"Headscarf ban may cause attack on France"

From this February 25 article:

PARIS: French anti-terrorism experts are taking seriously a new warning from Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man who accused France of "crusader enmity" for its ban on Muslim headscarves in schools.

Although the Al Qaeda number two, Ayman Zawahri, did not threaten "jihad," or holy struggle or war, he said the headscarf ban was in the same league as "the burning of villages in Afghanistan, the destruction of houses over the heads of their inhabitants in Palestine, the massacre of children and the theft of oil in Iraq." Zawahri made the attack in an audiotape that was broadcast Tuesday by Al-Arabiyah satellite television in Dubai.

He called the ban "a new sign of the enmity of the Western crusaders against Muslims even while boasting of freedom, democracy and human rights..."

"It's an incitement to terrorist action," said Antoine Sfeir, editor-in-chief of the magazine Les Cahiers de l'Orient, which deals with Middle East issues. He added that Zawahri, "the veritable brain of Al-Qaeda," sees the headscarf issue as one around which Muslim communities can rally, in France and elsewhere in Europe...

One anti-terrorist expert said the notion of jihad includes the idea that Islam is under attack and needs to be defended. He said the headscarf ban "could be interpreted by radical Islamic militants as a new attack. One can ask whether the statement by Zawahri is not therefore an a priori justification for subsequent actions."

Today, comes 'France threats linked to scarf ban':

Threats made by a Muslim group against France are linked to a controversial law that bans the wearing of headscarves in state schools, the newspaper that received the threatening letter said.

The two-page letter to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin "threatens France with reprisal attacks following the February 10 adoption of the law banning the headscarf," Le Parisien news director Christian de Villeneuve said.

Terrorism · Tue, 03/16/2004 - 12:34 · · Importance: 1