March 21, 2008

Bin Laden's Threat and the New Jihadist Message for Europe

By Walid Phares
In an audiotape posted on Internet, Osama Bin Laden threatened Europe with punishment because of its "negligence in spite of the opportunity presented to take the necessary measures" to stop the publishing of the Danish cartoons.  It also menaced the Vatican with retribution for an alleged role in incitement "against religion."  This al Qaeda warning would have been normal in Salafi Jihad logic. This radical movement obviously considers the drawings as an ultimate insult to Muslims and would unleash extreme violence in retaliation. Actually one would have expected al Qaeda to strike back "for the cartoons offense" a long time ago. In fact, this particular audio is intriguing precisely because it is too "political" (read too sophisticated). Bin Laden's school of Jihadism would have smitten first, explained later. So why is this message more peculiar than previous ones? What can we read into it? In short, I see in it the...(Read Full Article)