Al-Qaida link to school massacre?

While Russia marked its first of two official days of mourning, authorities said at least 10 of the 32 supposedly "Chechen" terrorists responsible for the school massacre that killed more than 400 people were actually Arab nationals.

The disclosure gives credence to suggestions that the attack was more than an operation by "separatists" involved in a regional struggle for a breakaway republic – it is part of the "global jihad" of Islamists vs. the West, Christianity and Judaism.

A statement on the Internet reportedly made by a group loyal to Osama bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri backs Russian claims that international Islamic terrorist groups were involved in the school siege in Beslan.

In fact, analysts say Islamists with international goals infiltrated the Chechen movement between 1994 and 1996.

In addition, as WND reportedly exclusively, the Beslan operation closely followed the terror roadmap laid out in issue 10 of Al Battar, al-Qaida's online training manual.

The terrorism roadmap, written by Abdel Aziz Al Moqrin, leader of al-Qaida's Saudi Arabian cell who was killed in June, provides a detailed and simplified "Kidnapping for Dummies" guide.

Prior to the kidnap-hostage raid in Beslan, two passenger planes were destroyed in bomb blasts, killing 89 people. Ten people died last Monday from a suicide bomb attack near a Moscow subway station.

Meanwhile, the school in Beslan, home to a mostly Christian populace, is to be turned into a memorial.

The building would be turned into a memorial, while a new school "will be shortly built at a different site," North Ossetian government spokesman Lev Dzugayev told Rossia TV channel.

After clearing of mines and booby traps planted by the terrorists, the devastated school building was opened today for the relatives to pay homage to their loved ones, who died there in the three-day long siege.

Russian TV channels showed many parents and relatives of the hostages placing flowers and open plastic water bottles on what used to be floor the school gym, where 1,184 children and adults were kept in hot and stuffy atmosphere without water, forcing many to drink their own urine to quench their thirst.

The Christian relief organization Barnabas Fund is appealing for assistance for the victims of the brutal terrorist attack on a school in Christian-majority North Ossetia.

The horrific attack on School No.1, Beslan, in North Ossetia, has shocked the world. Over 400 hostages were killed, nearly half of them children. Nearly 400 others are in hospital, with gunshot wounds and burns.

North Ossetia, a Christian-majority republic within the Russian Federation, has until now mainly enjoyed peace and stability, despite its proximity to conflict-wracked Chechnya. The victims of the terrorist atrocity were mainly from Christian families, both Orthodox and Protestant.

"Terrorism = Muslims" I don't really agree with you on this. Having lived in the Middle East for a good portion of my life, I had the good fortune to meet a number of Muslims that were just as interested in seeing the terrorism of their so called "brothers" halted post haste. A sad truth in today's world is that most of the active terrorism is carried out by those raised in a Muslim culture. This is backfiring. The goals of the terrorists to see the world purged of the non-Islamic heathens and infidels are being torn to shreds every time they declare their faith beside the burning remains of their victims. Obviously this is an image familiar to all of us, one that has been burned into our memories. The backlash this is having on the less warlike followers of the Islamic faith is staggering. Not only do they suffer physical, emotional and mental abuse but the residual hatred of anyone even suspected of being Muslim has caused many to become pariahs. What's worse is the fact that those of Arab descent have been targetted by this hatred, regardless of their faith. "Islam" and "Arab" have become synonomous in the minds of many people. "They recognize no innocents, none of them should be recognized as such. There is no such thing as a good Muslim. They are an evil death cult that should be erased from the earth." This is the exact sort of nonsense that has driven so many of the terrorists to attack us all across the world. They buy into party lines that sound so similar to this, and as a result they work themselves into a zealous frenzy and end up taking the lives of those who had never even considered that they may be enemies. The leaders of terrorist organizations say very similar things about us, and look what it has led them to do. By no means am I a pacifist. I am anything but. I hate the very idea of pacifism, because it represents an unwillingness to take action when action is required. I am incredibly supportive of the idea of removing filth like terrorists from the Earth in a permanent manner. The only way to ensure our safety and survival is to destroy those who would destroy us. I do not, however, support the spread of fallacies such as the ones I am responding to now. If you take nothing else away from my rant, at least take away the idea that maybe not all Muslims are terrorists. If you at least stop and consider the possibility for five minutes, then I've accomplished a lot more than I ever expected to.

If you take nothing else away from my rant, at least take away the idea that maybe not all Muslims are terrorists. If you at least stop and consider the possibility for five minutes, then I've accomplished a lot more than I ever expected to.

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

I know that not all Muslims are terrorists. However, I also know that is a tenet of Islam that the entire world must submit to Allah. This is a basic principal of the religion, no matter what form it takes.

Now, not all Muslims follow the extreme teachings of the Islamists, and instead prefer a "softer" approach, a missionary approach, like those in the Ahmadiyya movement.

But whether they are in league with the terror masters or not, they all share the same belief, as it relates rather directly to ME; that is, in their way of thinking, I have only three choices. Convert to Islam, accept dhimmitude and become a second-class citizen, or be killed.

I have a real problem with all of those options.

However, I am willing to live in peace with those human beings who do not threaten me. Aside from saying that, I am diametrically opposed to their belief system, and the rather insignificant fact that there may be a "silent majority" who secretly don't agree with Islamist terrorism means nothing when stacked up against the very real truth that all over the entire world, anywhere there are Muslims and non-Muslims, there is Muslim-sponsored butchery.

The "Religion of Peace" Muslims are virtually invisible. The Bad Guys speak for Islam with words of world conquest. Until this situation reverses itself, I will mistrust the adherents of Islam, and consider them to be blood enemies, as evidenced by their own bloody hands.

I'll try not to be so long winded this time...

I appreciate your respectful and insightful counterpoint. I was actually expecting to be berated and flamed, if not by you then by someone else. I'm glad to see that isn't the case. Yet another reason I love this site.

As far as your stance goes, I totally understand and in some ways agree. The main reason I chose to respond is that I tend to get upset when I see or hear such blanket statements made. In the area that I live, statements like that can get people killed, and I imagine that may be the case in many areas.

In any event, I'm generally pleased with the manner in which people respond to one another on this site, and your counterpoint only supported that view. I'll probably make a point of looking for threads you frequent, if only to enjoy more of your thoughtful commentary.

Cheers!

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