After a three-year absence, Osama bin Laden has resurfaced in another of his rousing videotapes, only this time with a new image and a new message. Projecting a younger look, bin Laden gives his most ideological address since the early 1990s with an assault on capitalism and liberal democracy loaded with Marxist and socialist terms. Indeed, this new bin Laden sounds more like Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary, than some of his rifle-toting Qaeda cohorts.

Gone is bin Laden’s vintage militaristic appearance. He has exchanged his fatigues and Kalashnikov for a white robe, circular cap, and beige cloak, giving him an aura of clerical wisdom. The new bin Laden portrays himself as a spiritual figure, not a grizzled soldier. His gray beard is dyed black and trimmed neatly, which is actually an old tradition dating back to the birth of Islam; the prophet Muhammad reportedly dyed his hair and recommended that his commanders and soldiers dye theirs to strike fear in the enemy.

In the video, bin Laden addresses Americans and rails against the ills of economic exploitation, multinational corporations, and globalisation. He tells them to liberate themselves from “the deception, shackles, and attrition of the capitalist system.” Similar to his incitement of Muslims against their oppressive, “apostate” rulers and the meddlesome West, bin Laden now seems to be trying to galvanise Americans against their own harsh socioeconomic and political system.

“Poor and exploited Americans, unite against your capitalist laws that make the rich richer and the poor poorer,” the former multimillionaire businessman tells the camera. Never before has bin Laden utilised the grandiose language of Marxism in his statements to the American people. And yet, he says, Muslims and Americans are alike; they are both victims of the capitalist system, which “seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations under the label of ‘globalisation’ in order to protect democracy.”

While in the past bin Laden emphasised the clash of cultures and religions as the basis for confrontation, he now talks about commonalities of victimhood and suffering. He blames the global system of capital and class for the tragedies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the poverty of Africa, and “the reeling of many [Americans] under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes, and real estate mortgages.” According to the new bin Laden, capital, class interests, and multinationals — not religion or culture — are responsible for perpetuating war.

Intentionally or unintentionally, bin Laden is venturing into a new ideological terrain. He is blurring the lines between jihadist messianism and Marxist utopia, which might, in turn, throw his die-hard Salafi supporters off balance. Militant Salafism, a hard-line sect within Sunni Islam, follows a literalist interpretation of the Koran and is suspicious of philosophical innovation. Marx’s conception of material history, rendered exclusively in terms of economics, is thus incompatible with Islamicism.

Bin Laden’s address is a new twist in the ideological struggle for hearts and minds, mostly because it targets Westerners. Obviously, bin Laden and his senior associates feel confident to expand their propaganda campaign in the other war — the war of ideas. — The Christian Science Monitor