Ayman al-Zawahiri repeats that there can be no Islamic state without the shari’ah, that he will continue terror attacks against the West, and “as you bomb, you will be bombed, and as you kill, you will be killed.”
He also has many kind words for secular Arabs, and even for Democrats:
The third thing I wish to talk about is a message to the Democrats in America.
I tell them: you must realize two facts.
The first is that you aren’t the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost: rather, the Mujahideen – the Muslim Ummah’s vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq – are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost.
The second fact is that the Mujahideen are still – by the grace of Allah – in the field, their weapons with which they fell the Democrats are still ready and aimed, and the Mujahideen won’t stop inflicting losses on you until you leave our lands, stop plundering our treasures, and stop backing the corrupt rulers in our countries.
And if you don’t refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam, and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate.
You must realize that a new period of world history has begun. The period of the offspring of Abd al-Aziz Al-Sa’ud, the grandsons of the Sharif Husayn and Sadat, Mubarak and Arafat has passed, and the period of Khalid Islambouli, Abdullah Azzam, Abu Hafs the Commander, Khattab, Muhammad Atta, Muhammad Siddique Khan, and Shehzad Tanwir (Allah have mercy on them) has begun. And if you are unable to comprehend this transformation, then blame no one but yourselves.
Depart from our lands and stop supporting the corrupt rulers, and don’t prevent the Muslim Ummah from establishing its legitimate Shura state accountable to it.
And I tell both the Republicans and Democrats: you are attempting in panic to find a way out of the disasters which surround you in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you are still thinking with the same idiotic mentality. Thus you try to negotiate with certain parties to secure your departure, although these parties don’t have a way out for you, and your attempts will only succeed in further frustrating you, Allah willing, because you aren’t negotiating with the real powers in the Islamic world. And it appears that you shall embark on a painful journey of failed negotiations, after which you shall come back – Allah permitting – with no other choice but to negotiate with the real powers.
And I tell them: Bush reflects the level of thought of the American nation, despite all the research centers, specialists, thinkers and historians it has. A nation which chooses Bush as its president is a nation of negligible morals, ideology and intellect. And it suffices to take a look at his recent meeting with the beggar al-Maliki in Amman, and the differences and disputes which permeated it and blew up in public despite their strong need to project it as a successful meeting.
Merry Christmas from your friends at al-Qaeda…