clipped from www.csmonitor.com

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 economic impulses, is thus incompatible with Al Qaeda's brand of Islamicism.

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