From MEMRI:
On Friday June 17, 2005, Al-Jazeera TV released a tape of an address by Al-Qa’ida deputy leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The following are excerpts from the speech by Al-Zawahiri aired by Al-Jazeera:
Al-Zawahiri: “True reform is based on three principles:
“The first principle is the rule of Shari’a[Islamic law], because Shari’a, which was given by God, protects the believers’ interests, freedom, honor, and pride, and protects what is sacred to them. The Islamic nation will not accept any other law, after it has suffered from the anti-Islamic trends forcefully imposed on it.
“The second principle of reform is the freedom of the lands of Islam. No reform is conceivable while our countries are occupied by the Crusader forces, which are spread throughout our countries. No reform is conceivable while the Crusader forces are stationed in our countries [where they] enjoy support, supplies, and storage facilities, and go forth from our countries to attack our brothers and sisters in other Islamic countries. No reform is conceivable while our governments are controlled by the American embassies, which stick their noses into all our affairs.
“The third principle of reform is the Muslim nation’s freedom to run its own affairs. This [principle of] reform will only be realized in two ways. First, freedom of the independent religious judicial system, the implementation of its rulings, and the guaranteeing of its honor, authority, and strength. Second, the freedom and the right of the Islamic nation to implement the principle of ‘promoting virtue and preventing vice.’
“I would also like to stress that the expulsion of the invading Crusader and Jews from the lands of Islam will not be accomplished merely through demonstrations and hoarse throats in the streets. Reform and expelling the invaders from the lands of Islam will only be accomplished by fighting for the sake of Allah.
“Allah said: ‘Fight them until all strife ceases and religion is professed for the pleasure of Allah alone.’ He also said: ‘Fight them, and Allah will punish them at your hands and will humiliate them, and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers.’
“I salute my brothers, the lions of Islam, who are on the holy front of Islam around Jerusalem. I call upon them in the name of Allah not to abandon their Jihad, not to throw down their weapons, not to believe the counsel of the collaborators, not to forget the lessons of history, not to trust the secularists who have sold Palestine cheaply, and not to be drawn into the secular game of elections in accordance with a secular constitution.”…