Christians Under Attack

A simple jihadi propaganda video or a dangerous message to a sleeper cell in the west? That is the question raised by the video and no-one has yet claimed responsibility for it.

"Strike civilians in the west without mercy using weapons of mass destruction" is one of the calls made in the 39-minute video.

The question now being asked is whether the video is presenting a coded message or signalling an imminent terrorist attack.

Before the video was posted on the Arab internet forum Ekhlas a banner headline appeared on the website that said: "Pray, pray, Allah is great. America is destroyed by a fatal jihadist nuclear strike."

Clicking on the banner gives the viewer access to a documentary which shows diverse images - from al-Qaeda speeches to western documentaries and other Islamist videos.

The objective appears to be to incite followers of al-Qaeda to use weapons of mass destruction to strike the west, but there may be more to it.

The video opens with two verses of the Koran that emphasise "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". It then says "Fight them until there is no more persecution and Allah is the only object of worship. If they desist, there will be no hostility, except against those who are dishonest."

"Attack those who attack you. Fear Allah and know that Allah is with those who fear Him."

The documentary, filmed in Arabic, begins with images of a documentary distributed in November 2004 by the Italian news network, Rai News 24 entitled, The Hidden Massacre, in which US soldiers allegedly used chemical weapons against Iraqis in the city of Falluja.

It also includes the voice of an Arab jihadist who appears to be giving a lesson to a group of people on the need to conduct attacks against the US and Europe.

"This is called terrorism, but we cannot stop aggression against our countries if we do not use these arms, as Russia and the US did when they were conducting their arms race. If you have them, we must also have them."

Then a voice off camera invites mujahadeen or Muslim fighters to learn how to obtain these weapons of mass destruction and shows a document on the "rules for using weapons of mass destruction against the unbelievers" written by Saudi scholar Naser Bin Hamed al-Fahd.

The document dated 21 May 2003 was written by one of the Saudi ulema or religious leaders close to the Salafite movement and to movements opposed to the Saudi royal family that support al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

"They kill our people and for this reason we should also strike them with weapons of mass destruction - doing so forms part of our response to their attacks,"

"In Jihad we cannot do to them everything they do to us, for example rape our women. But we can respond to weapons of mass destruction.

"There are quantities of uranium on sale, and since the fall of the Soviet Union their nuclear weapons are available on the market.

"The second point is in respect of chemical weapons. They can be used in one of the villages of European countries. This is called terrorism but all this cannot end if we don't conduct such an operation against them.

"We cannot stop the operations against our civilians conducted by Jews and Christians in our countries if we don't do the same thing.

"The problem is nuclear arms are very expensive, while chemical weapons are cheap.

"The best weapons to use are bacteriological ones. This type of barbarous weapon is used by the international community.

"Why shouldn't we use them if the crusaders consider them an effective weapons?"

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