Osama bin Laden
He believed Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world. Bin Laden had consistently talked about his belief in the need for violent jihad to make right what he believed are injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states, the need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East. He had also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication and homosexuality, intoxicants (e.g. alcohol), gambling, and usury" in an October 2002 letter.