Posted on 11/06/2004 1:47:06 AM PST by Snapple
(Washington, DC--November 1, 2004) The escalation of violence by Islamic extremists over the past year has mobilized moderate Muslims to speak out against Islamic terrorists, an expert on suicide bombers told an RFE/RL audience last week.
Joyce M. Davis, author of "Martyrs: Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East," and an associate director of broadcasting at RFE/RL, said that the terrorists perpetrating violence in the name of Islam are at "war with Islam" itself, and that Muslims who believe in the peaceful tenants of their faith are the ones "who will have to defeat them." Davis said that she sees evidence that these voices of moderate Islam are now speaking up in defense their faith, "even at the risk of themselves becoming targets, which is a real threat."
Davis said that, while many Islamists consider the United States and the western world as the enemy of Islam, her research -- particularly interviews with scholars in the Middle East -- refutes this conclusion and supports the view that "extremists who act against the religion's teachings are actually its true enemies." While acknowledging the history of martyrdom and its significance in the expansion of Islam, Davis said the violent actions taken by terrorists in the name of God are not supported by Islam and its religious texts.
According to Davis, many of Islam's most prominent scholars have concluded that the September 11 attacks and similar attacks on civilians are not justified by Islam's teachings. For instance, Abdulaziz bin Abdallah al Sheik, the leading religious authority in Saudi Arabia, declared in April 2001, "Any act of self killing or suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam. The one who blows himself up in the midst of the enemies is also performing an act contrary to Islamic teachings." More recently, Grand Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of the Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo -- considered the highest authority in Sunni Islam -- told a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 2003 that extremist Islamic groups had appropriated Islam and its notion of jihad, or holy struggle, for their own ends, asserting that "Extremism is the enemy of Islam."
Davis argues that the only way the war against terror can be won is by giving a voice to moderate Muslims, just as RFE/RL is doing in its daily broadcasts. She encouraged more moderates to reclaim their religion from the extremists whom they feel are "the greatest threat to the survival of Islam in the modern world." At the same time, Davis suggests the United States do more to engage the moderates and their defense of the true nature of Islam, which celebrates world peace. She noted this is not easy, because of the risk that moderates themselves will be targeted for attacks. To hear archived audio for this and other RFE/RL briefings and events, please visit our website at www.regionalanalysis.org.
Right. But if you want that to change you can't just call them names. You have to bring out the examples of tolerance in their scripture. This site seems to do that.
http://www.harunyahya.com/
You'd like it to be true, but it just isn't.
Give an example, then.
*crickets*
So from which part of the Bible did you interpret that Jesus taught you to be naive and to have your head cut off? :)
The Islamic Terrorist and their sympathizers are all our enemies; who are their sympathizers may be one of our greatest surprises and mistakes.
So from which part of the Bible did you interpret that Jesus taught you to be naive and to have your head cut off? :)
Yer too late...We all now know better...
I remember watching the news report in Israel where 'muzlims' were in a window opening ripping apart the body of non muzlim...And with the wide open exposure to the world of the islamic cult, we see that this is the norm for the religion, not the exception...We have learned that muzlim kids are taught these practices and beliefs, IN AMERICA...
Your message no longer holds water...We see the holes...
The key difference here is that Snapple actually knows and talks with Moslems, and Dec is the kind of Christian who won't talk to Moslems but just wants to kill them. Those of us who know Moslems realize that some of them say one thing and others say different-- just like Christians.
BTW Dec, are you planning on just killing all 1.3 billion Moslems outright or will you offer them a chance to see the light of Christianity first? We all know that you're saying the Moslems started it and it's all their fault so you're justified, but which is it, death or conversion?
Riiiight.
No No No As all REAL Freepers know all REAL muslims live only to kill us, and are bloodthristy barbarians.
/world class sarcasm
On a serios note, we have to admit that (1) the Freerepublic is a tremedous force for good, and (2) there're a heck of a lot of freepers who're on this "kill all Moslems" shtick, and that (2) errodes (1).
I keep asking myself if there isn't something that can be done, but then again we've faced the same problem with the Church also. I wonder.
That was when you were practising your famous tolerance toward the chechens, but not the Russians, as I recall.
The Muslims I know are lovely and normal. They don't cut off my head. They send me christmas cards.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/11/bc0b64fe-cd5f-4eb1-9d6e-179b625047e4.html
Chechen President Congratulates Bush, As Do South Caucasus States
By Liz Fuller
Aslan Maskhadov (file photo)
Aslan Maskhadov has sent a telegram to George W. Bush congratulating him on his reelection to a second term as U.S. president, chechenpress.info reported on 5 November. Maskhadov characterizes the United States as a country that embodies for all mankind the principles of democracy and human rights. He said that in their unequal struggle, the Chechen people derive inspiration from the values proclaimed by the U.S. founding fathers. He hailed President Bush personally as embodying "the lofty principles that are fundamental for all those who battle against tyranny."
