I call it "Spot The Radical Fundamentalist Religious Extremist".
Cool. Go to town.
Middle East: Caught Between The 'Street' And The U.S., Arab States Brace For Impact Of War
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
With events unfolding in Iraq, the Arab world is being stirred by a wave of public protests that have created a new predicament for regional governments. Iraq's neighbors, in particular, fear the U.S.-led war may lead to dramatic changes in the region and bring serious challenges to their regimes.
Prague, 28 March 2003 (RFE/RL) -- From Bahrain to Tunis, almost daily street demonstrations have taken place over the past week to denounce the U.S.-British military intervention in Iraq.
Some rallies have turned violent, notably in Cairo and in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, where security forces killed at least two protesters last week (21 March).
Regardless of political complexion, newspapers across the Arab world are voicing solidarity with the Iraqi people and castigating those regional governments that have discreetly supported the U.S. war plans in hopes Washington would rapidly topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's feared regime....
Radio Free Europe
March 28th, 2003
A Palestinian girl makes a victory sign next to a poster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during a protest by schoolchildren in Gaza City.Hearts and Minds In the Battle for Arab Public Opinion, Americans May Be Losing to Saddam
A M M A N, Jordan, March 28 — A week into the war, Saddam Hussein — long discredited and even despised in the Arab world — is gaining the kind of support many here would never have imagined. And who's helping him? Many Arabs say it's the Americans.
The Arab media argue the Americans are being less truthful than the Iraqis. The sense here is when the Iraqis make claims — downed helicopters, captured American soldiers — reported American denials are then contradicted by visual evidence such as showing the captured soldiers on television.
The Pentagon waits for soldiers' families to be informed before publicly confirming captures, but that delay is seen in this part of the world as a stalling tactic or outright deception.
As for Americans' claims — the surrender of high-ranking Iraqi officers, the capture of cities such as Umm Qasr — Arab journalists seem to relish pointing out that these claims are often proved false.
"I believe the Americans lost the propaganda war from day one of this war, simply because they told inaccurate information," said Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arab-language newspaper in London.
So despite the fact that coalition forces — after one of the fastest advances in military history — are within 50 miles of Baghdad, … despite the fact that the allies have seized Iraq's southern oil fields, … despite the fact that they've so far prevented the Iraqis from firing off any Scud missiles at Israel … despite all of this, … Saddam may very well be surveying the battlefield tonight with satisfaction.
ABC News
March 28th, 2003
Thousands of Muslims Take Part in Anti-War Demonstrations After Friday Prayers
Tetiana Anderson
Cairo
28 Mar 2003, 18:15 UTC
For the second week in a row, thousands of people rallied in Egypt after Friday prayer to voice their opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
AP Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi
(File photo, April 14, 2002)Amid cheers of approval the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar, Sayid Tantawi, delivered a speech at Friday prayer in Cairo condemning the war in Iraq as unjust.
An estimated 15,000 people rallied in old Cairo and outside the Al Azhar mosque carrying signs in English and Arabic reading "stop the killing" and chanting for the redemption of Baghdad. Al Azhar is one of the most respected institutions of Islamic learning in the region.
Elsewhere in the region, police in Jordan beat back about 1,000 demonstrators trying to break into the Israeli embassy in the capital, Amman. In Iran's capital, Tehran, protesters smashed windows at the British Embassy.
Anti-war demonstrations Reuters news agency also reported that thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli and in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Other protests were seen in packed streets and squares from Bahrain to Egypt.
Mohammed Sulieyman, secretary general of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party, which reportedly facilitated permits for today's rally in Cairo, had this to say about the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
"The case is not Saddam Hussein, the case it is the people, it is a country, it is the freedom of the country, freedom of Iraq," he said. "And it is [a] self-independent country. America and Britain should leave [the] Iraqi people to decide what it would like to do."
Anti-war demonstrations Unlike last week's unsanctioned demonstrations, which turned violent, the protests this time went off peacefully amid hundreds of riot police and blockades that stretched for miles from the American Embassy deep into Cairo's city center.
Most Arab governments and people are opposed to the war on Iraq, but their feelings about Iraq's leader are not so clear cut.
"I think all Arabian people don't like Saddam Hussein, but the war is only about Saddam Hussein," said one demonstrator in Egypt. "You can do anything with Saddam Hussein, maybe you can transfer him to another country. But I don't think to kill all the people because of Saddam Hussein. I don't think that."
Chanting "death to America" and denouncing Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in Tehran following Friday prayer. It was described as the first major anti-war rally in the country since U.S.-led forces stormed into Iraq last week.
Voice of America
March 28th, 2003
War in Iraq increases Muslim rage in Egypt
By PAUL ADAMS
From Saturday's Globe and MailCairo — When Arabs demonstrate against the war in Iraq these days, many march under the banner of Muslim fundamentalism. Yesterday, for the second week running, thousands of people marched from Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque after prayers in a demonstration organized by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
These scenes have not been witnessed for decades in Egypt and raise what some may consider disturbing questions about whether the war in Iraq may inadvertently contribute to a revival in radical Muslim politics.
An estimated 15,000 people joined the demonstration, some carrying cartoons of a naked Statue of Liberty, while others chanted: "We are all one nation against the Zionist-American aggression."
The Globe and Mail
March 29th, 2003
Middle Eastern Islamic leaders push followers toward holy war
Knight Ridder Newspapers
CAIRO, Egypt - (KRT) - Calls for holy war rang out across the Middle East on Friday and thousands massed in protest, though governments avoided a repeat of the fierce and bloody riots that resulted in deaths last week following traditional Islamic prayers.
Islamic leaders in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iraq appealed to Allah in anger at the U.S.-led attack on Iraq and encouraged their followers to engage in holy war. The governments of Egypt, Jordan and Iran all sanctioned protests.
In Jordan, the preacher Sheik Zeid Kilani compared Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Saladin, the great Islamic warrior against the Crusaders.
"This battle has forced Saddam to return to God," the sheik said.
Some of the weekly sermons could be interpreted as advocating self-defense in the face of what many here see as disproportionate military aggression. But others addresses were clearly intended to incite attacks.
Arabic-language television stations, which broadcast via satellite throughout the world, picked up the remarks of Iraqi clerics who implored Muslims in the United States and Great Britain to raise the banner of jihad in those countries and to target everything from gas stations to airports....
San Jose Mercury-News
March 28th, 2003So, did you find any?
There is no “Jihad” going on
Luis Gonzalez
March 28th, 2003Maybe not.
