Bin Laden: Confronting Climate Change Insult to Allah’s Will

Usama bin Laden (UBL) was an adherent of climate change who argued that fighting the phenomenon is an arrogant Western insult to Allah’s will, according to recently unclassified documents recovered during the raid on the compound where the al Qaeda leader was killed.

He believed in Allah-made climate change, according to the documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Bin Laden urged the Muslim community to just accept it and  prepare themselves to weather climate change-spawned natural disasters rather than try to confront them.

Climate change-linked natural disasters are “a plague or suffering from Allah Almighty, and the first solution is faith and correct deeds,” he wrote in a letter about the implications of climate change, according to ODNI.

“The [Western] secularists maintain that these are natural disasters we must confront,” wrote bin Ladin. “In other words, they are saying, we are able to stand up to Allah and confront His judgment and they have neglected what is stated in the Qur’an concerning these events.”

“Indeed, what our Ummah [community] is experiencing, of effects associated with the enormous climate changes and the great suffering the natural disasters are leaving behind that now become prevalent throughout the Muslim countries, renders the traditional relief efforts insufficient,” he added.

The al Qaeda leader urged the Muslim community to prepare for “frequent, diverse and massive consequences of climate changes.”

Bin Laden spoke of “drought growth, particularly in Africa, and flooding in other regions” as effects of climate change.

He was a proponent of raising awareness, building infrastructure such as canals to avoid flooding, working towards realizing food-security, and establishing Islamic relief organizations outside of the United Nations (U.N.) that strictly abide by Shariah law.

The mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil that killed nearly 3,000 people suggested that countries use funds from their defense budget to spend on climate change disaster relief.