AFP: DUBAI — Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri slammed Pakistan's embattled President Pervez Musharraf as an enemy of Islam, in a first audio message in English posted online on Saturday.
In the message, excerpts of which were aired by Pakistan's ARY One television last week, Zawahiri also dismissed the Pakistani army as a "band of mercenaries" controlled by the US administration.
"Pervez (Musharraf) has proven himself to be one of the biggest enemies of Islam, if the not the biggest," Zawahiri said in the purported message, which was posted on a website usually used by Islamist militant groups.
He chided Musharraf for offering "all support to topple the Muslim emirate in Afghanistan," referring to the US-led war which defeated the Taliban regime in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"Is the Pakistan Army an army defending Muslims, or merely a security service agency or a band of mercenaries which kills Muslims ... to please its masters, the neo-crusaders in the White House," he said, in an apparent attempt to incite Muslim Pakistanis against the army. Qaeda's Zawahiri Slams Musharraf as 'Enemy of Islam' >>> | August 16, 2008
TIMESONLINE:
Pervez Musharraf Resigns as Pakistani President >>> By Jeremy Page and Zahid Hussain, in Islamabad | August 18, 2008
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