Bin Laden declares ‘war’ on Musharraf in new tape

DUBAI, Sept 20: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslims in Pakistan to wage holy war against the government of President Pervez Musharraf in a new audio message issued on Thursday.

Bin Laden declared Al Qaeda’s intention to retaliate for the blood spilled by “champions of Islam,” in the new recording produced by the terror network’s media arm As-Sahab and monitored by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

“It is obligatory on the Muslims in Pakistan to carry out jihad (holy war) and fighting to remove Pervez, his government, his army and those who help him,” said the voice in the tape.

The recording was accompanied by video footage of the Western world’s most wanted man, including scenes of him firing a machine gun and walking in a mountainous area with his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites, said the video footage had been previously released.

The threat from bin Laden was swiftly dismissed by Pakistan. “We are already committed to fighting extremists and terrorists -- there is no change in our policy,” chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.“If someone is hurling threats at us, that is their view.

The whole nation is behind us and the Pakistan army is a national institution,” Arshad added.

The threat against Musharraf surfaced just as Pakistan’s election commission named October 6 as the date for a presidential poll in which the embattled military ruler will seek re-election in uniform.

A string of videos and audio messages have been issued by Al Qaeda to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, some featuring bin Laden who had previously not been seen for three years.

“The imminent call by bin Laden to fight against Musharraf demonstrates Al Qaeda’s long-standing and deep hatred for the Pakistani regime, its principal enemy in the region,” said Yasser Serri, director of the Islamic Observatory based in London.

In another video released by Al Qaeda’s media arm, bin Laden’s number two also warned that Musharraf would be “punished” over the killing of leading rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi in the storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

Pakistan, which became a US ally after the September 11, 2001 attacks, has suffered a dramatic upsurge in violence since the siege and storming of the Al-Qaeda-linked mosque which left more than 100 people dead.

In the tape, the bearded and bespectacled Zawahiri branded Pakistani security forces “hunting dogs under (US President George W.) Bush’s crucifix.

“Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students and the demolishing of his masjid and two madrassahs (mosque and religious schools) has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only be washed away by retaliation against the killers of Abdul-Rashid Ghazi and his students,” he said.

In the same Al Qaeda video, Zawahiri and others taunt the United States over alleged Islamist victories in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and call for Muslim allies of Washington to be driven from power.

The 81-minute video is a compilation of old TV news clips mixed with new comments from Zawahiri.

Al Qaeda losing popularity in Muslim world: US

WASHINGTON, Sept 17: Pakistan is among the Muslim countries where Al Qaeda has greatly lost its popularity — from above 75 per cent five years ago to 34 per cent now, says Karen Hughes, US Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

In an opinion piece released on Monday, Ms Hughes says that the opinion of the Muslim world about Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden “is turning darker than bin Laden’s newly-dyed beard.”

Talking about a “dramatic decline” in Osama’s standing in majority-Muslim countries, she quotes from recent opinion polls in Iraq and Afghanistan, which show that more than 90 per cent of those populations have unfavourable views of Al Qaeda and of Osama himself.

Similar polls in Turkey two years ago found that 90 per cent of citizens believe the Al Qaeda bombings in London, Istanbul, Madrid and Egypt were unjust and unfair; 86 per cent thought that there was no excuse for condoning the Sept 11 attacks; and 75 per cent said Osama does not represent Muslims.

She says that support for terrorist tactics has fallen in seven of the eight predominantly Muslim countries polled as part of the Pew Global Attitudes Project since 2002; in most cases, those declines have been dramatic.

Five years ago in Lebanon, 74 per cent of the population thought suicide bombing could sometimes be justified.

Today it’s 34 per cent -- still too high, but a stark reversal.Similar declines in support have occurred in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Jordan.

Muslim populations, according to Ms Hughes, are increasingly rejecting Osama’s attempts to influence their faith.She quotes from a survey by the WorldPublicOpinion.org, which found in April that large majorities in Egypt (88 per cent), Indonesia (65 per cent) and Morocco (66 per cent) agree: “Groups that use violence against civilians, such as Al Qaeda, are violating the principles of Islam. Islam opposes the use of such violence. “These shifts in attitude are beginning to show up in actions.

Sunni leaders in Iraq’s Anbar province are working with coalition forces against Al Qaeda because, she says and quotes one Sunni leader as saying that all the terrorists bring is chaos — “killing people, stealing goats, everything, you name it.”

After recent terrorist attacks in Algeria, protesters shouted: “Terrorists are not Muslims” and “no to terrorism; don’t touch my Algeria,” Ms Hughes concludes.The polls Ms Hughes quotes in her piece show a totally different picture from another survey released last week by a non-partisan NGO called Terror Free Tomorrow.

The Washington-based group claimed that President Pervez Musharraf -- a key US ally -- is less popular in his own country than Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a poll of Pakistanis conducted last month by an anti-terrorism organisation.Additionally, nearly three-fourths of poll respondents said they oppose US military action against Al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan.According to this poll, Osama bin Laden has a 46 per cent approval rating. Gen Musharraf’s support is 38 per cent. US President George W. Bush’s approval: 9 per cent.