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Russian School Siege Prompts Horrified Self-Criticism in Arab Media
Associated Press ^ | Sep 4, 2004 | Maggie Michael

Posted on 09/04/2004 3:15:06 AM PDT by Pharmboy

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Muslims worldwide are the main perpetrators of terrorism, a humiliating and painful truth that must be acknowledged, a prominent Arab writer and television executive wrote Saturday, as Middle East media and officials expressed horror at the bloody rebel siege of a Russian school. Unusually forthright self-criticism followed the end of the hostage crisis, along with warnings that such actions inflict more damage to the image of Islam than all its enemies could hope. Arab leaders and Muslim clerics denounced the school seizure as unjustifiable and expressed their sympathy.

Russian commandos stormed the school Friday in Beslan, Russia; it had been taken over by rebels demanding independence for Chechnya. Russian officials said Saturday that the death toll was at least 250, with twice as many wounded. Many of the casualties were children.

Images of terrified young survivors being carried from the scene aired repeatedly on Arab TV stations. Pictures of dead and wounded children ran on front pages of Arab newspapers Saturday.

"Holy warriors" from the Middle East long have supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya, and Russian officials said nine or 10 Arabs were among militants killed.

"Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture," Abdulrahman al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya television wrote in his daily column published in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. It ran under the headline, "The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!"

Al-Rashed ran through a list of recent attacks by Islamic extremist groups - in Russia, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen - many of which are influenced by the ideology of Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi-born leader of the al-Qaida terror network.

"Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around thg world for the past 10 years have been Muslims," he wrote. Muslims will be unable to cleanse their image unless "we admit the scandalous facts," rather than offer condemnations or justifications.

"The picture is humiliating, painful and harsh for all of us," al-Rashed wrote.

Contributors to Islamic Web sites known for their extremist content had mixed reactions on the hostage crisis, with some praising the separatists. Others wrote that people should wait until the militants had been identified before implicating Arabs in the drama.

Ahmed Bahgat, an Egyptian Islamist, wrote in his column in Egypt's leading pro-government newspaper, Al-Ahram, that hostage-takers in Russia as well as in Iraq are only harming Islam.

"If all the enemies of Islam united together and decided to harm it ... they wouldn't have ruined and harmed its image as much as the sons of Islam have done by their stupidity, miscalculations, and misunderstanding of the nature of this age," Bahgat wrote. ' The horrifying images of the dead and wounded Russian students "showed Muslims as monsters who are fed by the blood of children and the pain of their families."

An editorial in the Saudi English-language Arab News put some blame for the bloody end to the school siege on Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he couldn't afford to lose his "tough-man image." But it added that "the Chechens, with the choice of their targets, had put themselves in a position where no one would shed tears when the punishment came. They reached a new low when they chose toddlers as bargaining chips."

Heads of state from Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait offered their sympathy Friday to Russian officials and to the families of people caught up in the hostage drama. A prominent Muslim cleric also denounced it.

"What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?" Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, was quoted as saying during a Friday sermon in Banha, 30 miles north of Cairo.

"You are taking Islam as a cover and it is a deceptive cover; those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims," Tantawi, who heads Al-Azhar University, the highest authority in the Sunni Islamic world, was quoted by Egypt's Middle East News agency as saying.

AP-ES-09-04-04 0600EDT


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abouteffintime; arabmedia; arabs; cair; cairsilentonchechnya; egypt; itsastart; ossetia; russia; silenceissupport; silenceofcair; terror; whereiscair
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To: demkicker

CNNeurope reporter and talking heads now spinning that Putin will have no choice but to negotiate.

Now the taling head is saying Putin failed because he did not "choose" to negotiate with the muslim elected "president".

CNN reporterette again trying to say this was Putin's fault. I hope she is not the one Rush is dating. She is dense.


141 posted on 09/04/2004 11:13:37 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: Pharmboy

Not enough. Nowhere NEAR enough. You lowlife ragheads need to start cleaning YOUR house. You need to start identifying and turning in those maggots. You need to clean out your cupboards and eradicate the roaches that live amongst you.

Then and only then will the world even consider that yours is a valid religion.

Until then all mohammedans are Targets.


142 posted on 09/04/2004 11:16:28 AM PDT by Leatherneck_MT (Goodnight Chesty, wherever you may be.)
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To: longtermmemmory

It blows my mind how CNN sides with the terrorists 100% of the time. Ruppert needs to get a world wide Fox network going to combat their constant lies and anti-American reporting. Everytime I leave the country and see what CNN reports abroad and in South America, it almost ruins my vacations!


143 posted on 09/04/2004 11:17:36 AM PDT by demkicker
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To: demkicker

Part of the problem is access. Many nations have government stations and CNN pays for exclusive broadcast rights.

Canada has SPECIFICALLY refused to air FNC. The CBC fears competition.

In the USA we saw what happens when the the free market decides.


144 posted on 09/04/2004 11:21:37 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: farmfriend

BTTT!!!!!!


