Al-Qaeda has released a message from slain leader Osama bin Laden praising the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia and urging Muslims to take advantage of a “rare historic opportunity” to rise up, US monitors said.
The message posted on jihadist forums on Wednesday by al-Qaeda’s media arm, As-Sahab, addresses Muslims on the revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, SITE Intelligence said.
Speaking from beyond the grave, bin Laden recommends setting up a council to offer revolutionary advice and decide the best timing to spread revolt across the Muslim world.
“A delay may cause the opportunity to be lost, and carrying it out before the right time will increase the number of casualties,” bin Laden says, according to SITE’s translation of the 12-minute, 37-second audio message. “I think that the winds of change will blow over the entire Muslim world, with permission from Allah.”
SITE said an earlier statement by al-Qaeda indicated that bin Laden made an audio recording a week before he was killed by US special forces, addressing the revolutions and offering advice and guidance.
In the message released on Wednesday, bin Laden referred to the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, but made no mention of those in Libya, Syria or Yemen.
“There is a serious crossroads before you, and a great and rare historic opportunity to rise with the Ummah [Muslim community] and to free yourselves from servitude to the desires of the rulers, manmade law and Western dominance,” he said in the recording, which was posted as a video with a photograph of the al-Qaeda leader. “It is a great sin and immense ignorance to waste this opportunity that was awaited by the Ummah for long decades. So, take advantage of it and destroy the idols, and establish justice and faith.”
Bin Laden accused the region’s rulers of setting themselves up like idols and using the media and religious institutions to maintain their grip on power.
“So, what are you waiting for? Save yourselves and your children, because the opportunity is here,” he said.
Bin Laden also warned against negotiations and compromise.
“So, to these free revolutionaries in all the countries: Hold fast to your initiative and beware of negotiations, because there is no middle road between the people of truth and the people of falsehood. There is no way,” he said.
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