Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader condemned a French move to ban Islamic face veils and urged Yemeni clerics to call for jihad against an alleged U.S. intervention in Yemen, in an Internet message posted on Tuesday.Ayman al-Zawahiri said in the audio recording that a bill passed by French lawmakers which could fine women for appearing in public with face-covering veils was "an attack on Islam."
"This is the freedom of the infidels and not the freedom of Muslims who hold fast to their religion," the Egyptian militant leader said. "France with all its power is unable to expose the head of a nun but it attacks every veiled woman."
Zawahiri, in his second message this month released on Islamist websites, also ridiculed Yemeni clerics, who he said promised jihad, or holy war, against the United States if it interfered in Yemen, but who he said ignored signs that the government was cooperating with U.S. forces.
Noting that Amnesty International had called on Washington to explain its role in Yemen, Zawahiri asked: "Is Amnesty International more concerned about defending the Yemeni people than they (the clerics) are?"
Amnesty International released a report in June suggesting that the United States may be playing a role in Yemen after releasing photographs that showed remnants of alleged U.S. missiles and cluster bombs used in an attack in south Yemen.
"What more are they waiting for to call for jihad? ... are they waiting for the U.S. soldiers to appear on the streets of Sanaa in their tanks?"
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The law to ban the Muslim face cover, which was passed overwhelmingly by French politicians, reveals that freedom in the West is confined to "fighting Islam... and insulting the prophet, while banning anything touching anti-semitism, or questioning the Nazi Holocaust," he said.
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Al-Zawahiri mentions the May 1 attempted Times Square bombing and addresses people from the United States and NATO countries: "You are the ones who are paying the hefty price. Your leaders are collecting the money and the wealth from their war trades, and you are nothing but the fuel and the victims. We did offer you a truce once. We can all benefit, but your governments rejected our call for peace with all arrogance and conceit. This is why the campaigns against you kept coming one after the other, everywhere from Indonesia to Times Square, throughout Madrid and London. These campaigns will continue, and the jihadi reinforcement is still coming," he said.
As for Turkey, he said the Turks "need to restore the dignity of the Ottoman Empire" and end all "deals and treaties" with Israel. He said change won't come via flotillas for Gaza.