Posted on 03/07/2011 2:02:22 PM PST by kronos77
Many on the front line openly called their rebellion a “Jihad”, a word that can be misconstrued and one, that for the vast majority. simply meant a spiritual duty to overthrow Col Gaddafi.
But the longer beards and costume of some of the fighters, who often demonstrated a hostility towards Western reporters, suggested that they were Salafists, followers of a particularly puritanical interpretation of Islam.
Parts of Libya’s east, particularly the city of Derna, are known for having large Salafist populations, some of whom have joined Islamist struggles in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Worried residents in Benghazi say they have noticed one or two Afghan citizens in the city in recent days.
Col Gaddafi’s warnings that he is fighting terrorists on behalf of the West have largely been discounted, but they are not wholly without foundation.
At the weekend he told a French newspaper: “[Osama] Bin Laden will come and set up in North Africa…You’ll have Bin Laden on your doorstep.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Yeah, I’ve not overtly picked a side in this dog fight.
I have long suspected that all these uprisings in the middle east have Iran’s fingerprints on them. Somebody is behind the scenes funding, coordinating and fomenting these actions.
When we got to Baghdad in April 2003, by default we bacame the sheriff and deputies. The cops pulled a Katrina and split. Looting, assault, murder, were out of control. At that point we pretty much declared it open season, no bag limit and no license required. We killed them by the hundreds if not thousands.
I have come to the inexcable conclusion that the majority of arabs are incapable of ruling themselves and participating in a civlilzed society. They are illiterate, uneducated and intellectually stunted. I also believe that rampant inbreeding has brought out a lot of recessive genes and is responsible for a some of the collective insanity and mental illness which rules that region. Islam, and its jackbooted, iron handed crowd control, is what is needed. Apart from arabic, violence is the only voice that is spoken, so if you are going to keep things under control you have to speak their language and speak it A LOT LOUDER THAN THEY DO.
I have picked a side.
I’m for the grim reaper.
Hand me the popcorn, will ya?
I think this needs to be settled now. Gaddaffi is almost certainly doomed, but the longer this goes on, the greater the chance there is that the Islamists will come to dominate the rebellion as the bitterness of the fighting intensifies...
Islamists versus Islamists. Who really cares? (Obama, that’s who)
IMO radical Islam, either AQ or Iran have been setting this up for some time. Except for Libya, the other places where revolutions have happened or about to happen are Western friendly nations and they are almost spontaneous. There is more to this than meets the eye. Watch he Muslim Brotherhood - they spawned AQ, Taliban and other radical Islamist organizations.They may have spawned all that is going on.
“The Devil You Know is better than the Devil You Don’t Know.”
Not any chance ever.
If Allah existed (I know, a stretch) and appeared in the clouds he could not make the Islamists come to dominate the rebellion.
You see, for Islamists to “Come to dominate” the rebellion - non islamists would have to dominate it before them. Iran set this up, and sinsofsolarempirefan, they have been Islamists since the Shah got kicked out.
Islam itself is to blame for much of it. Learning, other than of the Quran, is not much valued in current Islamic culture. Free-market skills are not valued. WORK is not much valued. Given that their exemplar, Mohammad, made his living as a desert bandit, getting his money from plunder rather than work, may have much to do with that.
I agree with your evaluation. The series of rebellions appear to have been coordinated. The ones who primarily benefit are Iran and Russia. Russia benefits quite a bit because oil comprises a good chunk of their exports.
At least in Iraq, the greatest way to defeat radical islam is just that; education. When you are uneducated and illiterate, your only source of what is in that Muslime Comic Book was listening to the Immam. They could twist it anyway they wanted, and if you could not read it yourself, or use an educated mind to draw your own conclusions, you could not stand up and shout “BULLSHIT, that’s not what it says!!!”
Education is getting a higher priority in Iraq now. But then again, as middle east countries go, it is by far the most secular. In the strict countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, et al, it will never be a priority, so the islamic wackos will always have a captive audience. Keep them stupid and barefoot, that way they are clay in your hands.
...for the vast majority. simply meant a spiritual duty to overthrow Col Gaddafi. But the longer beards and costume of some of the fighters, who often demonstrated a hostility towards Western reporters, suggested that they were Salafists, followers of a particularly puritanical interpretation of Islam.The dhimmi idiot who penned this screed opened with an apologia for jihad.
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