Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Hamas endorsed by Bin Laden on tape urging global Jihad against Westerners
Hamas endorsed by Bin Laden on tape urging global Jihad against Westerners
April 23, 2006
Osama Bin Laden Backs Hamas and Palestinian Authority
Sunday, April 23, 2006
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=102389
Al-Qaeda terror chief Osama Bin Laden came out behind the Hamas Islamist group currently in control of the Palestinian Authority Sunday, saying it was faced with a "Crusader-Zionist war."
Bin Laden made the statement in the most recent recorded statement by the mythic leader of the Global Jihad, which was broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite television.
Bin Laden stressed that all citizens of the West shared responsibility for their countries' "war against Islam," implying that civilians of such countries are legitimate targets of terrorists.
The Islamist terrorist also backed the Janjaweed Arab militias in the Sudan who are responsible for the murder, rape and robbery of more than 2 million non-Arab villagers in the region. "I call on mujahideen and their supporters in Sudan ... and the [Arabian] Peninsula to prepare all that is necessary to wage a long-term war against the Crusaders in western Sudan," he said.
Bin Laden has often spoke about and called for attacks upon Israel, but this is the first time he has publicly allied himself with Hamas – a move that will make it increasingly difficult for the US State Department to continue to view Palestinian terrorism as disconnected from the Al-Qaeda led global offensive.
He also called for "the boycott of the US and European nations who supported Denmark," in response to the cartoons printed in a Danish paper featuring Islam's founder Mohammed. "He also demanded that those who offended the Prophet... be handed over for trial to al Qaeda," Al-Jazeera reported.
The Al-Qaeda chief has been in hiding since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon carried out in 2001, which were attributed to Al-Qaeda. The terror organization has also been implicated in terror attacks on American and Israeli targets in Africa.
Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal met three weeks ago with a representative of Al-Qaeda wanted by the US in Yemen. Sheikh Abd al-Majid al- Zindani made a personal donation of 200,000 Yemenite Rials (approximately $1,000) to Hamas. Zindani heaped praise on Hamas suicide bombers at a fundraising event attended by Meshaal and instructed his followers to donate money. "The Hamas government is the Palestinian people's government today," he told the crowd. "It is the jihad-fighting, steadfast, resolute government of Palestine [sic]."
Following the release of Sunday's tape, however, Hamas's spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri rushed to distance the terror group from Bin Laden's remarks in a message to English media. "Hamas is totally different from the ideology of Sheikh bin Laden," he said, adding that the cash-starved group is interested in having good relations with Western nations.
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