Osama bin Laden as SF fan

[Duncan Frissell]

On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Ken Brown wrote:

> Ken McLeod posted the following to rec.arts.sf.fandom
>
> > Forwarded with permission from China Mieville, fantasy writer
> > and student of international relations:
>
> >> ------- Forwarded message follows -------
>
> >> My supervisor, an expert in the Middle East, told me about a
> >> rumour circulating about the name of Bin Laden's network.
> >> The term 'Al-Qaeda' seems to have no political precedent in
> >> Arabic, and has therefore been something of a conundrum to
> >> the experts, until someone pointed out that a very popular
> >> book in the Arab world, Arabs apparently being big readers
> >>  of translated SF, is Asimov's _Foundation_, the title of
> >>  which is translated as 'Al-Qaeda'.
>

***********

http://www.jerrykindall.com/2001/october.asp

Apparently, "al-Qaeda"  means "the base." Which will almost certainly
lead to an obnoxious rash of "al your Qaeda are belong to U.S." sightings.


***********

The name came into use when Osama used his cash to bankroll a series of
bases in Pakistan to assist fighters on their way Afghanistan to fight the
Commies.  He used the opportunity to collect a rather valuable direct
marketing list of somme 40,000 names and addresses of dedicated Musselman
Warriors for future use.  Wonder what dbase software he uses?

DCF
----
"War is a great excuse to get out of the house and away from the
wife and kids."