Another tape from al-Zawahri has surfaced and been aired on Al-Jazeera.
"(Muslims have to) inflict losses on the crusader West, especially to its economic infrastructure with strikes that would make it bleed for years," said Zawahri, an Egyptian."
The strikes on New York, Washington, Madrid and London are the best examples," he said.
"We have to prevent the crusader West from stealing the Muslims' oil which is being drained in the biggest robbery in history," he added. It was not clear if the tape was made before the failed al Qaeda attack last month on a major Saudi oil facility.
"Reaching power is not a goal by itself ... and no Palestinian has the right to give away a grain of the soil," said Zawahri in comments directed at Hamas. "The secularists in the Palestinian Authority have sold out Palestine for crumbs... Giving them legitimacy is against Islam."
He described the cartoons as part of a U.S.-led "crusader" campaign. "An example of the hatred of the crusaders led by America ... are the repeated offences against the personality of the Prophet Mohammad, may peace be upon him," Zawahri said.
"The insults against Prophet Muhammad are not the result of freedom of opinion but because what is sacred has changed in this culture," he said. "The Prophet Mohammed, prayers be upon him, and Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, are not sacred anymore, while Semites and the Holocaust and homosexuality have become sacred."
"In the eyes of the West, they have the right to occupy our land, rob our wealth and then insult us and our religion, and humiliate our Quran and our prophet, prayers be upon him," al-Zawahri said. "After that they give us lessons in freedom, justice and human rights."
"Recognizing those people is against Islam's principles. They are criminals in the Islamic balance," he said. "Palestine is not their own property that they can give up."
Speaking of Palestine and Iraq, al-Zawahri said: "We have to be aware of the American game called 'political process.'"
"Bush, the caller for democracy, threatened Hamas in his State of the Union speech to cut assistance unless it recognizes Israel, abandons Jihad and abides by the agreements of surrender between the (Palestinian) Authority and Israel."
"I would like to tell my brothers in Palestine that reaching power is needed to implement Islamic rule," he said.
