Posted on 09/24/2003 2:05:40 PM PDT by TexKat
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Islamic world leaders are urging Washington to stop ganging up on Palestinians in the name of the war on terror, warning this could fuel Muslims' perception that the campaign was targeting them.
In speeches at the United Nations this week, leaders of Algeria, Indonesia, Pakistan and Syria said they feared the global battle against terrorism, the United States' top foreign policy priority, was being used as an excuse to tar the Palestinians' desire for an end to Israeli occupation.
Kuwait, meanwhile, slammed a U.S. campaign to accuse its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, of being involved in terrorism.
"The war against terrorism must be fought comprehensively, on a global front," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.
"It must not be hijacked by those who seek to use it as an excuse to suppress other peoples, It must not be allowed to engender a clash of civilizations -- a clash between Islam and the West," he said.
The United States and its ally Israel say Palestinian violence is itself the problem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They argue Palestinian militant groups must be shut down before there can be progress on a Middle East peace plan.
But Musharraf disagreed.
"The fate of the Palestinian people is the principal factor in determining public and political perceptions in the entire Islamic world. It is only progress towards a just peace that can marginalize the extremists," he said.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika also used this week's high-level assembly meeting to warn against "the tendentious association of terrorism with a religion, a civilization or a geographical area."
TERRORISM OR LIBERATION STRUGGLE?
"We need to agree upon an accurate definition of terrorism so as not to affect liberation struggles and the legitimate right of peoples to self-determination," he said, including the Palestinian struggle among those cases.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said major powers were feeding the flames of political violence by taking an unjust approach toward the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"Many eminent Muslims in Indonesia believe that once the major powers behave in a more just manner and make clear their impartiality in the Middle East, then most of the root causes of terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam ... would have been resolved," she told the General Assembly on Tuesday.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara told a Security Council debate on Wednesday he found it "extremely paradoxical" that, in Iraq as well as the Middle East, both Israel and the United States were accusing their detractors of being "rogues, terrorists and a threat to international peace."
Kuwait's prime minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, took a different tack on the same theme, criticizing what he called "the vicious orchestrated campaign" being waged against Saudi Arabia "by some American media agencies."
Some U.S. officials and members of Congress have accused Saudis of tolerating terrorists and funding militant groups.
The Kuwaitis, reminding the assembly that Saudi Arabia had itself been a target of terrorists, commended the country "for its concrete and significant contributions to the global campaign against terrorism
I think the definition that you are seeking is something along the lines that it is not terrorism if you kill a Jew, of any age, in any context.
Oh that's right, Israel is occupying Israel again. Those nasty Zionists, occupying their own country. I swear...
Kuwait, meanwhile, slammed a U.S. campaign to accuse its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, of being involved in terrorism.
Kuwait, who owes their very existance to us... "Arab gratitude" outshines even "feline gratitude" for oxymoronics.
It must not be allowed to engender a clash of civilizations -- a clash between Islam and the West," he said.
Considering Muslims are openly saying they are at war with us, I can't imagine what we can do to prevent it. Oh, wait, I forgot, we can surrender, hoist the green flag over the White House and impose sharia law.
"We need to agree upon an accurate definition of terrorism so as not to affect liberation struggles and the legitimate right of peoples to self-determination," he said, including the Palestinian struggle among those cases.
Well, that's easy. If the four year old child cringing on the floor whom you are about to shoot in the head is Jewish, it's liberation "struggle." When you kill a Jew, a Christian, or an American of any type, that's struggle. When they try to knock the gun out of your hand before you can murder them, that's oppression. See? Geez, that was easy, I don't know what's taking them so long.
How can an "individual" gang up on something?
Any english pre-req's left for journalism majors?
If the Arabs had accepted the U.N.-sponsored Palestinian state in 1948 (that had better boundaries for the Arabs than anything possible now, by the way) instead of trying to murder all the Jews, the nation of Palestine would be celebrating its 55th birthday this year.
No amount of lies or distortions will change that truth. The Arabs chose war over peace, and we all live with the consequences to this day. Arafat has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state to form, and has proven so beyond all doubt.
The Arabs refuse to accept responsiblity for their own genocidal ambitions, and thus retain their position as the "mad dogs" of worlds politics. They gain nothing but revulsion from civilized peoples for their backwardness and savageness.
As long as they refuse to negotiate in good faith, there can be no peace in the Middle East. So far they have a perfect, unblemished record of breaking every agreement they sign.
The solution to the "palestinian problem" lies solely with the Arabs. Not with the Jews, not with the Americans, not with the U.N., but with the Arabs alone.
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