Posted on 01/10/2006 12:06:20 PM PST by tgambill
MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - A top Saudi cleric told Muslim pilgrims marking the climax of haj on Tuesday that the West was using the global phenomenon of terrorism to scare people away from Islam and discredit legitimate Muslim causes.
Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudeis, the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, also called for stability in Iraq and said Islam was innocent of the charge of "terrorism."
"The campaign against Islam has become fierce and Muslims are being described in insulting terms to distort the image of Islam and scare people away from it," he told the 2.5 million pilgrims in a sermon to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
He accused Western countries of hypocrisy in promoting freedom and democracy, citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"When the oppressor Zionist enemy uses its war of smart bombs and tanks against our brothers in Palestine, violating our holy sites, that's not terrorism to their mind -- but defending land, religion and honor is," Sudeis said.
Israel has largely crushed a Palestinian uprising launched in 2000 and Al-Haram al-Sharif, the site of Islam's holy Al-Aqsa mosque, is in Arab East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war in a move that has not been recognised internationally.
Israel says military measures taken in Palestinian areas are self-defence against suicide bombings and other attacks.
The Palestinian issue is often cited by Islamic militants, including those fighting the U.S.-backed government in Iraq.
"Islam is innocent of this grave phenomenon (of terrorism). The shedding of blood in this country and other Muslim countries is a forbidden criminal act," the cleric said, adding that fighting Islamic rulers was "foolish" and counterproductive.
"We should not forget our brothers in Iraq in the continuing spiral of injustice and murder, and (we should) act seriously to bring security, stability and unity to them," he said.
A campaign of violence to bring down the U.S.-allied Saudi rulers has largely run out of steam over the past year. The kingdom has deployed thousands of security forces at the holy sites to prevent possible attacks during the haj.
Also,
December 9, 2005 (CNN)
While interviewing an anonymous US Special Forces soldier on his sniper skills, a Reuters News agent asked the soldier what he felt when shooting members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The soldier shrugged and replied, "Recoil."
"discredit legitimate Muslim causes."
OK, I'll bite - what are those?
Sorry Sheikh, after September 11th most people stopped ignoring the elephant in the room.
It seems to me that the Muslim world is getting much more defensive and speaking out more than in previous years. If terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, then what are they so worried about?
It kinda reminds me of a kid who breaks something and whose first reaction is "I DIDN'T DO IT!", before anyone even says anything.
My God, I love that answer.
"Recoil" is your friend along with a good spotter.
That gets my vote for Quote of the Day!
"We should not forget our brothers in Iraq in the continuing spiral of injustice and murder, and (we should) act seriously to bring security, stability and unity to them," he said.
Ahh, the good ol' "cycle of violence" argument. To be used whenever you need to condemn violence used by someone else, but also need to sidestep your own blatant hypocricy. All that's missing is for this guy to quote Michael Moore and claim that "there is no terrorist threat."
Count me in too.
It seems to me that the Muslim world is getting much more defensive and speaking out more than in previous years. If terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, then what are they so worried about?Well, when they're accused of not speaking out, its suggested that means they support the terrorists.
-Eric
Yes.
Just like the North kept bringing up the southern phenomenon of slavery to discredit plantation life.
And if people would stop whinning about all those dead Jews, they'd find that Dr. Mengele was a dedicated professional.
< end heavy dripping sarcasm>
But there's a difference between speaking out against the terrorists within their religion and claiming that terrorism has NOTHING TO DO with their religion.
"The shedding of blood in this country and other Muslim countries is a forbidden criminal act," the cleric said...
By which he meant that it's a perfectly legitimate thing to do in infidel countries...
Well, go out and behead some schoolgirls and make yourselves feel better, noble desert warriors.
"Recoil." Good one.
Don't look now, chief, but it still does.
I'd like to give some of the Muslims the benefit of the doubt. I'd like to think there are some, maybe even a majority, who distance themselves from the terrorists. I'd like to think that President Bush is correct when he says bin Laden and his group hijacked the religion.
But any time any of these Islamofascist clerics start talking they convince me more and more that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are the ideological brethren of the terrorists and the only thing that separates them is is a belt bomb.
I thought I was the only one who noticed that.
It's funny that the very people in the West who place the mantle of victimhood on Islam would be the first ones killed if the Islamists could get to them.
Personally I'm offended by all those Hari Krishna Eskimo terrorists.
My Memo to the Immam: Is the West using it to discredit you or, are anti Western great powers using it to manipulate you into proxy warfare, to destroy the old "Northern Tier" with finality, and, to make sure that once all that happens, the Muslim world can then be stabbed in the back?
Porcine muslim logic!
Here... I'll fix it:
Saudi cleric says terrorism used to discredit(s) Islam
Most of the sane world would agree.
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