Hamza bin Laden went after the Saudi kingdom’s relationship with America in a new video intended to incite Muslims to rise up against Middle Eastern rulers they see as too allied with the West.
The video is the sixth episode in a series by the son of Osama bin Laden; Hamza said that in addition to trying to spur “our dear people in the Arabian Peninsula” to rise up “against the criminal tyrants and rulers of the country,” al-Qaeda wants to incite people “to liberate the place of revelation from the Crusaders, and protect the Two Holy Mosques from the Safavids, and establish a complete and rightly guided Islamic system.”
In the goal to “revive the jihad for the sake of Allah,” bin Laden’s heir pitched an al-Qaeda promise to “redistribute the riches of the country among the poor and the needy and the deserving, so that the sons of the country can live honorably and in strength in the shade of the Shariah of the Lords of the Worlds.”
“It is incumbent upon our people in the Arabian Peninsula to prepare the equipment and materials, and prepare to protect the Two Holy Mosques,” he urged, along with supporting AQAP “with money and men.”
“Oh Muslim merchants, this is a chance for he who wants to obtain the honor of preparing an army to protect the Two Holy Mosques, and oh young Muslims, go forth lightly and heavily to your mujahidin brothers in Yemen the Land of Faith, to prepare the equipment and gain the necessary experience from them,” he said.
Hamza bin Laden reached back to World War II to explain how the Saudi ruling family’s “loyalty transformed from Britain to America with the end of the Second World War, after the British star faded, and the American star appeared in its place.”
“The meeting of Abd al Aziz with Roosevelt was not ordinary but rather was a dangerous and fateful meeting that dragged the Islamic Ummah into calamities and disasters; which resulted in the establishment of stronger relationships with America at the expense of Britain, and Ibn Sa’ud agreed to allow American ships, and in using ports of the Land of the Two Holy Places as a large American air base, and became a region for the American army for a period of five years, then returned after that to as Sa’ud with all the facilities built in it,” he said. “This was a dangerous step, the first beginning of the military crusader presence in the Land of the Two Holy Places.”
The ethnic Saudi called King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, the founder of Saudi Arabia, “the greatest traitor.”
“His sons and grandchildren still walk on the same path as their father,” Hamza said, calling the head of the house “a scorpion.”
Now in his late 20s, bin Laden was officially brought into the family business two years ago and was designated a terrorist by the United States in January 2017.
Footage released last year by the CIA showed Hamza bin Laden at the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan, which was raided by the U.S. in 2011, resulting in Osama’s death.
Osama’s journal, also released by the CIA last week, shows the al-Qaeda leader talking about training Hamza on “Arab revolts”; Osama’s writings revealed deep fascination with the Arab Spring uprisings. The elder bin Laden wrote about his son traveling to Qatar, “the safest side to avoid crises.”
Hamza’s mother is bin Laden’s third wife, Khayriya Saber, who raised the boy in Iran after the 9/11 attacks per agreement between al-Qaeda and the regime in Tehran. Hamza would later receive some of his training from the Taliban.
He’s been appearing more often in al-Qaeda propaganda as the terror group tries to woo the younger generation. In a November video and written statement, Hamza bin Laden urged retaliation against the specific Navy SEALs who raided the Abbottabad compound six years ago, killing his father, and urging young Muslims to revolt with a new, Shariah-based Arab Spring.
“The price of freedom is expensive, its bill exorbitant,” he said. “Freedom cannot be earned with worthless pieces of paper cast inside a ballot box, nor by participation in polytheistic parliaments which legislate by man-made laws; it’s earned with the ultimate generosity, selfless sacrifice… jihad and martyrdom.”
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