Bin Laden warns Europe of “reckoning” for Mohammed cartoons

March 23, 2008, 4:55 PM (GMT+02:00)

A new audiotape, purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, informs the “intelligence ones’ in the European Union that republishing the “insulting drawings” was a greater crime than Western forces targeting Muslim villages and killing women and children. And “the reckoning for it will be more severe,” he says - in reference to the reprint in Danish papers of one of the controversial Danish cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Released by al Qaeda’s publishing arm As-Sahab, bin Laden’s five-minute message is captioned “May Our Mothers Be Bereaved of Us If We Fail to Help Our Prophet.” He refers to a new crusade against Islam.

The audio track with English subtitles plays over a video image of bin Laden holding an AK-47 rifle. He has not been seen on video since October 2004.