145 posted on 09/04/2004 11:35:48 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: glock rocks; Pete-R-Bilt; Happy2BMe; Travis McGee

>>Arab leaders and Muslim clerics denounced the school seizure as unjustifiable and expressed their sympathy.

Heads of state from Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait offered their sympathy Friday to Russian officials and to the families of people caught up in the hostage drama. A prominent Muslim cleric also denounced it.<<

They are thinking that revenge is very personal......for the victims. A squadron of Sukhoi-30's at 40 thousand feet is long gone before their bombs would strike the Islamic targets, sending Mohammed off to the barbecue.


146 posted on 09/04/2004 12:10:56 PM PDT by B4Ranch (You can evade reality, but you cannot evade the consequences of evading reality - Ayn Rand)
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To: longtermmemmory
I'm hoping we kick @ss in this election and have enough conservatives in congress to address this situation. We should at least use some political muscle to sway other countries to hear an alternative news source, especially with the ratings clout Fox has over CNN! Do we need a news treaty?

Because of CNN, the world has become anti-American and that's a fact. Something needs to be done about their unfair dominance. Between the muslim clerics and CNN's hate speech, we are fighting an uphill battle and this is a war we've got to win.
147 posted on 09/04/2004 12:25:36 PM PDT by demkicker
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To: B4Ranch

148 posted on 09/04/2004 12:37:31 PM PDT by glock rocks (There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.)
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To: Pharmboy

There is nothing new under the sun...

Thirty years later, this is a larger version of Maalot.

Anybody notice that he conveniently ignored terrorist attacks against Israel? I guess that's because those attacks are "justified!"

Mark


149 posted on 09/04/2004 12:46:00 PM PDT by MarkL (Dude!!! You're farting fire!!!!)
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Comment #150 Removed by Moderator

To: Pharmboy

It is about time. Wish I believed it.

I have gotten to the point where I don't believe one single sane, civil word out of the mouth of an Arab.
Not one.


151 posted on 09/04/2004 1:02:54 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (ridesthemiles)
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To: ApesForEvolution

OOOOOHHHHHHH!!!! A little testy today, are we? YOU have "issues" aka "popular usage buzzwords." Remind me to give you a wide berth when I see you coming...parts of you seem to be falling off and hitting innocent people.


152 posted on 09/04/2004 2:23:41 PM PDT by Monkey Face (Eagles fly alone.)
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To: Monkey Face

I'm testy everyday, especially towards weak people...


153 posted on 09/04/2004 2:24:56 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: ApesForEvolution

Of course. You sound like a bully to me.


154 posted on 09/04/2004 2:26:53 PM PDT by Monkey Face (Eagles fly alone.)
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To: ridesthemiles
"Wish I believed it. I have gotten to the point where I don't believe one single sane, civil word out of the mouth of an Arab."

As compared to some of the sentiments being posted by "Christian Americans":

- I wonder how many more Ameriacn dead it will take until we are forced to implement the final solution to the "Islamic" problem.

- The bottom line is that it will be necessary have to eradicate Islam and its subhuman adherents to preserve the human race.

- There is only one way to solve the "Islamic" problem and its what the left calls "genocide". It will be extremely difficult for these subhuman monsters to perpetrate anymore bestial acts if they are all dead. It will be no loss to the human race and make the world a better place. Eventuallty the ragheads will get what they have been asking for. (This post was on four different threads.)

We heard the words "subhuman" and "final solution" used once before.

155 posted on 09/04/2004 2:28:12 PM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson

Yes, we did. And it is still a chilling thought.


156 posted on 09/04/2004 2:29:56 PM PDT by Monkey Face (Eagles fly alone.)
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To: Monkey Face
It scares me more then the thought of a foreign enemy. How many millions died to defeat a people who used the terms "subhuman" and "final solution" to justify their efforts to exterminate a people?

I just can't help but think that in some dark corner of Hell a dark figure is laughing.

157 posted on 09/04/2004 2:34:11 PM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson

Yes, and unless the Muslims get angry at their own deaths, and take responsibility for the degeneration of the Followers, we will see more and more people who sound more and more like Hitler and Stalin and Tito and Saddam and ....well, you get the idea.


158 posted on 09/04/2004 2:37:24 PM PDT by Monkey Face (Eagles fly alone.)
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To: CWOJackson

Greed is always ugly.


159 posted on 09/04/2004 2:38:15 PM PDT by Monkey Face (Eagles fly alone.)
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To: jamama2112

I do not believe so.

The situation escalated when some children were escaping while four medical people, with agreement, were permitted to enter the school area and pick up the dead bodies.


The pictures on Greek Broadcast TV are horrific.

They are showing bandaged children, mothers in screaming tears, one girls face covered from shrapnel wounds. Once small child was so young she did not know her mothers name. (just Mama) truly gut wrenching.

And another thread is saying Europe blames Russia!


160 posted on 09/04/2004 3:03:51 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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