Posted on 09/06/2004 2:42:53 AM PDT by walford
Expressions of shame and self-reproach have swept the Arab world as Muslims mourn the deaths of Russian schoolchildren - and voice unusually critical condemnations of the social ills blamed for breeding terrorism.
The Arab world has watched with mounting disgust as a wave of civilian hostages - some of them Arabs and Muslims - were slaughtered by insurgents in Iraq.
Last week, newspapers and satellite channels were dominated by pictures of bloodied, naked children in Beslan, north Ossetia, fleeing armed guerillas suspected to be Islamic rebels. Many Arabs found themselves in an increasingly common quandary: struggling to reconcile their sympathy for a political cause with growing revulsion at the wrath levelled by self-described "holy warriors" against the innocent.
"What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?" Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Egypt's highest-ranking imam, railed during Friday prayers in the Egyptian town of Benha. "You are taking Islam as a cover and it is a deceptive cover; those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims."
Sheik Tantawi's refrain was a familiar one among Muslims who have felt unfairly tarred by the growing number of highly publicised bloodbaths perpetrated by fellow believers.
But on Saturday some prominent Arabs had a more sobering interpretation: corrupt, repressed Arab and Islamic societies have turned into breeding grounds for terrorism. It is a judgement rarely voiced in heavily censored Arab rhetoric.
"Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around the world for the past 10 years have been Muslims," wrote Abdulrahman al-Rashed, general manager of the Al-Arabiya TV channel.
In a blunt column in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, he listed attacks carried out by Muslims in Iraq, Russia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. "Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture," he wrote. "The picture is humiliating, painful and harsh for all of us."
Russian officials said 10 of the guerillas who seized the school in Beslan were "Arabs", though this could not immediately be verified.
Chechnya has long figured prominently among the battles listed by radical Islamists of "jihads", or holy struggles. Like Palestinians, Iraqis and Kashmiris, the predominantly Muslim Chechens are generally viewed sympathetically by Arabs, and their plight is often seen as proof that Islam is under fire worldwide.
Virtually all Arab governments and Iran put aside any Chechen sympathies and condemned the hostage-taking and later carnage in Beslan. King Abdullah II of Jordan, who was visiting President Vladimir Putin in Russia last week, called the siege "criminal and cowardly".
The Saudi daily Arab News blasted Mr Putin but saved its harshest condemnation for the guerillas, "who 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."
No truer words were ever spoken.
Muslims commit the majority of terrorist acts in the world, they're involved in almost every war in the world, they look down on modern civilizations, wallow in their imagined glory of 700 years ago, and they don't even get along with each other. And there's more.
Name one thing Muslims have invented in the last 600 years.
Name one disease they've cured.
Name one product they've invented.
Nothing. Nada, Zip.
Muslim cultures export hate and murder. What ethics exist in this "religion" other than extreme control of women's sex organs? Anyone?
This is all bullshit and deniability cover.
Islam is a religion of death. The terrorists are the true Muslims. There is no solution to this problem. How can we possibly stamp out 1.5 billion natural born killers?
If only Abraham had not waivered in his faith. It is so hard to understand why God allowed this evil race to prosper. So much death and suffering ... all because one man made a mistake.
I will never surender my faith but I do not understand and my faith is mightilly challenged.
Hey! That wasn't nice. ;) Middle-Eastern in this state does not necessarily mean "Muslim." There are many Christians of Lebanese & Syrian lineage.
Yesterday I watched the entire History Channel presentation on 'Russia'. It was monumentally informing and educational. It helped me understand so much of who the Russians are and put several modern incidences of the past couple of decades in perspective.
The Russians are as crazy as the Arabs. I'm very glad I live several thousand miles and an ocean away from what is about to get started. The Russians are as murderous as the Arabs but a whole lot more technologically advanced. When they really get started killing they just don't stop untill the job is done.
Since none of them complain about fellow mohammedans killing Israeli children, I presume what we hear is packaged for Western consumption.
It isn't disgust, its been going o for years without a word said to stop it. It is fear, they fear the terrorists have gone to far and good people will do what the governments are failinng to do, eliminate the problem and those that preach it.""
AMEN, brother. They have been feeding the alligator for years with "donations" in the hopes the alligator wouldn't eat them. Now the terrorists have gone way too far, and there are going to be major retributions world wide. Some of these retributions will splash over onto some of the less radical Muslims, and now they don't like what is happening. Don't feel sorry for ANY Muslim ANYWHERE in the world. They are on a path of their own demise.
Your points are right on.
Well the Christians are OK, but the Muslims thats a whole different opinion.
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