Al-Qaeda calls on Sudanese president to "take the path of Islam and jihad"

After pointing out that Khartoum's taqiyya -- in the guise of "political maneouvres, diplomatic ruses and international smooth-talking" -- has failed, Zawahiri insists the only alternative now is for the people to wage a full-blown jihad against "the contemporary crusade [that] has bared its fangs at you."

DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri urged the people of Sudan to prepare for guerrilla war and for President Omar al-Beshir to "repent," in an Internet video message released on Tuesday.

Zawahiri said Beshir's regime is "reaping what it sowed," in reference to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the veteran Sudanese president this month on charges of war crimes over the conflict in Darfur.

"So will the Beshir regime take the path of Islam and jihad and abandon the political maneouvres, diplomatic ruses and international smooth-talking, which has not -- and will not -- bring anything other than disasters and tragedies?" Zawahiri said in the message, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Beshir, the first sitting president to be hit with an ICC warrant, faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes over the six-year conflict in Darfur.

The Egyptian-born Zawahiri called on the Sudanese people to "make preparations... for a long guerrilla war, for the contemporary crusade has bared its fangs at you."

"The Sudanese regime is too weak to defend the Sudan, so you must do what was done by your brothers in Iraq and Somalia, who defended their countries when the official regimes were powerless to do that."

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died and an estimated 2.7 million have fled their homes during the war between Darfur's ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

To which Khartoum offers more shameless taqiyya:

Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.

Again it is the arab muslims killing the black muslims and no one seems to be saying anything in the UN. But they are concerned that Israel may have used white phosphorous in Gaza. A few animalstinians die and they are up in arms. These guys are killing hundreds of thousands and no one is screaming genocide?