(CNN) -- A new statement attributed to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden condemns European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet, Mohammed.

Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden spoke on a video released by al Qaeda in September.

"This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and the reckoning for it will be more severe," the speaker in the five-minute audio recording says.

Mocking Islam's founder violated "the etiquettes of dispute and fighting," warned the voice attributed to bin Laden.

He said Muslims have not responded by mocking Jesus, whom they consider a prophet as well.

"The laws of men which clash with the legislation of Allah the Most High are null and void, aren't sacred and don't matter to us," he said.

The speaker dismissed claims of free speech in his statement, citing European countries' laws against denying the existence of the Holocaust.

He also said "the crownless king in Riyadh" -- Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah -- could have prevented the publication of the cartoons "if it mattered to him."

"If there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions," he said.

The identity of the speaker could not be independently determined.

However, a radical Islamist Web site reported earlier Wednesday that a statement from bin Laden was coming shortly.

The notice appeared on Al-Ekhlaas, known for carrying statements and videos from al Qaeda and its allies.

Analysis of previous statements has indicated that bin Laden was the speaker, and a U.S. intelligence official said there was no reason to think the recorded voice was not bin Laden's.

Bin Laden, who was behind the terrorist network's September 11 attacks, has been in hiding since the U.S. assault on Afghanistan that followed those strikes.

His last public statement was an audio message issued in December, when he urged his followers in Iraq to continue battling U.S. troops there.

Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The latest statement included no date reference beyond the cartoon controversy, which began in late 2005 when a Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons about Islam, including one that depicted Mohammed wearing a turban resembling a bomb.

Violent protests erupted in early 2006 after other European newspapers reprinted the images as a matter of free speech.

Some Muslims believe that it is forbidden by the Quran to show an image of the prophet at all, and others were offended that the cartoon by artist Kurt Westergaard appeared to depict Mohammed as a terrorist.

Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror.

Several newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial cartoons in February after Danish authorities arrested several people who were said to be plotting a "terror-related assassination" of the cartoonist.

That sparked violent protests in three Afghan cities this month, with Muslim students burning flags and chanting anti-Western statements.