Watch Video
Podcasts
Blogs
EUROPE 
Al Qaeda threatens Sir Salman
Wednesday, 11 July, 2007
Al-Qaeda says it's preparing a "precise response" to Britain's decision to knight author Salman Rushdie (AAP).
Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri says the group is preparing a "precise response" to Britain's decision to knight author Salman Rushdie.
"I say to (Britain's Queen) Elizabeth and (former British Prime Minister Tony) Blair that your message has reached us and we are in the process of preparing for you a precise response," Zawahiri said in an audio recording posted on an Internet website often used by Islamic militants.
VIDEO: Rushdie condemned
Salman Rushdie was knighted by the queen last month in her birthday honours list, prompting condemnation and protests from a number of Muslim countries and organisations.
The author is accused by some Muslims of blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses which triggered an international furore when it was first published in 1988.
In an audio message entitled "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves," Zawahiri said Britain was hypocritical for giving Sir Salman the knighthood under the banner of freedom of speech.
"Why don't they honour the British historian David Irving? The Queen of Britain... did not honour him because she cannot rebel against the Jews, who are her masters," he said.
Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria following a conviction there for Holocaust denial.
Death sentence stands
The Indian-born author was forced to go into hiding, after then Iranian supreme leader Aytatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 death sentence over the book.
Two years ago Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he still believed the the author was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.
And following Sir Salman's knighthood, Iran said the death sentence still stands.
"The stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to this issue has not changed from what was put forward by the Imam Khomeini," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
More threats
In the audio message Zawahiri also warned Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, to alter his state's foreign policy.
"The policy of your predecessor (Tony Blair) has brought tragedy and defeat upon you. Not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in the centre of London. If you do not understand this lesson, then we are prepared to repeat it to you," he said.
Zawahiri also praised an attack last month on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon in which six soldiers were killed.
"This operation... came as a response against those invading Crusader forces who were occupying a beloved part of the land of Islam," he said.
And Zawahiri urged the Palestinian militant group Hamas to wage jihad against Israel.
He also called on Muslims in Pakistan to resist their "corrupt" president, Pervez Musharraf, by offering moral and financial support to militants in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Source: AFP
"I say to (Britain's Queen) Elizabeth and (former British Prime Minister Tony) Blair that your message has reached us and we are in the process of preparing for you a precise response," Zawahiri said in an audio recording posted on an Internet website often used by Islamic militants.
VIDEO: Rushdie condemned
Salman Rushdie was knighted by the queen last month in her birthday honours list, prompting condemnation and protests from a number of Muslim countries and organisations.
The author is accused by some Muslims of blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses which triggered an international furore when it was first published in 1988.
In an audio message entitled "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves," Zawahiri said Britain was hypocritical for giving Sir Salman the knighthood under the banner of freedom of speech.
"Why don't they honour the British historian David Irving? The Queen of Britain... did not honour him because she cannot rebel against the Jews, who are her masters," he said.
Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria following a conviction there for Holocaust denial.
Death sentence stands
The Indian-born author was forced to go into hiding, after then Iranian supreme leader Aytatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 death sentence over the book.
Two years ago Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he still believed the the author was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.
And following Sir Salman's knighthood, Iran said the death sentence still stands.
"The stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to this issue has not changed from what was put forward by the Imam Khomeini," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
More threats
In the audio message Zawahiri also warned Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, to alter his state's foreign policy.
"The policy of your predecessor (Tony Blair) has brought tragedy and defeat upon you. Not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in the centre of London. If you do not understand this lesson, then we are prepared to repeat it to you," he said.
Zawahiri also praised an attack last month on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon in which six soldiers were killed.
"This operation... came as a response against those invading Crusader forces who were occupying a beloved part of the land of Islam," he said.
And Zawahiri urged the Palestinian militant group Hamas to wage jihad against Israel.
He also called on Muslims in Pakistan to resist their "corrupt" president, Pervez Musharraf, by offering moral and financial support to militants in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Source: AFP
