DAR AL ISLAM-A CAVE IN ASIA: ZAWAHRI RANTS WITH DISGUST AT "MODERATE" MOSLEM LEADERS, TELLS MOSLEMS TO CONTINUE KILLING CRUSADERS & INFIDELS...

Al-Qaida's No. 2 lashes out at moderate Arab leaders in an Islamic holiday greeting

CAIRO, Egypt: The deputy leader of al-Qaida on Saturday accused moderate Arab leaders of being traitors for cooperating with the United States and its allies in an audiotaped greeting marking the most important Islamic holiday.

Ayman al-Zawahri's wished the Palestinian people a happy Eid al-Adha but lashed out at Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement, saying "they cannot be brothers to the Muslims, but they are their enemies."

Abbas has urged his rival, the ruling Islamic Hamas group, to recognize Israel and denounce violence against the Jewish state. The dispute between the groups has exploded into open warfare on Gaza's streets in recent weeks.

"Those who had sold Palestine, the secular traitors, cannot be your brothers. Do not recognize their legitimacy. ... And don't sit with them ... and do not sign with them the documents that will make you lose Palestine," said al-Zawahri in the 15-minute audiotape posted on a Web site commonly used by Islamic insurgents.

The tape could not immediately be verified, but a banner posted on the Web site said it came from al-Qaida's media production house, al-Sahab.

Al-Zawahri did not mention Saddam Hussein's execution in the tape, suggesting it was made before the ousted leader's hanging on Saturday.

The No. 2 al-Qaida leader also denounced other Arab leaders including U.S. ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"I greet my brothers inside the prisons of Mubarak, the traitor," he said in an apparent in reference to recent arrests and detentions of several members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Zawahri had harsh words for the Saudi Arabian kingdom, praising prisoners there who he claims have exposed the government's "loyalism to America, that orders them (the kingdom) to serve the crusader's forces that bomb Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq and that orders them to recognize Israel and give away Palestine."

Saudi Arabia has been waging a three-year crackdown on al-Qaida in the kingdom. Security forces have killed or captured most of the al-Qaida branch's known top leaders, most recently in gunbattles in December. The militants had launched a campaign in 2003 to overthrow the U.S.-allied royal family.

As part his Eid greeting, al-Zawahri vowed to set detainees in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay and the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib free. "Consider this a promise as long as I live," he said.

The deputy al-Qaida leader also extended his holiday greeting to other Muslims throughout the world, praising the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, and urging Muslims in Somalia, Chechnya, Indonesia, the Philippines and Algeria to keep on fighting the "infidels and crusaders."


Pertinent Links:

1) Al-Qaida's No. 2 lashes out at moderate Arab leaders in an Islamic holiday greeting