NEFA Foundation: New Zawahiri Audio - "Crusade Sets Its Sights on the Sudan"
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new audio recording from Al-Qaida Deputy Commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri released on March 24 and titled, "Crusade Sets Its Sights on the Sudan." During the recording, Dr. al-Zawahiri insisted, "I am not defending Umar al-Bashir or his regime, nor am I defending what it has done in Darfur and elsewhere; rather, I am asking our Muslim Ummah to look at the matter in a comprehensive way which takes in all of its dimensions. The issue isn’t one of Darfur and solving its problems: the issue is one of making excuses for more foreign interference in the Muslims’ countries in the framework of the contemporary Zionist Crusade. Why aren’t they putting Bush, Blair, Olmert, Barak, Musharraf and Putin on trial? ...Why hasn’t the United Nations moved to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from Israeli barbarity and criminality, while it pretends to cry over the suffering of the people of Darfur? ...I tell our people in the Sudan: the Sudanese regime is too weak to defend the Sudan, so you must do what was done by your brothers in Iraq and Somalia, who defended their countries when the official regimes were powerless to do that, and not only that, but much of them fled or surrendered. So make preparations – by training, equipping, storing and organizing for a long guerilla war, for the contemporary Crusade has bared its fangs at you. I tell our Muslim brothers in the Sudan: we are with you, and all Mujahideen and Muslims are with you, and we shall – with Allah’s help – do all that is in our power to help you." Al-Zawahiri also issued "a message to our people in Darfur. I tell them: don’t allow the Crusade to turn your suffering into a pretext for the occupation of the homelands of Islam."
An English transcript of Dr. al-Zawahiri's recording can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.
