A courtroom sketch of the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at his Military Commissions hearing on October 15, 2012 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON: The self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has released a manifesto claiming that the Quran forbids the use of violence to spread Islam.
The document, published Tuesday by The Huffington Post and Britain's Channel 4 News, marks Mohammed's first public communication since 2009, when the US government officially accused him of terrorism.
Mohammed, the most high-profile of the five men accused over the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on US soil, has been held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2006.
In a major departure from his previous position, Mohammed said that "the Holy Quran forbids us to use force as a means of converting!"
He also tried in the 36-page document to convince his American captors, prosecutors, lawyers and members of his military tribunal to convert to Islam.
"It is my religious duty in dealing with any non-Muslims such as the people in the court (the judge, the prosecution, attorneys, etc.) to invite them to embrace Islam," Mohammed wrote.
"I realize very well that you have heard about Islam and know much about it. But it is my own belief that Allah will ask me on the Day of Judgment why I did not invite these people to Islam?"
Mohammed said he was "very happy" in his cell, adding: "My spirit is free even while my body is being held captive."
Mohammed said he has been "neither sad nor distressed" in his confinement "because I have been with the Only One True God."
The document was declassified last month by military judge James Pohl.
Defense lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
COMMENTS (19)
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Would the reporter not have asked what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed thinks about 9/11? Regret?
@abdul hadi: your curiosity wasn't answered by the acts that put him in there?
First of all HOW MANY master minds are there for 9/11? Was it Bin Laden, Aymen Zawahiri, this guy or someone else.
Secondly reading comments above, looks like some people are assuming that he has changed his ideology (or at least pretending that). There are lots of people who believe that violence is not the way to spread Islam, but 9/11 was not part of plan to spread Islam. It was revenge attack for US interventions and invasions. Two totally different reasons. It is however true that under Islamic rules of war, attacks or fight is only allowed with warriors/soldiers on other side and civilians, animals, food crops should not be targeted (which they conveniently ignore all the time).I am not implying that US is any better and they follow any moral laws when going into a war.
Freedom of speech, innocent until tried before the courts, fundamental rights guaranteed by the American Constitution which says all men are born free do not exist in the present day America. USA has become a Police State - no rights if you defer with American Government foreign policy.
@ashar: Strange that your keyboard ran out of ink before you could tell us all about how 9/11 was masterminded by the recently departed in Israel!!!
All the American dummies should read this website: http://www.veteranstoday.com/ . To find out who really carried the attack.
This guy is responsible for slaughtering over 3,000 innocent lives -- and indirectly responsible for starting the WOT which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Not the best spokesman for Islam.
He took 14 hundred years to find out th basic of islam
Who says Guantanamo bay isn’t working.
Just research the number of Muslims in the subcontinent before the Mughals came into India and compare it with how many they left behind. The Mughals did not use carrots to convert the denizens of the subcontinent.
he is right, force cannot be used to convert anyone nor is such a "conversion" legally acceptable. curious to know what was his "previous position".
I think the American prosecution and punishment has done its job.
It took him a very long time to find out. Salams
Looks like being in guantanamo bay for few years makes muslims understand their religion better.
Nine years in a US jail has put some diplomacy in him. He knows defiance would not help but being civil would. His court behavior is much better than Afia who was defiant and aggressive that is why she got max time. You did the crime you do the time.
keep it within ,we are happy without it.