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Bin Laden Slams Pope and Threatens Europe
by
findingDulcinea Staff
In a five-minute audio message, Osama bin Laden took aim at Pope Benedict XVI for his role in the “new Crusade" against Islam.
30-Second Summary
In the message, posted on the Web site of Al-Sahab, the media wing of al-Qaida, Bin Laden references the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that were reprinted by Danish newspapers this February.
While Bin Laden criticizes the West for bombing villages and killing women and children, he focuses more on the cartoons, calling them “the greater and more serious tragedy,” in which the “Pope and the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role.”
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, called the accusations “baseless,” arguing that the Pope has condemned the cartoons numerous times.
The intention behind the message is still unclear. Some analysts say the clip indicates al-Qaida is plotting an attack on Europe. Others, like Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and security analyst, do not feel that bin Laden is able to organize an attack in his current state of isolation. Instead, says Masood, he is trying to enrage Muslims against the West.
In February, three men were arrested in Denmark for an alleged plot to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who created the original depiction of Muhammad that sparked the uproar in 2006. In a sign of solidarity, 11 Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon.
Westergaard has been in hiding ever since 2006, when violence flared up after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published his cartoon depicting Muhammad with a bomb under his turban. Riots spread throughout the world, and Iran even displayed 200 Holocaust cartoons in a museum in reaction. The organizers of that exhibition argued that they were demonstrating that the West, like Islam, has its taboos.
While Bin Laden criticizes the West for bombing villages and killing women and children, he focuses more on the cartoons, calling them “the greater and more serious tragedy,” in which the “Pope and the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role.”
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, called the accusations “baseless,” arguing that the Pope has condemned the cartoons numerous times.
The intention behind the message is still unclear. Some analysts say the clip indicates al-Qaida is plotting an attack on Europe. Others, like Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and security analyst, do not feel that bin Laden is able to organize an attack in his current state of isolation. Instead, says Masood, he is trying to enrage Muslims against the West.
In February, three men were arrested in Denmark for an alleged plot to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who created the original depiction of Muhammad that sparked the uproar in 2006. In a sign of solidarity, 11 Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon.
Westergaard has been in hiding ever since 2006, when violence flared up after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published his cartoon depicting Muhammad with a bomb under his turban. Riots spread throughout the world, and Iran even displayed 200 Holocaust cartoons in a museum in reaction. The organizers of that exhibition argued that they were demonstrating that the West, like Islam, has its taboos.
Headline Links: Bin Laden’s message and the implications of the cartoons
Ben Venzke, the head of IntelCenter, a group that tracks militant messages, said the tape was a “clear threat against EU member countries and an indicator of a possible upcoming significant attack." However, Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and security analyst, argued that bin Laden does not have the capabilities to organize an attack now, and if anything, the message is meant to “infuse hatred” in the Muslim community toward the West.
Source: ABC News
Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, has been in hiding ever since the violent response from angry Muslims in 2006. He said, “This will go on for the rest of my lifetime, I am sure. I will never get out of this. But I feel more anger than fear. I’m angry because my life is threatened, and I know I have done nothing wrong, just done my job.”
Source: The New York Times
Osama bin Laden’s audio message is available on YouTube, where he says: “If there is no check to the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions.”
Source: YouTube
Background: The 2006 protests and the February 2008 reprinting of the cartoons
In February, Jyllands-Posten and 10 other Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon of Muhammad that had incited outrage and riots in February 2006. The newspapers chose to reprint the cartoon as a way of expressing the importance of free speech after police broke up a plot to kill the original cartoonist the day before, according to findingDulcinea.
Source: findingDulcinea
The inflammatory pictures originally “accompanied an editorial criticizing self-censorship after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen complained that he was unable to find an illustrator for his children's book about the prophet,” writes the BBC in a Q&A on the cartoons.
Source: The BBC
The cartoon controversy went global after an Egyptian newspaper reprinted some of the original 12 cartoons, calling them a “continuing insult” and a “racist bomb.” Diplomatic protests followed while gunmen attacked the EU’s offices in Gaza. After several European newspapers reprinted the cartoons, the protest spread throughout the Muslim world and turned violent.
Source: The BBC
Opinion & Analysis: Bin Laden's 'new' message and free speech
Reactions to the current bin Laden tape
The Jawa Report claims that bin Laden may very well be dead, despite the recently released video. According to the Jawa Report, bin Laden may be referencing the 2006 response to the cartoons not the recent decision by the Danish newspapers to reprint them. “As Sahab must have been embarrassed that they had nothing to offer the world on this the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, so they hurriedly released an old audio they had lying around.”
The Jawa Report claims that bin Laden may very well be dead, despite the recently released video. According to the Jawa Report, bin Laden may be referencing the 2006 response to the cartoons not the recent decision by the Danish newspapers to reprint them. “As Sahab must have been embarrassed that they had nothing to offer the world on this the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, so they hurriedly released an old audio they had lying around.”
Source: The Jawa Report
Slate compiles a number of responses to the bin Laden tape. The site Small Dead Animals says that al-Qaida pilfered the spear image from the movie "300" for its propaganda. Michael van der Galien at PoliGazette wrote, “Sure, it's perfectly fine to blow yourself up in the middle of a market, in an attempt to kill as many innocent 'non-believers' (and believers) as you can, but publishing a cartoon about the Prophet Muhammed is considered to be 'uncivil' and in breach with 'the etiquettes of dispute and fighting.'”
Source: Slate
The limits of free speech
The Danish cartoons played into the hands of religious leaders in Pakistan, and the supposedly spontaneous protests were a warning to Pakistan’s liberal leadership, said the BBC’s Aamer Ahmed Khan in 2006.
The Danish cartoons played into the hands of religious leaders in Pakistan, and the supposedly spontaneous protests were a warning to Pakistan’s liberal leadership, said the BBC’s Aamer Ahmed Khan in 2006.
Source: The BBC
According to an excerpt from Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion” quoted in a blog, a group of Danish Muslims deliberately incited Muslim fury by bringing the cartoons to the Muslim world’s attention, giving false and incendiary information about their origins, and adding to the original 12 images three that were particularly offensive, but actually had nothing to do with Denmark or the prophet.
Source: Brian Micklethwait
A 2006 op-ed in Reason Magazine asserted that the Danish cartoons were a “stunt” that was “unambiguously provocative, juvenile, offensive, and irresponsible. That's why it needs to be defended.” Reason argued that the debate that followed the condemnation of the cartoons showed that in the battle for free speech, its defenders are winning.
Source: Reason Magazine
A piece in Iran Daily says that under cover of free speech, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten defamed Islam, incited hatred of Muslims and their religion and actually abused freedom of speech.
Source: Iran Daily
Related Link: Iran retaliates
Iran displayed more than 200 Holocaust cartoons in a museum in retaliation for European newspapers’ printing of Muhammad cartoons. The BBC quoted the exhibition’s organizer as saying, “You see they allow the Prophet to be insulted. But when we talk about the Holocaust, they consider it so holy that they punish people for questioning it.”
Source: The BBC
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