Yesterday I had a post stating that al-Qaeda speaks to the Democrats, and it does show that Zawahiri has a message for the Democrats, or a threat, depending on how you look at it. I see both implied in the letter, but there is quite a bit more to this letter.
In the Name of Allah, and all praise is due to Allah, and may peace and prayers be on the Messenger of Allah and on his family, companions and allies.
Muslim brothers everywhere: peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
A number of critical events in our Islamic world are passing us these days, and I deem it important for us to emphasize a number of their fundamental characteristics, in view of the importance of educating the Ummah in the facts of the conflict between Islam and infidelity, from both a legal as well as factual point of view.
The first thing that I wish to talk about is the passing of 89 years since the Balfour Declaration, in which someone who didn’t own the Holy Land of Palestine gave it to someone who didn’t deserve it…
That historical event which we must not allow to pass from memory, and which we must transmit from generation to generation, in order that we be aware of the extent of the animosity of Britain and the Crusader West in general to the Muslim Ummah…
The animosity of Britain to Islam which stretches over centuries: isn’t it the one who used to occupy most Islamic lands? Isn’t it the one who moved Abd al-Aziz Al Sa’ud and al-Husayn ibn Ali to stab the Ottoman state in its back? And isn’t it the one who handed over to the Jews one of the holiest places of Islam?
The only time "Palestine" was ruled by "Palestinians" or any people from the Arabian Peninsula was briefly around 635 A.D. Follow the link and see who ruled Palestine first (One guess... ISRAEL). They rewrite history because they understand that not many will actually look it up.
So, in his tape as the transcript shows he starts by misrepresenting the actual history, or he was never taught it to begin with, he either believes this false history or lies to his people to make his point. Not being in his head, I cannot say which of these two options is true.
And the first of these facts which we must be conscious of and focus on and repeatedly emphasize, is that the fighting must be for elevating the Word of Allah, and that the elevation of Allah’s Word on His earth means the elevation of His Law (Shari’ah), and that the Muslim cannot possibly be a believer without litigating to Divine Law alone to the exclusion of all other laws. The Truth (Exalted is He) says, “But no, by your Lord (O Muhammad), they are not believers until they make you judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls no resistance to your decisions, but accept them with the fullest conviction.” (4:65) Thus, it is unimaginable that the Muslims could create a government in Palestine or elsewhere based on the rule of other than the Shari’ah, and whose authority doesn’t come from the Shari’ah.
And the second of these facts is that the recovery of every land which was once a land of Islam is the personal duty of every Muslim. Therefore, as Muslims, we cannot possibly concede to Israel so much as a hand-span of Palestine, and there is no difference as far as we are concerned between Palestine 1948 and Palestine 1967: all of it is Palestine and all of it belongs to the Muslims, and all the international resolutions which bit off chunks of it and allowed the presence of Israel on it – from the partition resolution to Resolution 1701 – are null and void, non-binding resolutions, which aren’t worth so much as a mosquito’s wing on the scales of Islam.
Zawahiri makes it very clear that they will never stop tying to destroy Israel, and all that is based on a false premise that Palestine belongs to the muslims.
Lets take a trip into history here:
The use of the term "Palestinian" for an Arab ethnic group is a modern political creation which has no basis in fact - and had never had any international or academic credibility before 1967.
What does Palestine mean?
It has never been the name of a nation or state. It is a geographical term, used to designate the region at those times in history when there is no nation or state there.
The word itself derives from "Peleshet", a name that appears frequently in the Bible and has come into English as "Philistine". The Philistines were mediterranean people originating from Asia Minor and Greek localities.
The Philistines were not Arabs nor even Semites, they were most closely related to the Greeks. They did not speak Arabic. They had no connection, ethnic, linguistic or historical with Arabia or Arabs. The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an Arabic name. It is the Arab pronunciation of the Greco-Roman "Palastina"; which is derived from the Plesheth, (root palash) was a general term meaning rolling or migratory. Source.
Zawahiri then goes on to declare war against anyone who recognizes the state of Israel and any and all of those that voted for resolutions demanding that Israel be recognized.
