A new audio recording by Osama bin Laden, titled in English "A Message to the People of Europe from Shaykh Osama bin Laden" and in German "Botschaft an die Völker Europas" was posted September 25, 2009 on Islamist websites. The recording was produced by the Al-Sahab production company.
The following is a transcription of the original English subtitles accompanying the audio; in the recording, the audio plays against a backdrop of a still photo of Osama bin Laden.
"As-Sahab Media"
Chanting: "Say to those who disbelieve: if they desist, that which has passed will be forgiven them; but if they return [to their misdeeds], then the example of previous peoples has already passed before them (8:38)
Osama bin Laden: "All praise is due to Allah, who forbade injustice for Himself and made it forbidden among humans. As for what comes after: To the European peoples; peace be upon he who follows the guidance. You are aware that oppression topples those who commit it and injustice has unhealthy consequences for the unjust, and that one of the greatest forms of injustice is to kill people without right, yet this is exactly what your governments and soldiers are committing under the umbrella of the NATO alliance in Afghanistan. They are killing women, children, and elderly men whose only crime was that Bush became angry with them, although you know that they didn't perpetrate any aggression against Europe and had no connection to the events in America.
"So on what basis are you violating what you talk about holding in high esteem, like justice and human rights? Would that you reflect on the matter and ask wise and reasonable people, because it won't be long until the dust of war clears in Afghanistan, at which point you won't find a trace of any American, because they will have gone away far beyond the Atlantic, Allah permitting, and just us and you will remain, for the oppressed to retaliate from his oppressor.
"There is a lesson for you in the situation of your sister Georgia. Its people were bombed and humiliated, so they asked for help from America, to restore sovereignty over what had been seized from them, but the latter provided them with nothing but empty words; and after they insisted, American ships finally came, not to restore Ossetia and Abkhazia, but rather to provide what they had no need for: a few tents and a little food and laundry detergent.
"So reflect on that deeply. An intelligent man doesn't waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington, and it is a shameful thing for a person to be in a coalition whose supreme commander has no regard for human life and intentionally bombs villagers from the air; and I am a witness to that. Then the Humvees come along, and when it becomes clear to them that those killed were children, American generosity gushes forth in all its abundance and they give the victims' relatives $100 for every child killed.
"This is the painful fact; and is there to be found in Europe a ram for $100? This is the value of the life of our innocent children in the eyes of Washington and its allies, so what do you expect our reaction to be? Were you to see what your American ally and his helpers did in northern Afghanistan, and how they packed thousands of Taliban into freight containers like sardines and locked them inside until they died or were thrown into the river, you would understand the causes of the bloody events in Madrid and London.
"Everything I mentioned has been documented, but when the United Nations began investigating the crimes committed in the north, the Bush administration applied pressure on it and the investigation was stopped. This is American justice.
"To sum up, then: we are neither asking for something trivial or invalid nor for something overstepping the bounds. On the contrary, justice demands that you lift your oppression and withdraw your troops, and reason demands that you don't hurt your neighbors.
"If today Europe is suffering the travails of the economic crisis, and the heart of Europe is no longer number one in world exports, and America is reeling from the hemorrhage caused by the economic war, then how do you think you will fare after America pulls out - Allah permitting - for us to retaliate from the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed?
"So the happy one is he who learns from others' mistakes, and an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, and returning to the truth is better than persisting in error. And peace be upon he who follows the guidance.
Chanting: "And if they incline towards peace, then incline too towards it, and put your trust in Allah. He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (8:61)"
"As-Sahab Media"
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