经济学人下载:讣告-奥萨马本拉登

Facing the assassins
直面刺客

Somewhere, according to one of his five wives, was a man who loved sunflowers, and eating yogurt with honey; who took his children to the beach, and let them sleep under the stars; who enjoyed the BBC World Service and would go hunting with friends each Friday, sometimes mounted, like the Prophet, on a white horse. He liked the comparison. Yet the best thing in his life, he said, was that his jihads had destroyed the myth of all-conquering superpowers.

根据他五个妻子其中一位的说法，在他内心的某个角落里，栖居着一个这样的男人：爱向日葵，也爱喝加蜂蜜的酸奶，会带着孩子去沙滩，也会让他们酣睡于星空之下。爱BBC世界新闻，也会在每个周五和朋友结伴去打猎，有时候，他会像先知一般，蹬上一匹白马。他喜欢这一比较。但是他说，他一生最美好的事是看到自己的圣战组织颠覆了所向披靡的超级大国们的神话。

The price set on his head for more than a decade never bothered him, for Allah determined every breath in his body, and could ensure that the bombs dropped on his hideout at Tora Bora, or on his convoy through the mountains, never touched him. His martyr’s time would come when it came. The difference between pure Muslims and Americans, he said, was that Americans loved life, whereas Muslims loved death. Whether or not he resisted when the Crusaders’ special forces arrived, their bullets could only exalt him.

十多年来美军一直重金悬赏要取他的首级，他从不为此困扰。因为真主阿拉主宰着他的性命，即便藏匿于塔拉波拉或者在护卫簇拥下行走于群山中时，有炸弹落下，真主都能保证他毫发无伤。他的殉道之时会自然而然地到来。他称，纯粹的穆斯林和美国人之间的差别就在于美国人热爱生命，而穆斯林向往死亡。所以，当远征军的特种部队兵临城下，对他而言，抵抗与否，无关紧要，因为他们的子弹只会给他带来荣耀。
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译注：译罢此文，想起阿来在《尘埃落定》里说的一句话：不知道为什么，宗教没有教会人们怎么去爱，反倒滋生出种种的仇恨。萨缪尔亨廷顿在文明的冲突和世界秩序的重构中提到，未来的最大威胁不是核战争，不是自然灾难，而是文明间的大冲突，作者认为伊斯兰文明和儒家文明最可能对西方文明进行威胁。他甚至提出了一系列如何应对这两种文明可能引发的“冲突”的方法。他预言伊斯兰和基督世界最终会有一战，十字军的历史终将再次上演。 对于本拉登这样的人，只能说当狂热的信仰被付之于偏执和狭隘，宗教便失去其普世的博爱价值。