Steve Quayle News Alerts

January 7, 2004
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

In an audio recording posted yesterday on Islamist Internet forums, a senior al-Qaida leader reportedly operating in Iraq lambasted Muslim clerics for giving up land to "the Jews and Crusaders," Israel and the United States.

Ahmad Al-Khalayla, also known as Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, is believed to have planned the Millennium attacks thwarted by Jordan and the attack on the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad. The U.S. State Department has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

The recording was translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.

In a prayer concluding his message, Al-Zarqawi said: "Oh Allah, America came with its horses and knights to challenge Allah and his messenger [Muhammad]. ...Oh Allah, rend the kingdom of Bush as you rent the kingdom of Caesar. ...Oh Allah, curse the Arab tyrants and the foreign tyrants; Oh Allah, strike the apostate rulers; Oh Allah, kill them one after the other, sparing none ... ."

The al-Qaida leader accused Muslim clerics of failing to bear the banner of jihad, or holy war, and abandoning the Mujahideen, or holy warriors, as they "confront the strongest power in the world.

"You, our clerics, reconciled with the tyrants and handed over the land and the people to the Jews, the Crusaders, and their hangers-on among our apostate rulers when you remained silent about their crimes, feared to preach the truth to them and did not succeed in bearing the banner of jihad and monotheism."

The U.S. Rewards for Justice of Most Wanted Terrorists website says Al-Zarqawi "has had a long-standing connection to senior al-Qaida leadership and appears to be highly regarded among al-Qaida and a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Saif Al-Adel."

Al-Zarqawi said the clerics "abandoned us in the most difficult of circumstances, and you handed us over to our enemy ."

He claimed "hundreds of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered by the infidels because of your silence, oh clerics of Islam."

"Know that you will stand before Allah [on Judgment Day]," he declared. "Prepare answers for Allah because he will ask you what you did for the nation. He will ask you about the Mujahideen and whether you supported them. He will ask you about the enemies of the [Muslim] community and how much you loathed and hated them, [and whether you used] swords and lances, hearts and tongues. Allah will ask you why you did not rescue the prisoners held by the Jews, the Crusaders and the polytheists. Allah will ask what you did for Afghanistan and for Iraq. Allah will ask why you abandoned Mullah Omar ... ."

Al-Zarqawi then gave a call to action, warning Muslim men if they do not act, they must step aside and allow women to conduct the holy war.

"Oh people, the wheels of war have begun to move; the caller has already declared jihad and the gates of heaven are open [to the martyrs]," he said. "If you are unwilling to be one of the knights of war, make way for the women so they can run the war, and you take the cooking utensils and makeup [brushes] in their stead. If you are not women in turbans and beards, go to the horses and seize their harnesses and their reins ."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36483