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
Say hello to our newest Freeper, Abdulrahman al-Rashed. I wonder what his screen name will be?
If I recall this guy has been writing stuff like this for a while.
Actually, more of the Moslem world was much more focused on those scarves than on the fact Moslem terrorists were shooting young children in the back.
"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.'...
'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.'"
What they said! Have they gone a bridge too far this time? We shall see.
The murderousness of their women is disturbing, how deranged are the Chechens? Who can still support their "cause"?
What an interesting insight...I guess being a bubblehead didn't affect the clarity of your thoughts. LOL!
Parse what he's saying carefully. He's not calling it evil -- just a very bad public relations move
actually a whole host of them are shaking in their boots, because they know that "IVAN" ain't tolerant like the USA.
the muzzies will be lucky if "IVAN" doesn't fry their rock in Mecca, along with several state sponsors from which the terrorists hailed.
I am pretty sure Russia does NOT need a green light from Washington. BUT I am equally confident, that they already had it, by the time the crap hit the fan.
Do what must be done Vlad.
Islam bit the wrong bear.
And wearing a pair of panties on their heads will soon seem like a sunday ice cream social... I suspect.
All things muslim are nothing more than a satanic cult.
Hah, If an American politician were to say that, the MSM would boil him in oil.
Encouraging. Hopefully it will represent a turning point, but dont hold your breath. I hope the Russians show lots of pictures of maimed children to get the most political mileage out of it with the Arab world.
And BTW, great tagline...
I have now spent as much time working with Marines as I did on my submarine. It appears to be beneficial to ones mental acuity.
Muslims as monsters who are fed by the blood of children and the pain of their families
Hold it there Mister. You need to learn the meaning of being "POLITCALLY CORRECT" you rasict [sarcasm].
"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."
At this point, I would tend to agree with your assessment.
I DID notice that...they would choke on any words that would support the hated Jews.
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