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School siege prompts horror, self-criticism in Arab world
The Times of India ^ | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 04, 2004 09:26:10 PM | AP

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: apologists; arab; chechnya; islam; islamicist; muslim; russia; suckingfavages; terrorism
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1 posted on 09/04/2004 5:25:41 PM PDT by MCH
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To: 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.

I almost stopped reading at the "horrified the arab world" part, but then I continued on to see that as usual, they are only concerned with their image, and not what was done in the name of Allah..

2 posted on 09/04/2004 5:29:22 PM PDT by cardinal4 (John Kerry- "A Hamster Tale..")
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To: MCH

Nothing but noise from empty cans. Words ain't nothing in the Islamic arena. I'm waiting for action. Talk's cheap.


3 posted on 09/04/2004 5:30:23 PM PDT by blackdog (Hell is an endless hayfield needing to be raked, baled, and put up.)
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To: MCH
``The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!''

This guy is no doupt a racist! Call the ACLU, NAACP, NOW, BBC.
4 posted on 09/04/2004 5:30:54 PM PDT by stockpirate ("Kerry, backed by, supported by, lead by, funded by, admired by, COMMUNISTS!" It's about VVAW)
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To: MCH
``Real jihad should target occupiers of our lands only like the Palestinian and Iraqi resistance.''

But your holy jihadists are getting the holy sh!t kicked out of them there, so they've moved on to softer targets.

5 posted on 09/04/2004 5:31:46 PM PDT by Snake65 (Osama Bin Decomposing)
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To: MCH
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.

Islamofascists are (nearly) the ONLY perpetrators of terrorism ... and let's not forget Israel, Spain, Thailand, Nepal, Nigeria, Bali, Phillipines, USA to name just a few others.

Is there a place on Earth to which Islamofascists have migrated that is not a target of attack and otherwise subject to religiously violent and imperialistic genocide?

6 posted on 09/04/2004 5:34:24 PM PDT by dodger
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To: blackdog

Truth.
This Is a religious war.
They (muslims) regard you as less than human, therefore lying to you, murdering or raping you is not a sin against allah.
Will we open our eyes to it soon enough? |^(


7 posted on 09/04/2004 5:34:58 PM PDT by pipecorp (If they pull the great electronic plug, where will all the ones and zeros go?)
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To: Snake65

Yes, indeedy. Something like Chris Matthews got away with his BS and bluster with Michelle Malkin, but faced with a REAL MAN, Zell kicked his A$$!


8 posted on 09/04/2004 5:34:58 PM PDT by Ramonan (Honor does not go out of style.)
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To: stockpirate
``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!''

This guy is no doupt a racist! Call the ACLU, NAACP, NOW, BBC.

No need. Any Arab dumb enough to publish a column like this in the Arab world, is probably not going to be around too much longer. Some mullah somewhere will soon brand him an "enemy of Islam," and he'll be exterminated in short order by some Islamofascist goon.

9 posted on 09/04/2004 5:35:23 PM PDT by MCH
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To: MCH
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.

A word of advise to the Middle East security officials:

The rest of the civilized world doesn't care about the nationalities of the Arabs. It is enough simply to know that it was the work of Muslims. End of discussion. End of any consideration. End of mercy as far as I am concerned.

10 posted on 09/04/2004 5:36:14 PM PDT by Lawgvr1955 (Kerry: Like Gruber from McHale's Navy TV - Always after a Purple Heart)
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To: MCH

Perhaps this a small crack in the
Muslim wall of silence. It's about time.


11 posted on 09/04/2004 5:38:08 PM PDT by seenenuf (Progressives are a threat to my children!)
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To: MCH
<<>> They consider this clown a scholar, Good Christ. The Israelis did it, This surprises me a bit I am surprised he didnt say Bush did it. These folks are starting to get scared now that the rest of the world will start laying the blame for terror squarely where it belongs , On the Islamics.
12 posted on 09/04/2004 5:38:26 PM PDT by sgtbono2002 (I aint wrong, I aint sorry , and I am probably going to do it again.)
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To: MCH

Did they denounce it in English and French, or did they denounce it in Arabic?


13 posted on 09/04/2004 5:38:32 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (hoplophobia is a mental aberration rather than a mere attitude)
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To: MCH

If there is a silver lining in this Russian mess, it's the certainty that more Jihadists are going to die.

I think that's fabulous.


14 posted on 09/04/2004 5:38:41 PM PDT by Senator Goldwater
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To: MCH
I think we are starting to see a shift in this war. Where before the Arabs never said or wrote anything. Now I think because of the success the US has had and this outrage in Russia they have to speak out, or perish. It is no longer a point where they can hope in their hearts that we will be defeated. Now they are seeing the truth of what these madmen want.

Because the sad truth is that at least 58 of the children were Christian's and they were there with their parents. No word on what the others were, but I didn't see anyone that looked to be Muslim.
15 posted on 09/04/2004 5:41:02 PM PDT by stockpirate ("Kerry, backed by, supported by, lead by, funded by, admired by, COMMUNISTS!" It's about VVAW)
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To: MCH
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!''

Going to see if I can find that article.

16 posted on 09/04/2004 5:41:06 PM PDT by ET(end tyranny)
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To: Senator Goldwater

BUMP that!


17 posted on 09/04/2004 5:41:16 PM PDT by Snake65 (Osama Bin Decomposing)
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To: MCH; All

Just logged on tonight. I have a question. Has any American Government official or anybody for that matter, asked if our schools are being secured or are secure enough?

I know there is a hurricane...but...that is not going to kill 150+ kids.

Just wondering.

Jedi.


18 posted on 09/04/2004 5:41:32 PM PDT by JediForce (Never underestimate the power of the Dark side of the Force....keep the blasters' fully charged.)
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To: MCH; Alouette; Salem; SJackson
``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.

Laugh or cry?

19 posted on 09/04/2004 5:42:50 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Bush took less time to find Saddam that Hillary did to find the Rose Law Firm billing records!)
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To: cardinal4
Exactly, they are afraid this act is so violent that the world will retaliate. Which is exactly what they should do.

Where are the Islamic clerics and the prayer vigils for the dead? The outpouring of grief for the children? The financial assistance to rebuild the torn community?

NO, we won't see that, only worries about themselves and their own situation.
20 posted on 09/04/2004 5:43:34 PM PDT by tioga (GOP, the Grand Old Party. God Bless George W. Bush. Four More Years!)
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