The new Osama video is all over the news; in it, he advocates reading Noam Chomsky. It’s another pretty direct appeal to the Western left. Here’s a thread to discuss it…

UPDATE at 9/7/07 1:05:34 pm:

Robert Spencer has an explanation for bin Laden’s dye job: Jihad Watch: Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

The Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black “except when the intention is jihad…as a show of strength to unbelievers” (’Umdat al-Salik e.4.4). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, says essentially the same thing: “Some of the early Muslims, including some sahabah [companions of Muhammad] such as Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Amr, al-Hassan, al-Hussein, Jarir, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars, on the other hand, do not consider the use of black dye as permissible except during time of war, when the enemy might be impressed by the fact that all the soldiers of the Muslim army look young.”

UPDATE at 9/7/07 1:09:36 pm:

By the way, I still believe there’s a good chance he’s dead, although my level of certainty has declined a bit with this new video. A couple of LGF admirers have already emailed to gloat that bin Laden’s alive; here’s one:

Looks like again you and your “slimey Lizards” are wrong, and Osama is stil alive. Showing that Bush is not capable of fighting this war on terror, since the leader is still at large!