Carpe diem, Osama!

Hearken to the Angel, Osama!

On New Year's day, I urged you to stop the Jihad and join the West in a united endeavor to bring vital physical and humane assistance to the victims of southern Asia’s tsunami. Would it not have pleased Allah to see your zealous followers turn away from their war with the West and engage in a worldwide humanitarian action?

But between that time and now, much of equally profound importance continues to transpire. People worldover, and in every nation of Islam, are rising courageously to express themselves. Men and women alike are becoming increasingly demonstrative and vociferous in their demands for freedom and democracy and they seem indifferent to the mortal perils they face in making themselves seen and heard.

Now even more than then is truly an opportune time for you to reverse your course. Think of it, were you actually to prevail over all your adversaries and every infidel, you would preside over a ravaged and devastated world. And most of its survivors, Western and Islamic alike, would not bear you good will. Their thirst for revenge would be unquenchable and the graffiti on your tomb might not be to your liking.

On the other hand, were you to really listen to the Archangel Gabriel and respond to his soft spoken guidance, you might one day come to be revered and appreciated as another Prince of Peace. He spoke clearly to the Virgin Mary and she listened. He did the same as he embraced Muhammad, and he listened. Could he not be trying to tell you to sheathe your sword, discard your rifle and find a bottomless pit in which to dispose of all your explosives? Do you not hear him saying that he wants you to extend your hand and join with all of your adversaries in true amity and good will?

Carpe diem, Osama! Look how quickly Arafat is being replaced by men of reason. Instead of being feared, be revered. Do what God expects of you and the epitaph on your tomb will be an eternally illuminated beacon of peace and good will.