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Bin Laden says West waging war on Islam
Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:34 AM ET



By Yara Bayoumy

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said the West's shunning of the Hamas-led Palestinian government showed it was waging a "Crusader-Zionist war" on Muslims, according to an audiotape attributed to him and aired on Sunday.

People in the West share responsibility for their countries' "war against Islam", said the speaker, who sounded like bin Laden, on the tape broadcast on Al Jazeera television.

The Saudi-born militant said the Darfur crisis in western Sudan and Western efforts to isolate the Palestinian government since Hamas won January elections were part of this campaign.

"Their rejection of Hamas affirms that it is a Crusader-Zionist war against Muslims," bin Laden said.

In the brief excerpts of the tape that Al Jazeera aired, he did not repeat his assertion in an audiotape issued in January that al Qaeda was preparing attacks in the United States but was open to a conditional truce with Americans.

But his remarks about the complicity of Westerners in the policies of their governments appeared to be an argument that they were fair game for revenge attacks by militants.

"The war is a responsibility shared between the people and the governments. The war goes on and the people are renewing their allegiance to its rulers and masters," bin Laden said.

"They send their sons to armies to fight us and they continue their financial and moral support while our countries are burned and our houses are bombed and our people are killed."

The Qaeda leader, on the run since the U.S. campaign to oust Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, said Western leaders had ignored his truce offers.

"They do not want a truce unless it is from our side only ... they insist on continuing their Crusader campaign against our nation and to loot our wealth," bin Laden said.

He urged militants to prepare for a long struggle in Darfur. The United States is pressing for U.N. sanctions against the Sudanese government for its part in the conflict.

"I call on mujahideen and their supporters in Sudan ... and the (Arabian) Peninsula to prepare all that is necessary to wage a long-term war against the Crusaders in western Sudan," bin Laden said, accusing the West of seeking to divide Sudan.

An Islamist government in Khartoum hosted bin Laden for several years in the 1990s.

The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab tribes revolted, accusing the Arab-led government of neglect.

Khartoum retaliated by arming mainly Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who began a campaign of murder, rape and plunder that drove more than 2 million villagers into squalid camps in Darfur and in neighboring Chad. Khartoum denies responsibility.

Bin Laden also called for boycotting the United States and European countries over the controversial cartoons lampooning Islam's Prophet Mohammad first published by a Danish newspaper.

"Bin Laden urged in his tape that solidarity for the Prophet ... should continue by widening the boycott to include the United States and European nations that supported Denmark," Al Jazeera said.

"He also demanded that those who offended the Prophet ... be hand over for trial to al Qaeda," it said.

Bin Laden voice recording: West waging crusade against Islam Monsters and Critics.com
Cairo - In a new voice recording aired Sunday by pan-Arab channel al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said that the West was waging a crusade against Islam, which their boycott of Hamas and their intervention in Sudan proved. 'Their [the West's] boycott of Hamas confirmed that it is a crusade Zionist war against Muslims,' bin Laden said. The United States and European Union recently halted aid to the radical Hamas movement, which won a resounding victory in Palestinian elections, demanding the group renounce violence and recognize Israel. In reference to Sudan, bin Laden criticized US support for the autonomy of the south of the country and the Sudanese government's signing of a peace treaty. '(Sudanese President Omar) Beshir and (US President George W) Bush should know that this treaty is not worth the value of the ink in which it was written and for us, the treaty is not at all binding,' bin Laden said. He accused the US of exploiting the disputes between the tribes in Sudan's western province of Darfur to fuel the conflict as a pretext for sending what he called a 'crusade army' to seize oil there. 'I call on the mujahedin in Sudan and its neighbours especially the Arab peninsula to prepare all they need to engage in a long-term war against the crusade thieves in Western Sudan,' bin Laden added. This was the first appearance of bin Laden in the Arab media since al-Jazeera aired a voice recording on January 19 in which the al- Qaeda leader offered the West an armistice. In Sunday's recording, bin Laden said that the rejection by the West of his armistice was proof that the West opposed dialogue. The West was insisting on continuing a crusade war against 'our nation.' 'The politicians of the West do not want dialogue except for the sake of dialogue to drag us on, for them to gain more time. They want an armistice that is observed only by us,' bin Laden said.
Bin Laden says West waging war on Islam Reuters.uk
Purported bin Laden tape describes 'war on Islam' International Herald Tribune
Ha'aretz - Olberlin - The Age - Aljazeera.net - all 329 related »

Prophet cartoon offenders must be killed: bin Laden Yahoo! News
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called for people who ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad to be killed, weighing into the furor that erupted after a Danish newspaper ran cartoons lampooning Islam's holy messenger. "Heretics and atheists, who denigrate religion and transgress against God and His Prophet, will not stop their enmity toward Islam except by being killed," the Saudi-born militant said. Bin Laden's remarks were part of an audio tape which Al Jazeera television aired excerpts from on Sunday. The television station later published a full transcript on its Web site. The Doha-based satellite television channel had aired excerpts of the tape in which bin Laden accused the West of waging a "Crusader-Zionist" war against Islam, citing the isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government and the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region as examples. Anger over the cartoons, which a Danish newspaper first published last year, outraged Muslims who consider drawings of the Prophet to be blasphemous. The caricatures, which were reprinted in several Arab and European newspapers, sparked violent protests in which more than 50 people were killed. Consumers in Muslim countries have also boycotted Danish goods. Denmark's government has refused to apologize for the cartoons, saying it cannot say sorry on behalf of a free and independent media and that freedom of speech is sacred. "The insistence of the Danish government to refrain from apologizing and its refusal to punish the criminals and take action to prevent this crime from being repeated... shows that the notions of freedom of speech have no roots, especially when it comes to Muslims," bin Laden said in the tape.