Osama Bin Laden threatens Europe and the Pope

On March 20, 2008, Islamist websites, including Al-Ikhlas, posted an Al-Sahab audio message by Osama bin Laden, in which he threatens Europe for republishing the Muhammad cartoons.

In the message, bin Laden states that the republishing of the cartoons was part of a "new Crusade in which the pope has played a significant role," and that the Europeans' offense of defaming the Prophet is even graver than their crime of killing innocent Muslim women and children.

Addressing the Europeans, he threatens: "The response is what you see, not what you hear, and may our mothers mourn us if we fail to come to the aid of Allah's Messenger."