Al Qaeda Deputy Urges Hamas to Fight Posted: March 14, 2006

In a video broadcast by Arab satellite television, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s second in command, encouraged the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas to continue fighting against Israel.

In the video, which was posted on the Internet and aired on the Arab-language network Al Jazeera on March 4, 2006, Zawahiri wore a black turban, white robe and said, “No Palestinian has the right to give away a grain of the soil.”

“The seculars in the Palestinian Authority have sold out Palestine for crumbs... Giving them legitimacy is against Islam,” Zawahiri continued.

Hamas responded to the video by distancing itself from Zawahiri.  “Hamas believes that Islam is completely different to the ideology of Mr. al-Zawahiri,” one Hamas official said.

Zawahiri also criticized the West for insulting Muhammad by publishing cartoons of the Prophet in a number of European newspapers.  “They did it on purpose and they continue to do it without apologizing, even though no-one dares to harm Jews or to challenge Jewish claims about the Holocaust nor even to insult homosexuals.”

Zawahri once again called for strikes against Western nations.  “Inflict losses on the crusader West, especially to its economic infrastructure with strikes that would make it bleed for years…The strikes on New York, Washington, Madrid and London are the best examples,” he said. 

Zawahiri also called for strikes against Muslim governments, which he described as being pro-Western, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and Tunisia.  Increasingly, there are indications that Zawahiri has backed attacks by Al Qaeda affiliate groups, especially Al Qaeda in Iraq, in those countries.  These attacks, including the Amman hotel bombings and rocket attacks into Israel, indicate a new danger to the international community and suggest a wider attempt by Islamic terrorists to destabilize governments in the Middle East. 

This latest video follows a January 30 video, in which Zawahiri taunted President Bush and said he escaped a U.S. air strike in Pakistan earlier in the month.