Just what the world needs: an “annotated, scholarly collection” of the words of a mass-murdering Islamic fanatic: The world of bin Laden: no drinks, no gambling, no pictures of women.

Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden is billed as the first accurate compendium of the terrorist leader’s words, threats and ruminations from 1994 to 2004.

Its editors have rooted out many statements which they identified as forgeries and retranslated to correct “horrendous” errors.

His terms for America’s surrender appeared after the September 2001 suicide attacks and include demands that amount to the abandonment of much of western life. Alcohol and gambling would be barred and there would be an end to women’s photos in newspapers or advertising. Any woman serving “passengers, visitors and strangers”, presumably anyone from air stewardesses to waitresses, would also be out of a job.

The West must “stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you” and has become the “worst civilisation witnessed in the history of mankind”.

The publisher Verso said it expected criticism for releasing the thoughts of a terrorist but denied that the volume would be the jihadis’ equivalent of Mein Kampf. According to Gavin Browning at Verso, disapproval “is something that we’re anticipating”.

“The idea is to have an annotated, scholarly collection of bin Laden’s words,” he added. “Until now, his words have only been available in poor translations or soundbites.” Mr Browning emphasised that publishing his views did not imply any approval of them by the publishers.

The book’s introduction is written by Prof Bruce Lawrence who teaches Islamic studies at Duke University, North Carolina and describes the terrorist as “one of the best prose writers in Arabic”.