 Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden on Sunday called on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed United Nations force in Darfur, in tape attributed to him and aired on Al Jazeera television.
| Brilliant. Excellent idea. The man's a genius. |
| Since they've wrapped up everything they intended to do in Iraq ... |
Bin Laden said: “I call on Mujahideen and their supporters, especially in Sudan and the Arab peninsula, to prepare for long war against the crusader plunderers in Western Sudan.
| What the hell does Western Sudan have for crusaders to plunder? |
"Our goal is not defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its people. I urge holy warriors to be acquainted with the land and the tribes in Darfur.”
| "There's wimmin to be had, lads! Dark, yes! But comely! And treasure!... Of a sort. I guess. And livestock!" |
One of Darfur’s two main rebel groups rejected bin Laden’s call, warning it could encourage Khartoum to step up its repression. “We categorically reject these declarations,” Justice and Equality Movement official Ahmed Hussein said.
| Hussein? Hussein? Isn't that a Muslim name? Must be some sort of apostate or a heretic or something... |
Bin Laden also slammed western efforts to isolate the Hamas-led Palestinian government as well as Washington and Europe’s freezing of financial aid contributions as proof of the West’s “crusader war” against Islam.
| All of Islam, of course, being represented in Hamas... |
| ... they do seem to be the modern prototype, don't they ... |
Responding to the tape, Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin said that Bin Laden had decided to criticise Israel to deflect growing Arab animosity towards Al Qaeda.
| I think he's just jumping on a bandwagon here. But the idea of Hamas representing all of Islam is interesting. |
Bin Laden called for a global Muslim boycott of American goods. He said the Danish artists responsible for the offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (ptui pbuh) should be handed over to him for trial and punishment.
| Just tell us where to drop them off, Binny. |
According to Al Jazeeera, Bin Laden, in a portion of the tape not aired by the channel, scoffed at Saudi King Abdullah’s calls for a “dialogue among civilisations”. |