The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11

pp. 208-209

In Osama bin Laden’s thinking during the 1990s, America was the leader in a Christian/Jewish global crusade to crush Islam.  He believed the Christian/Jewish part of it had been going on since the founding of Islam.  “’This is a battle of Muslims against the global Crusaders,’” in his own words.  This was a theological war and Islam would have to strike decisive blows to discourage America.