Posted on 11/17/2004 2:54:24 AM PST by kattracks
DUBAI (Reuters) - Arabs were torn between seething rage at images of a U.S. soldier shooting dead a wounded Iraqi in a mosque and dismay at Iraqi insurgents in Falluja for turning holy mosques into battlegrounds.Viewers said images, which Arab televisions aired repeatedly of a Marine killing a severely injured Iraqi, fueled growing hatred against America and helped create more "terrorists."
"I am not a jihadist, I am just a normal Muslim but such scenes are pushing me to Jihad," said Dubai-based engineer Abdallah. "We don't expect this from the representative of democracy in the world."
"This is one of the things we saw on TV. God knows how many crimes they have committed which we have not seen," he added."
In Saudi Arabia -- the birthplace of Islam and of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose group carried out bombings in the country -- residents said insurgents were to blame for taking their battle into mosques.
"If I was in the U.S. soldier's place I would have killed all the insurgents because they are mercenaries," said Saudi Zaher al-Saleh, a 32-year-old teacher. "They have turned the mosques into battlefields and they're killing civilians."
Islamist extremists called for revenge through their Web sites and cursed pro-U.S. Muslim leaders for remaining silent.
"Oh God your enemies have killed your believers in one of your houses. God take revenge for us," one chatter said.
PERSONAL AFFRONT
Some Muslims saw the killing as a personal affront.
"It's as if they had killed every one of us. Today, it's that poor man, tomorrow, it will be me," said Sherine Mohamed, 27, a financial analyst. "Even if militants didn't respect mosque sanctities, U.S. soldiers should have done so because they claim to help Iraqis."
Muslims said pictures showing Marines lounging with their guns in a Falluja mosque were "insulting."
They said soldiers "sullied the ground with their boots" at the mosque where Muslims are obliged to take off their shoes in respect for the house of God.
"They are entering dangerous waters. If they think they are getting rid of terrorists this way, they are mistaken. They are creating more terrorists than killing them," added Abdallah.
International human rights groups said the killing could amount to a war crime and showed the need to better train U.S. forces about the laws of war.
The U.S. military opened an investigation into whether the Marine acted in self-defense, broke U.S. military law or committed a war crime in the fatal shooting of a wounded Iraqi in Falluja, the scene of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Iraqi and Islamist militants in the past week.
That shooting was caught on videotape by an NBC television crew embedded with the Marines.
The United Arab Emirates' Al-Ittihad newspaper said the killing was "shocking and provocative" and demanded Washington investigate the "horrifying crime."
"If this crime goes unpunished it will set a dangerous precedent in U.S. policies and will destroy everything (good) it has done for Iraq," it added.
Arab animosity toward U.S. presence in Iraq has ratcheted up since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that resulted in the sentencing of several U.S. soldiers.
Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim Hizbollah TV al-Manar led its newscasts with the shooting and said it showed "the ugliness of the actions that occupation forces are carrying out in Iraq."
"U.S. forces violating laws and committing atrocities is not new. What has surfaced is only a small part of what Iraqis are facing," said Shehab al-Ahdal, editor-in-chief of Yemen's al-Nahar newspaper.
NBC correspondent Kevin Sites, who reported on the Fallujah mosque shooting, is an anti-American, antiwar activist. He has photographs displayed on "Images Against War", a web site devoted to "visual statements against war."
Proof? Click on "S" at:
http://www.imagesagainstwar.com/index.php
Rage is all part of the package in the Arab world. They are a pissy, miserable bunch.
Who cares, they have been enraged forever, nothing new...
Seething rage, as though this were anything new for Islamoradicals.
If rage were a toxic substance, Arabs would have succumbed to it and gone extinct long ago.
Gee, was the Arab street this ticked when Saddamn was slaughtering hundreds of thousands of their fellow Muslims?
Enraged Arabs. BFD.
My philosophy has always been....if you were not there, don't tell them how they should have reacted or should not have reacted.
A humorless bunch who can't take a joke.
Al Jazera is no doubt milking this for all its worth. Sites should be horse whipped for giving the enemy fodder to use against us. As for the Marine who pulled the trigger, he deserves a medal.
You might want to send Kevin Sites a "thank you note" for placing his Pulitzer ambitions above the interests of his country and his fellow citizens serving in the US Marine Corps.
kevin@kevinsites.net
"I am not a jihadist, I am a normal Muslim, but such scenes are pushing me to jihad"
A "normal Muslim" is one who hasn't reached for his gun yet.
"Jihad" is PART OF THEIR "RELIGION"!!!
(Oh, yeah, by the way, we were kind of PO'd by that little thin on 9/11, too.)
"Arabs Enraged at U.S. Soldier Shooting Wounded Iraq"
Not half as enraged as NBC, apparently.
enraged muslims
WHAT A SURPRISE!!
Strange, you weren't "enraged" when your brothers were sawing peoples heads off.
Of course they like to see us get our head sawed off with long knives after pleading for our lives. Us getting killed by booby trapped bodies and roadside bombs.
But to face the realities of war and see one of their comrades get blown away?
That generates rage?
Good. Learn from it.
Al Jazera? Try Reuters.
But they are not nearly so enraged at the beheadings of innocent civilians by terrorists.
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