been distributed to other hijackers >before the massacres occurred -- The Washington Post says the FBI found >another copy of "essentially the same document'' in the wreckage of the >plane which crashed in Pennsylvania. No text of this document has been >released. > >In the past, CIA translators have turned out to be Lebanese Maronite >Christians whose understanding of Islam and its prayers may have led to >serious textual errors. Could this be to blame for the weird references in >the note found in Atta's baggage? Or is there something more mysterious >about the background of those who committed a crime against humanity in >New York and Washington, just over two weeks ago? > > >From the start, the hole in the story has been the reported behaviour of > the hijackers. Atta was said to have been a near-alcoholic, while Ziad > Jarrahi, the alleged Lebanese hijacker of the plane which crashed in > Pennsylvania, had a Turkish girlfriend in Hamburg and enjoyed nightclubs > and drinking. Is this why the published text refers to the "forgiveness'' > of sin? > >The final instruction, "to make sure that you are clean, your clothes are >clean, including your shoes,'' may have been intended as a call to purify >a "martyr" before death. Equally, it may reflect the thoughts of a truly >eccentric -- and wicked -- mind. > >The document found in Atta's baggage ends with a heading: "When you enter >the plane". It then urges the hijackers to recite: "Oh God, open all doors >for me ... I am asking for your help. I am asking you for forgiveness. I >am asking you to lighten my way. I am asking you to lift the burden I feel >...'' > >Was this an attempt to smother latent feelings of compassion towards the >passengers on the hijacked planes -- who included children among them -- or >towards the thousands who would die when the aircraft crashed? Did the 19 >suicide bombers say these words to themselves in their last moments? > >Or didn't they need to.