Al-Zawahry Blasts Obama

Undeniably, the mysterious disappearance of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahry during the American elections was for Obama's own good. Maybe they preferred Obama to his Republican opponent, or rather they just did not want to remind the Americans of Bush's absurd war against the so-called terrorism, so that McCain could win.

Regardless, the show is now over and Obama has been crowned with the presidency. So, it is al-Qaeda's turn to celebrate such an event, naturally by saying that Bush, its bitter enemy, would leave the White House downheartedly, without bringing about what he promised his people, specifically in finding Osama Bin Laden, al-Zawahry and Mullah Muhammad Omar "dead or alive." Rather, they waged a fierce war against U.S. in Afghanistan, Somalia and, not to forget it, Iraq, even if they were said to lose their ground. Evidently, the attacks and explosions are unceasing.

In addition to this, al-Zawahry, who made the speech, tackled three other points: Obama's attitude, his future policies in Iraq and Afghanistan and al-Qaeda plans under the new developments.

Firstly, al-Zawahry slammed the U.S. president-elect for his attitudes towards the state of Israel and snubbing his Muslim roots. And to be right about that, Obama has an inclination for his mother's religion after his father abandoned him and most probably, he knows nothing about Islam. And we all know that if he was a Muslim, he would not have ascended the ladder of the Democratic Party so quickly to become the first black president.

Besides, the comparison drawn between Obama and "Malcolm X", who converted to Islam and named himself El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz after making a pilgrimage to Mecca and who was also assassinated, does not hold well. Even more, he is not like Martin Luther King who was doomed to Malik's same fate. That is because Obama does not solely defend the civil rights of blacks.

However, the insinuations of the al-Qaeda leader about Israel somehow hit a sensitive chord and will have an impact on Obama's relationship with the Arab and Islamic world. The Jewish lobby in America has grown too strong for any president to challenge it, something demonstrated by the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff.

As for potential policies, it was natural to find al-Zawahry tackling Obama's plan to withdraw some of his troops from Iraq in order to deploy them to Afghanistan. He claims that this policy will not be a success and it will not end the dispute with the Taliban. Rather, the American losses shall increase because the more Americans there are in Afghanistan, the more they will be hunted. There is nothing differentiating Afghanistan from Iraq.

And finally he urged his followers, in the third part of his message, to go after each and every American, without considering settlements. This would apply to Mullah Mohammed Omar, but for the Somalis, the situation is not likely as some of them already reached political compromises with the Americans. That is why they, and his fighters in Iraq, led by Abu Omar Al Baghdadi, were given a warning.

This is the game of al-Zawahry and Bin Laden in which they instigate their followers and give them a free hand to put their implicit orders into effect, no matter what might the way be.