On July 10 and July 11, 2007, Al-Qaeda's media company Al-Sahab issued two audio messages by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in which he threatened Britain with further terrorist attacks and urged the Pakistanis to wage jihad against their government.
The following are excerpts from the messages.
The July 10, 2007 Message
Al-Zawahiri to Britain: "If You Have Not Learned Your Lesson [from the London Bombings], We Will Do It Again, Until We Are Satisfied that You Have Fully Understood [the Message]"
At the beginning of the July 10 address, Al-Zawahiri states that the knighting of Salman Rushdie, "who cursed the Prophet Muhammad," reflects the "hatred of the British Crusaders, which, he says, they unsuccessfully try to disguise as an effort to protect freedom.
Referring to former British prime minister Tony Blair, he says, "Just before leaving his post, discredited and defeated... Blair conveyed a clear message to the Muslims, saying: 'If you think that you have beaten us, and that you are driving us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, then [know that] we curse your prophet.'" Al-Zawahiri then threatens: "Your message has been heard, and we are carefully preparing our response...
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Next, Al-Zawahiri addresses British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying: "To Blair's successor I say, 'Your predecessor's policy has brought [Britain] disaster and defeat, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but even in the center of London. If you have not learned your lesson, we will do it again, until we are satisfied that you have fully understood [the message].'"
Jihad Will "Liberate All the Occupied Islamic Lands, From Andalusia to Iraq"
Addressing the Muslims of Pakistan, Al-Zawahiri calls upon them to either join the jihad in Afghanistan or support it financially, "since the victory of the Afghan Emirate will bring hope for real change in the entire region, and will deal a fatal blow to the plans of the Crusaders and their helpers in South Asia."
Referring to the attack on the Spanish UNIFIL troops in South Lebanon, Al-Zawahiri describes it as "a blessed act," and calls on the Muslims in Lebanon to spare no effort in opposing the current situation there and in fighting the blockade that has been imposed upon them, saying, "Lebanon is an Islamic land, [though] forces hostile to Islam wish to separate it from the [rest of] the Islamic nation... Jihad, which has awakened throughout the Islamic lands... is about to knock on the gates of Jerusalem and liberate all the Islamic lands that were occupied – from [the time of] the conquest of Andalusia until the invasion of Iraq."
Al-Zawahiri also threatens all those who are "collaborating with the Americans, Zionists, and Arab states," stating that "[the collaborators] are digging their graves with their own hands. The Americans and the Jews will not protect them, since they [themselves] are searching for someone to protect them."
Turning to the issue of Palestine, Al-Zawahiri calls upon the Hamas leadership to protest against all "agreements of concession" that relinquish parts of Palestine, from the 1947 partition resolution to the 2007 Mecca Agreement, and urges all the jihad fighters in Palestine to join forces "so that Allah's word will reign supreme... and the Caliphate will be established."
Finally, Al-Zawahiri warns the Islamic nation: "The Americans and the Jews are not on Mars, but in the heart of our homeland, with their weapons... What we see happening today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Somalia may happen tomorrow any [Muslim] city or country... It is only by adhering to Allah's word, returning to Islam and waging jihad that [we] can save [ourselves]."
The July 11, 2007 Message
Avenge Your Honor
In his July 11 address, Al-Zawahiri warns the ulama in Pakistan not to remain silent about the Red Mosque events, and in particular about what was done to Maulana Abd Al-Aziz Ghazi, who was paraded in public dressed in the women's clothes he had donned for his attempt to escape from the mosque. Al-Zawahiri adds: "The despised [Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf, who has sold his honor and faith to the Crusaders and the Jews... regards you [i.e. the ulama] with the utmost contempt, and treats you like animals and dogs... [The treatment received by Ghazi] is the kind of treatment that awaits you in the prisons of Musharraf's hounds... He has dragged your honor through the mud... [and] if you do not avenge your honor he will wipe you out."
Your Only Salvation is Jihad
Al-Zawahiri then urges the Muslims in Pakistan to wage jihad against the Pakistani government, saying, "False elections will not save you, nor will politics, bargaining, flattery and negotiation with criminals... Your only salvation is jihad."
