France threatened in alleged bin Laden tape

Paris, France (CNN) -- A man purporting to be Osama Bin Laden warned France to get its troops out of Afghanistan and not to oppress Muslims at home in a tape broadcast by the Al-Jazeera network Wednesday.

"If you want to tyrannize and think that it is your right to ban the free women from wearing the burqa, isn't it our right to expel your occupying forces, your men from our lands by striking them by the neck?" the speaker demands, in reference to recently passed French legislation barring women from covering their faces in public.
French authorities are treating the message "very, very seriously," CNN counterterror analyst Paul Cruickshank said.

There has been no official response from the government, but lawmaker Lionel Lucas of France's UMP party said: "One must take these threats seriously but never concede.