Not being from the US and never having been there I don't know the answer to this: what would your average US citizen think of Osama bin Laden being handed over to a neutral Islamic country and being tried under Islamic law? If the US feels that it has enough evidence to convict him in the US is it prepared to give that evidence to a an Islamic court. The reason why is this, very few governments recognise the Taliban as a legitimate government and as such I don't think the Taliban therefore sees any request from such countries as valid. Also the Taliban does not recognise secular law, the only law it does recognise is the law in the Koran, I think it's spelt as SHIA law and as such that is the only law it would allow bin Laden to be tried under. If the evidence does exist to prove him responsible, then as far as I can tell under Shia law he'd be put to death.
The reason I ask is this it is the only way that I can see of avoiding military action that has a high chance of escalating into something worse and continued acts of terrorism on US and western soil. It would also show those intent on commiting these acts that the countries of the world, no matter what our differences stand together to condemn terrorism.
Can you please also ask your president not to use such words as crusade. It reminds the arabs of the bitter history when the streets ran red with the blood of muslims at the hands of (I'm sorry to say) the English. It kind of makes them feel uneasy.
Bish
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