It is our duty to reject and cast off these resolutions and wage war on them, instead of taking indecisive stances towards them, and saying that we shall respect them and acknowledge them as a fact of life, and other such terms which lead to the forfeiture of the Muslims’ rights.
Recognizing these resolutions implies recognizing the Hebrew state in the land of Palestine, criminalizing Jihad against it, and isolating the Mujahideen outside it from the Mujahideen inside it.
And the secularists who have approved these resolutions are criminals in the eyes of Islam who have agreed to the establishment of Israel in one of the holiest places in Islam.
He then goes on in the same vein to denounce the UN, claiming the UN works against the interests of the Islamic people.
And one of the regrettable events in this sphere concerns the conference of “emerging democracies” which was held under UN auspices in Qatar this past October and which the Israeli foreign minister refused to attend because a delegation from the Palestinian government which included members of the HAMAS movement was attending the conference! i.e., they complain about attending the same conference as us, while we eagerly compete for that! Is this the political action which protects the honor and rights of the Muslims?!
Another lamentable example in this context is the recent draft Security Council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of the Arab grouping and vetoed by the United States, which condemned the latest Israel aggression against Gaza in addition to condemning the launching of rockets against Israel. The ambassador of Palestine at the United Nations supported this draft and regretted America’s objection to it: i.e., the Palestinian government adopted and supported a draft resolution criminalizing Jihad against Israel!
And here we must make clear the true nature of the United Nations. The United Nations is an organization hostile to Islam. Its charter is based on the rule of other than the Shari’ah and obligates all UN members, including the governments of the Islamic countries, to recognize Israel, because it – like them – is a member of the UN. And it also obligates them to recognize Russia’s occupation of Chechnya and the Muslim Caucasus, China’s occupation of East Turkistan, Spain’s occupation of Ceuta and Melilla and the occupation of other Muslim lands by non-Muslim governments which are part of the UN.
As far as Zawahiri is concerned, any country, or orginization that does not follow Shari'ah law is not to be recognized. The extremists believe that the "world" can and must be converted and run according to Shari'ah law.
I repeat what I mentioned previously: the backing of the Jihad in Afghanistan and Iraq today is to back the most important battlefields in which the Crusade against Islam and Muslims is in progress. And the defeat of the Crusaders there – soon, Allah permitting – will have a far-reaching effect on the future of the Muslim Ummah, Allah willing.
He makes it clear, what we have been saying for quite a while now, that Afghanistan and Iraq are the MOST important battlefields in the war against terror today.
Then we have the portion I referred to yesterday in "al-Qaeda talks to the Democrats": A message AND a threat to the Democrats.
The third thing I wish to talk about is a message to the Democrats in America.
I tell them: you must realize two facts.
The first is that you aren’t the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost: rather, the Mujahideen – the Muslim Ummah’s vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq – are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost.
The second fact is that the Mujahideen are still – by the grace of Allah – in the field, their weapons with which they fell the Democrats are still ready and aimed, and the Mujahideen won’t stop inflicting losses on you until you leave our lands, stop plundering our treasures, and stop backing the corrupt rulers in our countries.
And if you don’t refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam, and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate.
You must realize that a new period of world history has begun. The period of the offspring of Abd al-Aziz Al-Sa’ud, the grandsons of the Sharif Husayn and Sadat, Mubarak and Arafat has passed, and the period of Khalid Islambouli, Abdullah Azzam, Abu Hafs the Commander, Khattab, Muhammad Atta, Muhammad Siddique Khan, and Shehzad Tanwir (Allah have mercy on them) has begun. And if you are unable to comprehend this transformation, then blame no one but yourselves.
Depart from our lands and stop supporting the corrupt rulers, and don’t prevent the Muslim Ummah from establishing its legitimate Shura state accountable to it.
Basically, telling them that THEY gave them their elections in November and the Democrats owe them for it and secondly that they must not stand in the way of the destruction of Israel.
He also threatens the American people:
The fourth thing I wish to talk about is a message to the American people. I say to them: you only realized the failure of the administration and toppled the Republicans’ candidates after the Mujahideen slaughtered you, and you didn’t listen to the voice of morality, justice, principles and intellect. And the Mujahideen’s weapons continue to be raised and aimed, by the grace of Allah.
