Enough Obama for a while; here’s a little Osama: “Osama warns against alliances with Christians and Jews,” from the Daily Times, June 5:
DUBAI: Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has called for a “long war against infidels and their agents”, and warned Muslims that alliances with Christians and Jews would turn them into apostates. “If a Muslim became an ally of the infidels and backed them against Muslims his faith would be annulled and he would become an apostate,” said Bin Laden in remarks which came in a recording — parts of which had been aired by Al Jazeera TV on Wednesday.
“Do not take Jews and Christians as allies,” he said.
“He said.” Actually, Allah said so: “O you who believe: Do not take the Jews and Christians for your friends and allies [from the Arabic wali]; they are friends and allies of each other. Whoever among you takes them for friends, then surely he is among them [becomes an apostate, Koran 5:51].” And Zawahiri wrote a lengthy treatise, “Loyalty and Enmity,” dedicated to showing that Muslims must not befriend Jews and Christians, grounded in such verses, not to mention countless hadiths and ulemaic rulings (see the Al-Qaeda Reader, p.63-115).
“We either live under the light of Islam or we die with dignity … brace yourselves for a long war against the world’s infidels and their agents,” said Bin Laden in the recording posted on a website on Thursday. He said Obama had planted “seeds of hatred” among Muslims. His deputy Ayman Al-Zawahri called the US president a criminal in another recording on Tuesday and warned Muslims against falling for his polished words.