Posted on 10/10/2002 2:59:30 PM PDT by knighthawk
The two Kuwaiti gunmen who died in a shootout that also killed a US marine and wounded another have been hailed by many of their countrymen as anti-American "heroes."
Anas Ahmad Ibrahim al-Kandari, 21, and Jassem Hamad Mubarak al-Hajeri, 26, were condemned as "terrorists" by Kuwaiti and US authorities.
Yet for the scores of Kuwaitis who turned up for their burial on Wednesday, they were "martyrs" who gave their lives in the ultimate expression of anti-American feelings in the Gulf emirate.
Kandari and Hajeri killed a US marine and wounded another participating in the "Eager Mace 2002" wargames on Kuwait's Failaka island Tuesday before being gunned down.
"The two martyrs were buried to chants of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) by thousands of people, mostly youth," the secretary general of the Salafi Movement, said Thursday.
"A row even erupted between some who wanted to give them a martyrs' burial, that is without washing their bodies or reciting the prayer of the dead, according to Islamic teachings, and those who thought otherwise," Hakem al-Mutairi told AFP by telephone from Kuwait.
"Most of those present at the burial gave up the prayer, after three Kuwaiti imams (prayer leaders) paid warm tributes to the martyrs," he added.
According to Islamic tradition, combatants who fall in fighting and are considered martyrs must be hurriedly buried without a religious ceremony.
"One of the imams told America that 'your dead are in hell while our martyrs are in heaven.' Another congratulated the two heroes for having sacrificed their lives, recalling that (Islam's) Prophet Mohammed had urged Muslims to drive infidels from the Arabian Peninsula," Mutairi said.
The ouster of US troops from the Gulf region, chiefly from Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, is the battle cry of Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda terror network has been blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"Unlike what official media claim, all Kuwaitis are angered by the presence of US troops in the region and their preparations for a strike against Iraq. They are also dismayed by Washington's support for Israel," Mutairi said.
"My brother is not a terrorist. He was horrified by the US Congress' decision" to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Abdullah al-Hajeri told AFP.
"My mother is proud of him. And we should all be proud of the two martyrs," he added. Mohammad al-Mlaifi, a columnist for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan who also heads the information center of the ministry of religious endowments, said "the two martyrs," whom he knew well, told him a few days before the attack that they were deeply disturbed by the congressional move on Jerusalem.
He said the two men, who had "made several trips to Chechnya and Bosnia," went to Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks and became linked to that country's Islamist Taliban militia.
"They tried to return to Afghanistan after September 11, but Iranian authorities arrested them and handed them over to Kuwait in February," he said.
"Anas and Jassem were not affiliated to any political organization. They were driven to act only by their intense faith," Mlaifi said.
"As to where they got the weapons (AK-47 assault rifles) used in the attack, that's no state secret. Many Kuwaitis helped themselves to weapons left behind by Iraqi forces" when they were expelled from the emirate by a US-led coalition after a seven-month occupation in February 1991.
The two young men were born into well-to-do families "and nothing, except their faith, made them candidates for martyrdom. Jassem recently bought a Porsche -- not a car every Kuwaiti can afford.
"That is how the United States, through its crooked policy, is unwittingly making al-Qaeda's wishes come true," Mlaifi concluded.
(www.arabia.com)
Eternal virgins and 'boys looking like pearls' are waiting in paradise...
snip
"Anas and Jassem were not affiliated to any political organization. They were driven to act only by their intense faith," Mlaifi said.
Get your story straight, bozo.
He said the two men, who had "made several trips to Chechnya and Bosnia," went to Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks and became linked to that country's Islamist Taliban militia.Interesting. They sound like bored rich kids driven to extremism for something to do. Kind of like John Walker LindhThe two young men were born into well-to-do families "and nothing, except their faith, made them candidates for martyrdom. Jassem recently bought a Porsche -- not a car every Kuwaiti can afford.
And these people actually think they will be welcomed in heaven. They turn the very weapons of their former oppressors against the people who freed them. What disgusting ingratitude. Yeah, I'm sure that God really appreciates something like that.
Why would a bunch of homos care about virgins when there are a bunch of little boys running around? Sick buggers, that explains how the virgins can be eternal.
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