Themselves?
Don't be fooled. The Arabs will feign outrage, and cut out throats the next morning.
Posted on 07/08/2005 3:53:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Islamic leaders condemned the London bombings, though many on Friday insisted the United States and Britain, with their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are ultimately to blame for fueling militant violence. Increasing voices, however, say the Arab world has to stop adding "but" to its denunciations of terrorism.
Thursday's attack came as a double shock in the Middle East, occurring the same day that al-Qaida militants announced they had killed Egypt's top diplomat in Iraq after kidnapping him and judging him an "apostate" for his country's support of the United States.
The bombings also targeted a city with enormous influence in the Arab world: London is home to some of the most widely read Arab-language newspapers and to many Arab exiles - including Islamic fundamentalists.
"This is a disaster, but even disasters can bring good things. It's a chance for Muslims to show they want to live together" peacefully with Westerners, Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi, who lives in exile in London, told Al-Jazeera, one of the Middle East's most popular satellite channels. "Extremism and violence cannot resolve any issue."
"If the British government committed crimes in Afghanistan or Iraq, that doesn't mean the British people are fair targets," he said.
The chain of blasts in central London, claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group, once again had Arabs walking a fine line: denouncing bloodshed and terrorism while trying to explain the growth of Islamic militancy.
"We are not trying to justify, only to analyze," wrote Abdel-Bari Atwan, who lives in London and is editor-in-chief of the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. "We or any of our family members or friends could have been among the victims in London."
"But we must emphasize that the wars being waged now against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and Palestine are the best way to recruit more terrorists and to expand the circle of armed attacks in the entire world," he said.
That stance was exactly what Khaled al-Huroub, a Palestinian writer living in Cambridge, England, said Arabs must avoid.
"It's wrong even to say this is a crime we condemn but we must understand the reasons behind it - this could be seen as a justification," he wrote in the London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat.
He called for "a clear-cut position, with no 'buts', calling a crime as it deserves to be called."
The mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheik Abdulaziz al-Sheik, condemned the attacks, saying the bombings violated the tenets of Islam forbidding the killing of innocents.
"The family of Islam must act and show the truth ... that Islam is the religion of reform and goodness," said al-Sheik, the highest religious official in the kingdom.
However, the Friday prayer sermons at Saudi Arabia's main mosques in Mecca and Medina made no mention of the bombings.
In Jerusalem, prayer leader Yousef Abu Sneineh urged the West to "rethink their policies toward Islam and toward the issues of the Islamic people."
"Where was the American civilization - and that of its allies - when they attacked Iraq and Sudan? Where was the Russian civilization when it attacked Chechnya?" said Sneineh at the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest shrine in Islam.
Others were more direct with their condemnations and sympathies for the victims.
In Gaza City, worshippers left the Ze Noran mosque after hearing a sermon decrying violence in the name of their faith.
"God taught us to be wise and He teaches us that Islam is a religion of mercy and wisdom," said Khaled Salah, a 45-year-old teacher. "No doubt that many (British) committed crimes against us, but nothing can justify random killings."
Egypt's biggest newspaper, the state-run Al-Ahram daily, ran a banner headline proclaiming a "black day of terrorism," with lead stories on the London bombings and the slaying of diplomat Ihab al-Sherif, who was abducted in Baghdad late Saturday.
During a prayer sermon at Cairo's Sayeda Zainab mosque, Egypt's mufti Ali Gomaa called al-Sherif a "martyr," saying those who killed him were "thugs" who will "spend eternity in hell."
Eventually, the muslims must choose a side. Their hand is being forced.
That's is what they need to be saying very loudly and clearly to their followers and the world....spend eternity in hell, no virgins, etc.
So how do they explain 9/11? And if we had not acted in response to 9/11, they expect us to believe that would have been the end of it? It's hard not to think all Muslims responsible when their leaders are spewing such drivel.
They always throw the "but" in there, just as the left does when they are trying to justify there attitude about the war, etc. There are no buts. Why were we attacked to begin with? What war wer we fighting on 9/11. We are defending ourselves, there is no BUT.
Again - and again and again - I'm amazed at the disconnect between their perceptions of themselves and how the are victimize contrasted with their crimes against humanity. Doesn't this describe some sort of mental illness?
Sudan? WTF?
Wow. Excuse the typos.
How about trying to understand the reasons behind the western world's actions in Afganstan and Iraq.
Themselves?
Don't be fooled. The Arabs will feign outrage, and cut out throats the next morning.
I want to be the first to say - Bush's fault.
Hmmmm... He just admitted that the terrorists (and governments that support them) are Muslim first and foremost - and that he will stand with them no matter what they do, evidently. The basic problem here is that these idiot "leaders" profess to denouncig terrorist attacks, but cannot decipher that the blame for such attacks lies with the perpetrators.
It's like dealing with a billion three year olds... "HE HIT ME FIRST!" writ grotesquely large.
This is not what I am seeing, nor hearing for that matter.
>though many on Friday insisted the United States and Britain, with their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are ultimately to blame for fueling militant violence.<
The bastards never learn; they're just like Democrats and must blame someone else for their evil deeds.
Flop: "If the British government committed crimes in Afghanistan or Iraq, that doesn't mean the British people are fair targets," he said."
The Muslim world has its 7th century head stuck too far up allah's tomato patch to ever really condemn the killing of Westerners, aka 'infidels'. Some may hate the barbaric acts, but they are torn because, after all, it's only we 'infidels' being slaughtered, (and that's allah's will, isn't it?).
We may or may not be at war with "Islam", but Islam is clearly at war with us. There are people who claim to be followers of Allah who are no threat to us, just as there are people claiming to be members of the Roman Catholic church who believe in birth control. However, people who follow the teachings of the psycho Mo-Ha-Med have declared the infidels to want killing.
Any religion that feels a need to force converts is not a religion but rather a force of evil. There is no more clear sign that a religion is not of God but of Satan than that, forced conversion.
"My religion cannot thrive without new members, thus I must force you to convert or kill you." Words of the grate profit Mo-Ha-Med
The most extreme muslims see the west as a threat or an obstacle and believe we should be murdered for it.
The extreme muslims believe we attacked islam and should be murdered for it.
The moderate muslims do not see any justification at all for our involvment in Afghanistan or Iraq and fully understand the desires of those who seek to murder us.
In essence, the sides have been chosen by every muslim I know of.
You find me ONE who openly supports our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, who openly seeks to help in the destruction of the Jihadists, and who believes the faith of every Christian and Jew should be honored and respected---and I'll show you a rare bird.
The sides have been chosen.
Why post the photo of Sen. Byrd and friends?
Seems a bit off-topic.
These people are so slimy.
I wonder what this guy means when he refers to "innocents" who shouldn't be killed -- I bet his idea of "innocence" is not as wide as this AP writer wants us to think.
"...with their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are ultimately to blame for fueling militant violence.."
Oh.. please make it stop! Who's Wars? Last time I checked, it was NOT US or British soldiers wearing TNT vests blowing up innocent Iraqi and Afghanistanian citizens.
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