The formula for your safety is “You shall never dream of security until we truly experience it in Palestine and all lands of Islam,” and not the fallacious formula with which Bush deceives you when he says, “We strike the terrorists in their countries so that they don’t strike us in ours.” On the contrary: if we are struck in our countries, we shall never stop striking you in your countries, with Allah’s power and permission.
And as our commander, Shaykh Usama bin Ladin (may Allah preserve him) told you, “As you bomb, you will be bombed, and as you kill, you will be killed.”
This also shows the access, through our own media, that he has to everything that goes on in our country by quoting Bush. I wonder what excuses he would give for their reasons for 9/11? Will that also be blamed on Iraq and Afghanistan? I mean, why not... he rewrote his history to claim the Palestines ruled Palestine, when actually the Jews ruled it first as the link above showed quite clearly.
Is it possible for the leaders of the Ummah to be the religion-sellers in Iraq and Afghanistan who colluded with the Crusaders before, during and after their invasion, and entered Kabul and Baghdad on the backs of American tanks?! How is it possible for the Jihad against the Jews in Lebanon to be Halaal while the Jihad against the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan is Haraam?! How is it possible for cooperation with the Zionist enemy in Lebanon to be treason, while cooperation with the Crusader enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan is security and progress?! How is it possible that we rush to participate in the two governments set up by the occupier in Afghanistan and Iraq, recognize and support them, and defend them and confront those who perform Jihad against them, while cooperation with the Crusader occupier in Lebanon and Palestine is betrayal?!
His biggest fear seems to be the countries that want democracy and liberty. Freedom and a government ruled by anything other than Shari'ah law.
Then he goes on to recruit on behalf of the extremists for the war on terror.
So we extend our hand and invite every independent and honorable one striving to establish Allah’s Law on His earth and earnestly working to expel the Crusader and Jewish invaders from the land of Islam to cooperate with us and with every sincere one to achieve this goal.
We must bear arms. And if we are unable to bear them, then we must support those who carry them. This support comes in many forms and guises, so we must exploit all Da’wah, student and union activities to back the Jihadi resistance.
There is a critical and important role to be played by the inviters, students and unionists in backing and supporting the Jihad. They must make it easy for the Ummah’s members to join the ranks of the Mujahideen and raise funds for the Jihad. They must spread awareness in the ranks of the Ummah. They must stake out targets and observe the activities and most prominent aspects of the American-Zionist presence, and gather data and pass it on to the Mujahideen. They must support the families of the prisoners, and disseminate the Mujahideen’s public relations and rebut the fallacies of the governments and their publicists. And they must strive to declare general strikes in protest at the Zionist-Crusader aggression and the governments’ feebleness and their crushing of the demonstrations.
The man may be a lunatic, but he is a well educated one. He understands that most throughout the Arab world are not taught the actual history, but they are spoonfed hatred, morning, noon and night, he understands that the History of the Jewish people are not taught in the Arab schools, so he can create any history he wishes and many will believe him, he understands how our political system works and how to exploit it, he understands how to use media as he mentions in the tape and he understands how to exploit the Muslim, Islamic religion to include violence against anyone who does not live by Shari'ah law.
He denounces any democratic process that any country in the middle east chooses to live by and makes it clear that anybody that does not support the Jihad, will be killed and judged.
He also shows his weakness:
And I tell the Muslim Ummah: if we don’t resist, we shall be finished. Resistance is a must, and this resistance can be nothing but a popular one at the hands of the Muslim Ummah, because the governments are treasonous and many of the organizations have fallen into the swamp of impotence and going after scraps of the booty.
There is much more in this letter and I am sure I will be posting on other areas of the letter later, but for now, al-Qaeda has spoken and it behooves us to listen closely because only by knowing the nature of the enemy, can we be prepared to fight him.
[UPDATE] Faultline USA has a GREAT laugh for everyone, go check his post out.
Others discussing this:
Riehl World View.
A Blog for All.
Stop the ACLU.
Ace of Spades.
The Political Pit Bull.
Jules Crittenden.
Captain Ed.
The Jawa Report.
Power Line.
Sister Toldjah.
RedState.
Gay Patriot.
LGF.
Hot Air.
Blue Crab Boulevard.
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