Posted on 09/04/2004 5:25:40 PM PDT by MCH
CAIRO: Images of dead, wounded and traumatized Russian children being carried from the scene of a rebel school siege have horrified the Arab world, prompting forthright self-criticism and fresh concern about an international backlash against Islam and its followers.
Arab leaders, Muslim clerics and ordinary parents across the Middle East denounced the school siege as unjustifiable. Some warned such actions damage Islam's image more than all its enemies could hope. Even some supporters of Islamic militancy condemned it, though at least one insisted Muslims were not behind it.
``Holy warriors'' from the Middle East have long supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya, and Russian officials said nine or 10 Arabs were among militants killed in the siege.
Middle East security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was too early to know the nationalities of the Arabs among the dead militants. However, a prominent Arab journalist wrote that Muslims must acknowledge the painful fact that Muslims are the main perpetrators of terrorism.
``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.
``Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around the 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.''
Arab TV stations repeatedly aired footage of terrified young survivors being carried from the school siege scene, while pictures of dead and wounded children ran on front pages of Saturday's Arab newspapers.
Ahmed Bahgat, an Egyptian Islamist and columnist for Egypt's leading pro-government newspaper Al-Ahram wrote that the images ``showed Muslims as monsters who are fed by the blood of children and the pain of their families.''
``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.
Other Islamists were more cautious in their criticism.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, leader of Egypt's largest Islamic group, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, said the siege did not fit the Islamic concept of ``jihad,'' or holy war, but took care not to characterize it as terrorism.
``What happened ... is not jihad because our Islam obligates us to respect the souls of human beings,'' Akef said. ``Real jihad should target occupiers of our lands only like the Palestinian and Iraqi resistance.''
Ali Abdullah, an Islamic scholar in Bahrain who follows the ultraconservative Salafi stream of Islam, condemned the school attack as ``un-Islamic,'' but insisted Muslims weren't behind it.
``I have no doubt in my mind that this is the work of the Israelis who want to tarnish the image of Muslims and are working alongside Russians who have their own agenda against the Muslims in Chechnya,'' said Abdullah, reviving an old conspiracy theory altered to fit any situation.
Some contributors to Islamic Web sites known for their extremist content praised the separatists and predicted the Islamic fighters across Egypt would avenge the killings of Muslims elsewhere.
Heads of state from around the region condemned the attack. It struck a chord with parents, including Jordan's King Abdullah II, who denounced it on state-run television.
``As a father, I can tell you that all the fathers and mothers in Jordan pray humbly to God to stand by their counterparts in Russia in their grief,'' said Abdullah, whose wife is expecting their fourth child.
Whichever you prefer - I'm pro-choice.
I knew it...good catch! The jihadist and their sympathizers can count on one thing for sure....there will be a reckoning.
Of course - wouldn't want the readers to get the right idea.
They also want to ward off any cruise missles that may come their way...They do love it when arab-palestinean muslim slime blow up children in Israel tho...
What they mean is, "it's illegal for you US cowboys to bring firearms, mace, CS teargas canisters, switchblades, swords, etc. into our 'peaceful' Sha'aria country."
I know better than to get uppity with customs agents, especially the Canucky-French ones (they are in specially marked "Français" booths so people can avoid them).
Usually I say, "I expect the Mounties and the OPP to protect me."
...not to mention their worship of Satan and their service to him.
Many have said that the US and Russia have many common enemies...should Russia join our war...it would be interesting to say the least.
I expect Putin to do something drastic. He's given Russians many reasons to be ticked off, and he's reached the end of his rope. If he doesn't step up, the Russian public will replace him with somebody who will.
Tell them you didn't think you needed to bring anything for protection, but if they'd like to recommend something, you'd take it into consideration. ;)
Say what they want to hear, do what you want to do - sounds like a reasonable approach to me.
I'd say more about the statist hatred of self-defense, but I'm a little too pooped to rant properly.
But it's a part of Russia! This is what Russia is fighting for! You can see right away that Putin is digging deep for an appropriate response ... and shudder when you say "appropriate".
Senator Kerry wants to weaken the Patriot Act.
The conflict is probably manipulated by around 100-200 opinion leaders and bankrollers. Take them out, particularly the finance people, and things would probably dry up quickly (until next time). The supply of jihadists depends on the madrassas cranking out a new crop every year. The madrassas would shut down in a few weeks if their money supply from wealthy backers (Saudi and elsewhere) was cut off.
We must adopt a policy that providing funds and direction to jihadists is an act of war against the US, Russia, and the rest of the civilized world
If the British SAS took a power drill to this guy's kneecaps, that would be far more justified
How about it's just plain wrong? That they even said it is unjustifiable suggests they think some terrorist acts are justifiable. Too little, too late.
When it comes to the clerics, the extremists are the majority --- and the moderate muslims are the ones who agree with the policies of the extremists but just aren't carrying them out themselves. They donate their money to the charities which go to support the families of the extremists who give their lives to "the cause" which certainly helps keep all this going.
Anyone who has ever donated a single dime to a muslim charity is just as much a part of this is those carrying out the deeds --- but they call themselves moderates.
They aren't horrified --- if they were, they'd put an end it it all. They could get this stopped --- after all aren't we told that out of millions or billions of Muslims, only a very very small number are extremists? But funny how that number holds all the power in the Islamic world. If the majority were really so overwhelming in numbers, they would stop the handful just to save their religion from them --- but we all can see they won't --- because they don't want to and because they are in agreement.
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