New audio message from Bin Laden threatens EU
A new message from Osama bin Laden has surfaced
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Thursday, 20, Mar 2008 07:22
A new audio message allegedly from Osama bin Laden has appeared on an Islamist website threatening the EU over the reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The voice on the tape says that the offensive cartoon, reprinted in Danish newspapers recently, was part of a crusade involving Pope Benedict XVI.
The cartoon was originally printed by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005 and depicts the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban.
At the time it led to widespread protests and violence across the world with dozens of people being killed in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.
The voice on the new tape, not yet officially confirmed as Bin Laden's, says: "Your publications of these drawings - part of a new crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican had a significant role - is a confirmation from you that the war continues."
It adds that those responsible for reprinting the cartoon were "testing Muslims" and warned that "the answer will be what you shall see and not what you hear".
The message appeared on a website which has carried al-Qaida messages in the past and included an animation with a spear pierced through a red map of Europe and a picture of Bin Laden firing an AK-47.
The release of the new message, the first from the al-Qaida leader since November last year, coincides with the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq and the traditional birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.