In a commentary on chechenpress.info, Maskhadov's envoy Akhmed Zakaev explained that while many Chechens may consider Maskhadov's words of congratulation misplaced in light of Bush's proclaimed support for what Zakaev termed Russian President Vladimir Putin's "criminal regime," Maskhadov was in fact hailing Bush not as an individual political figure, but as the head of a state founded on principles that are dear to all Chechens. "The fact that Bush has retreated from those principles does not detract from the significance of America as a symbol of the struggle for the freedom of oppressed peoples," Zakaev argued. "In expressing respect for the U.S. principles of freedom and democracy, we are simply stressing to what degree the current U.S. administration has retreated from those principles by upholding the Kremlin's regime of tyranny," Zakaev concluded.
(edited here)
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=33047
Russian mothers launch party against Chechen war
AFP: 11/6/2004
MOSCOW, Nov 5 (AFP) - Some weeping and many dressed in shabby clothes, several hundred elderly mothers gathered on a boat in Moscow on Saturday to launch a political party calling for peace in separatist Chechnya and democracy in Russia.
The unusual rally gathered 164 deputies -- a handful of them elderly fathers -- representing 50 of Russia's 88 regions. They all rose hands in favor of launching a political party against a war that helped Russian President Vladimir Putin rise to power five years ago.
Called the United People's Party of Soldiers' Mothers, the group has already been accused by Russian nationalists of being funded from abroad -- an accusation it does not deny, but which it says is not illegal -- and has recently offered to launch peace talks with separatist Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov.
The Kremlin views Maskhadov and other Chechen commanders as "terrorists" out of bounds for any kind of negotiations, placing a 10 million dollar bounty on his head.
"We have decided to enter politics because Russia is changing for the worse," said party representative Ida Kuklina, addressing the downcast crowd from a podium as military songs played on in the background.
"Human rights groups are having more and more difficulty functioning in Russia," Kuklina said. "Our future is unclear, and we no longer seem to be able to affect the government, or our country's future."
She spoke against the background of a song whose chorus read: "Mothers, don't give birth to boys just so that they could go to war."
The group was previously only registered as a committee, and its registration as a party allows it to field candidates for regional and parliamentary elections.
Few analysts expect it to make much of an impact on Russia's politics, and the meeting received only limited coverage in the Moscow media, which has fallen largely under state control since Putin rose to power in 2000.
But the gathering forms a rare show of public opposition to Putin's regime, with parliament now dominated by pro-Kremlin factions and legislation swept through the chamber often without debate.
The mothers' party disputes official Russian figures that just over 5,000 Russian soldiers have died in the Chechen war, saying the toll is at least three times higher because Moscow does not count soldiers killed of their wounds in hospital at a later date.
The rebel or civilian casualty figures have never been officially verified.
A wave of suicide bombings and September's Beslan school hostage crisis which ended up killing more than 340 people, half of them children, have sparked new talk about negotiations with the guerrillas, despite firm refusal to do so by Russian authorities.
Calls by the mothers' party to help lead such talks have been flatly slapped down by the Kremlin, although recent public opinion polls suggest about half of all Russians support some form of official contact between the two sides.
"Our party is going to be the party of peace and reconciliation," Kuklina said.
Another top party official, Maria Fedulova, told the Interfax news agency that the first contacts with Maskhadov's officials would be made later this month, but disclosed no further details.
"We are doing this ... to prevent future hostage takings."
Interfax said the meeting would take place "in one of the Western nations," but gave no details of who might be involved.
11/06/2004 18:27 GMT - AFP
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/11/01/maskhadovminister.shtml
A minister from the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria promised to forget and forgive all offences of the past if Russian authorities start negotiations for peace.
Umar Khambiyev spoke at a conference on Chechnya held in Stockholm over the weekend, Kommersant newspaper wrote on Monday. Being the health minister of Aslan Maskhadovs government, he said he spoke on his behalf. Maskhadov is ready to resign if an interim international administration heads Chechnya, Khambiyev said.
The conference was held by the Swedish human rights organization Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS). Khambiyev who currently lives in France was the only Maskhadov aide to attend the conference. Russian embassy officials refused to take part in it, the paper wrote.
The position of our state on the issue of peace negotiations with Maskhadovs people is well-known, they were quoted by the paper as saying. With them, there is nothing to talk about but the conditions of surrender.
Swedish Foreign Ministry officials also refused to attend the conference. This looks like a gesture of support for (Russian president) Vladimir Putin and correspondingly an oblique approval of his extremely rough politics in Chechnya, the SPAS president, Frida Blom, said.
Khambiyevs statement was criticized by Chechen separatist leaders. Maskhadovs official spokesman, Usman Ferzauli, quoted by the paper said Khambiyev acted spontaneously.
No one has given him the right to speak on behalf of the president and the Chechen people, Ferzauli said, calling Khambiyevs words on Maskhadovs possible resignation nonsense.
It is useless call on human rights activists, even if very authoritative. It is possible to stop the war with the good will of the Russian and Chechen leadership, no intermediaries are needed here, the paper quoted Ferzauli as saying.
Umar Khambiyev is a brother of Magomed Khambiyev, Maskhadovs defense minister who surrendered to Russian troops in March.
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