ABSTRACT
In May 2003, the radical Islamist cleric Nasir bin Hamd al-Fahd issued a fatwa legitimizing the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the United States. 1 In a frequently quoted passage he states:
The attack against it [the United States] by WMD is accepted, since Allah said: “If you are attacked you should attack your aggressor by identical force.” Whoever looks at the American aggression against the Muslims and their lands in recent decades concludes that it is permissible .... Some brothers have totalled the number of Muslims killed directly or indirectly by their weapons and come up with a figure of nearly 10 millions. 2
Shaykh al-Fahd’s fatwa is often used to illustrate that the al-Qaeda network has a clear intention of carrying out a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attack in the West. Few studies, however, have attempted to interpret the fatwa in relation to what is actually taking place within the global jihadi current today. In the hype surrounding al-Qaeda’s alleged pursuit for CBRN weapons, we tend to overlook the fact that no terrorist attack involving CBRN materials has actually been carried out by al-Qaeda so far. Al-Qaeda’s interest in deploying a CBRN weapon is, perhaps, less than anticipated.