'Bin Laden' accuses West - excerpts

A tape attributed to Osama Bin Laden has accused the West of waging a war against Islam.

The following are excerpts from the recording broadcast by al-Jazeera Arab satellite TV on Sunday.

On the Palestinians

Their [the West's] opposition to Hamas has confirmed that it is a Crusader-Zionist war against Muslims. Meanwhile, I can say that war is a shared responsibility between the people and the government. The war is still raging, and people are renewing their allegiance to their rulers and politicians, sending their sons to join armies to fight us, and continuing to provide material and moral support.

Our countries are burning, our homes are being shelled and our peoples are being killed and nobody cares about us. An example of the blatant attacks on our beliefs, our brothers and our countries is what your ally, Israel, did in terms of storming and demolishing Jericho Prison with the collusion of America and Britain.

On British and American involvement in Sudan

Britain... separated Sudan from Egypt. Then it returned once again to Sudan and sought to separate the south. It formed an army there from the people of the south and supported them with money, weapons, and expertise. It directed them to demand secession from Sudan. America then adopted this army through material and moral support and through its international tools, like the United Nations.

It pressured the Khartoum government into signing an unfair agreement which allows the south to break away six years after signing the agreement. Let [Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad] al-Bashir and [US President George W.] Bush know that this agreement is not worth the ink with which it was written. It does not bind us in the least.

Not satisfied with all these intrigues and crimes, America moved on to stir up more strife. One of the areas of gravest strife was western Sudan, where some differences among the tribesmen were used to trigger a ferocious war among them that consumes everything in its way, in preparation for sending Crusader forces to occupy the region and steal its oil under the cover of maintaining security there. It is a continuous Zionist-Crusader war against the Muslims.

In this respect, I urge the mujahidin and their supporters in general, and in Sudan and the surrounding areas, including the Arabian Peninsula, in particular, to prepare all that which is necessary to fight a long-term war against the Crusader thieves in western Sudan. Our aim is clear: that is, defending Islam, its people, and land, and not defending the Khartoum government, although there could be common interests between us. Our differences with it are great. Suffice it to say that it failed to implement sharia law and relinquished the south.

I urge the mujahidin to acquaint themselves with the territory and tribes of the province of Darfur and the areas surrounding it. It has been said that the people who know a certain territory can conquer it, and that those who do not know a certain territory are conquered by it.

On the West's policies

An example of ridiculing people and holding them in contempt is that your aircraft and tanks are destroying houses over the heads of our kinfolk and children in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Pakistan. Meanwhile, you smile in our faces, saying: We are not hostile to Islam; we are hostile to terrorists, and we advocate peaceful coexistence and dialogue rather than a clash of civilizations. The reality belies their pronouncements, for the Western diplomats only seek dialogue for the sake of dialogue. They aim to deceive and anaesthetise us in order to buy time. They only want us to observe a truce.

They are determined to continue with their Crusader campaigns against our nation, to occupy our countries, to plunder our resources, and to enslave us. Do not be duped by their pronouncements, by the pronouncements of the hypocrites and apostates from among the ranks of fellow Arabs and Muslims, or by the pronouncements of the lecherous, those who discourage and frustrate others, or those spreading lies, who have lately been making their voices heard.

On Russian involvement in Chechnya and violence in Somalia

What is the meaning of the silence over the horrible Russian crimes in Chechnya, and the lynching of Muslims and the tearing apart of their bodies? Despite this, the so-called civilized world blesses all this. In fact, they support this secretly. It is a Crusader-Zionist war. What does the humiliation of Muslims in Somalia and the killing of 13,000 of our brother Muslims there mean? This shows how great their rancour is and how great their civilization is when they grill our brothers on a fire. There is no power and no strength save in God. It is a Crusader-Zionist war.

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