Bin Laden takes softer line as he calls for aid
Source: Agencies |
October 2, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AL-QAIDA leader Osama bin Laden has called for the creation of a new relief body to help Muslims, seeking to exploit discontent following this summer's devastating floods in Pakistan by depicting the region's governments as uncaring.
The message, in an audiotape released yesterday, was the third in recent weeks from al-Qaida figures concerning the massive floods that affected around 20 million people, signaling a concentrated campaign by the terror group to tap into anger over the flooding to rally support.
But while earlier messages by subordinates were angry, urging followers to rise up, bin Laden took a softer, even humanitarian tone - apparently trying to broaden al-Qaida's appeal by presenting his group as a problem-solving protector of the poor.
"What governments spend on relief work is secondary to what they spend on armies," bin Laden says on the 11-minute tape titled "Reflections on the Method of Relief Work."
"If governments spent only one percent of what is spent on armies, they would change the face of the world for poor people," he said.
The al-Qaida leader said a new "well-funded" relief organization should be created to study Muslim regions near bodies of water to prevent future flooding, to create development projects in impoverished regions and to work on farming and agriculture to guarantee food security.
"The famine and drought in Africa that we see, and the flooding in Pakistan and other parts of the world, with thousands dead along with millions of refugees, that's why people with hearts should move quickly to save their brothers and sisters," he said.
The message, in an audiotape released yesterday, was the third in recent weeks from al-Qaida figures concerning the massive floods that affected around 20 million people, signaling a concentrated campaign by the terror group to tap into anger over the flooding to rally support.
But while earlier messages by subordinates were angry, urging followers to rise up, bin Laden took a softer, even humanitarian tone - apparently trying to broaden al-Qaida's appeal by presenting his group as a problem-solving protector of the poor.
"What governments spend on relief work is secondary to what they spend on armies," bin Laden says on the 11-minute tape titled "Reflections on the Method of Relief Work."
"If governments spent only one percent of what is spent on armies, they would change the face of the world for poor people," he said.
The al-Qaida leader said a new "well-funded" relief organization should be created to study Muslim regions near bodies of water to prevent future flooding, to create development projects in impoverished regions and to work on farming and agriculture to guarantee food security.
"The famine and drought in Africa that we see, and the flooding in Pakistan and other parts of the world, with thousands dead along with millions of refugees, that's why people with hearts should move quickly to save their brothers and sisters," he said.
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