Bin Laden Threatens Europe over Muhammed Cartoons

In an audiotape released yesterday, Osama bin Laden has threatened Europe with terror attacks because of the Danish Muhammed cartoons. Fox News has published a transcript of bin Laden's remarks, which are worth quoting for the insights they provide into his worldview:

And [you also know now] that these massacres are never erased from the memories of the peoples, and the effects of this are not hidden. Although our tragedy in your killing of our women and children is a very great one, it paled when you went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings. This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe. And I bring your attention to a telling matter, which is that despite your publishing of the insulting drawings, you haven’t seen any reaction from the one and a half billion Muslims [about the] insult to the Prophet of Allah, Jesus the son of Mary (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him). We believe in all of the Prophets (peace and prayers be upon them), and whoever detracts from or mocks any one of them is an apostate unbeliever.

And here it is worth pointing out that there is no need to use as an excuse the sacredness you accord freedom of expression and the sacredness of your laws and how you won’t change them. If so, then on what basis were American soldiers exempt from being subject to your laws on your land? And on what basis do you suppress the freedom of those who cast doubt on the statistics of an historical event? In addition, you know that there is one man who can put an end to thee drawings, if it mattered to him: the crownless king in Riyadh, who ordered your legal institutions to stop their investigations into the embezzlement of billions from the al-Yamamah deal, and Blair carried this out, and he is today your representative in the Quartet. To sum up, then, the laws of men which clash with the legislations of Allah the Most High are null and void, aren’t sacred, and don’t matter to us. And in addition, your practical stance towards the al-Yamamah deal requires you to admit that there are some values which are greater than your values.

In closing, I tell you: If there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions. And it is amazing and to make light of others that you talk about tolerance and peace at a time when your soldiers perpetrate murder even against the weak and oppressed in our countries. Then came your publishing of these drawings, which came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role. And all of that is confirmation on your part of the continuation of the war, as well as a testing of the Muslims in their religion: Is the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) more beloved to them than themselves and their wealth? The answer is what you see, not what you hear, and [may] our mothers be bereaved of us if we fail to help the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). And peace be upon he who follows the guidance.

(Emphasis added-DD)


It is hard to know where to begin with these statements. Should one start with bin Laden's twisted notion that offensive drawings are somehow worse than killing women and children; or with his nauseating attempt to claim the moral high ground while acting as figurehead of a movement that has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians? The moral and intellectual obscenity at the heart of bin Laden's beliefs virtually speak for themselves.

This is not the first time that bin Laden has called for censorship by murder. In April 2006, he demanded that the Danish cartoonists be handed over to Al Qaeda for trial and that "freethinkers and heretics who defame Islam, and mock and scorn our noble Prophet" should be killed. In the last two years there have been numerous jihadist threats made against Denmark, and against the Muhammed cartoonists in particular.

What this statement should do is remind us that, contrary to what some say, Osama bin Laden and his followers do in fact hate the Western vision of freedom and reserve the right to impose their barbarous totalitarian vision anywhere they see fit.