CAIRO, Egypt — His message seemed aimed at moderate Arabs, a call to arms that they should support al-Qaida in fighting what he calls a war against Islam.

But even another militant group, Hamas, tried to distance itself after Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape of threats was aired Sunday on Arab television. Independent analysts said it appears bin Laden has begun timing such appeals to ensure he stays relevant and in the spotlight.

"If you look back at what's been happening with bin Laden tapes in the past, it's when people have kind of forgotten about him, when he's not been on the news, that the tapes emerge," said Bob Ayers, a security expert with the Chatham House think tank in London. "It's kind of his way of thumbing his nose at the U.S. and saying, 'Hey, I'm still out here."'

Yet those who say the connection between bin Laden's tapes and actual attacks has ebbed still view them as ominous warnings of al-Qaida's overall strategy.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said al-Qaida's propaganda techniques "would make a politician proud.

"It recognizes that much of this war, this battle that we're fighting, is about winning the hearts and the minds of moderate Islam, and they are focused on that," Hoekstra said on "Fox News Sunday." "We need to be focused on it."

In the tape, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden accused average Westerners of supporting a war on Islam and urged his followers to go to Sudan — his former base — to fight a proposed U.N. peacekeeping force.

His words, the first new message in three months, seemed designed to justify potential attacks on civilians — something al-Qaida has been criticized for even by Arab supporters. He also appeared to be trying to drum up support among Arabs by accusing the West of targeting Hamas, a militant group that fights against Israel and now heads the Palestinian government.

Citing the West's decision to cut off aid to the Hamas-led government, the al-Qaida leader said Washington and Europe were conducting "a Zionist, crusaders' war on Islam."

Al-Qaida is believed to have no direct links to Hamas, which is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood. And a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, was quick to distance the group, declaring Sunday that "the ideology of Hamas is totally different from the ideology of Sheik bin Laden."