There is an interesting article in The Telegraph, which is a translated reprint of an article which appeared in the pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. The author is Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of Al- Arabiya news channel and he gives a cri de coeur about the state of the Muslim world:
Those responsible for the attacks on residential towers in Riyadh and Khobar were Muslims. The two women who crashed two airliners last week were also Muslims. Bin Laden is a Muslim. The majority of those who manned the suicide bombings against buses, vehicles, schools, houses and buildings, all over the world, were Muslim. What a pathetic record. What an abominable “achievement”. Does all this tell us anything about ourselves, our societies and our culture?
[…]
We cannot tolerate in our midst those who abduct journalists, murder civilians, explode buses; we cannot accept them as related to us, whatever the sufferings they claim to justify their criminal deeds. These are the people who have smeared Islam and stained its image.
We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women.
I can only hope this sort of discussion sweeps across the Islamic world. Western civilisation has so much introspection going on that some commentators regularly vanish up their own arses during absurd Sartre-esque displays of posturing left wing ‘analysis’ of bourgeois capitalism or the ‘root causes’ of why some people actually set out to slaughter other people’s children. What we really need is muslims doing a great deal more public soul searching with frank discussions of modern terrorism: without recourse to the word ‘but’…
Too little…… Too late.
“vanish up their own arses during absurd Sartre-esk displays of posturing left wing analysis’ ”
(-
Let us sincerely hope it is not too late, or we WILL, indeed, find ourselves “playing Cowboys and A-Rabs” and the atrocities suffered upon Native Americans will pale in comparison.
Islam must now endure the painful process of critical self examination at a level it has never known. This will be a slow and fearful journey through “terra incognita”, as a community trapped in the 16th century tries to move into the 21st.
Ordinary men and women of conscience cannot look at the scenes from the Russian school and close their minds and hearts to the obvious fact that something has gone horribly wrong if these perpetrators can actually believe that their religion condones such acts. No Christian, Jewish, or other major religious leader that I am aware of would ever even try to justify such a horror.
It would be a major breakthough for everyone if the dominant leaders of Islam can use this moment to launch a thorough discussion of why this happened. The fact that there are now hundreds of uncensored news outlets in Iraq, and courageous people willing to speak out in other ME countries, could mean that the questioning will not be stamped out as it has been in the past.
It would truly be a fitting memorial for these innocent children and their families if this incident was the crack in the dam that brought the whole structure of theocratic despotism tumbling down.
No matter how long it takes, and how painful the journey, until Islam recognizes the rights of man, the world will never be safe. The first amendment is the first amendment for a reason.
“vanish up their own arses during absurd Sartre-esk displays of posturing left wing analysis”. May I present Bernard Bot as ready, willing and able to so vanish?
From what I can gather, he seems to have been appalled that the Muslim terrorists were all killed and says the EU will be seeking an explanation from Russia.
Putin told him to eat shit. Mr Bot should find a ready supply where he vanished to.
Ooops! Bernard Bot, for those who have never heard of him, is the Dutch foreign minister. Holland holds the current ‘presidency’ of the EU and clearly feels very important.
Is there a link to that Verity? I tried to Google Benard Bot and Putin but came up with nothing.
Shawn: “Is there a link to that Verity?”
I’m not Verity but there is a link..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3628692.stm
Fatwa against Abdel Rahman al-Rashed announced in 5, 4, 3…
So what can be done? For every retaliation there is against terrorism, the more people are prepared to listen to the hate-preachers.
Looking at the power the faith currently has, I cannot imagine a Middle Eastern disestablishmentarian movement any time soon. What other solutions are there? The United States of Arabia would surely meet military objection from the oil-addicted west and Israel.
Unfortunately, enlightened Arabs can do little other than assume the role of apologist. Punishments for sedition and blasphemy come well before common sense.
This blog could do with it’s own (talkative) Islam expert or Arabia native.
If a mindless follower of our Pres. is a Bushbot then is a mindless follower of the EU a Botbot?
He’s lucky that Putin didn’t go Josef on his ass.
Dalmaster – We have Susan.
Verity, Shawn, D Anghelone:
Question: was Bernard Bot’s statement (demanding to know ‘how this tradgedy could have been allowed to happen’) a reference to
(a) A failure to negotiate with the terrorists – leading to the awful massacre?
OR
(b) The failings in coordination of the Russian response (multiple military units, lack of ambulances etc) in reducing the risk to hostages whilst taking out the terrorists?
You seem to think it was a reference to (a), whereas I took it to be a reference to (b). If (b) then I think it is a sound point though it being made in this way was insensitive. If (a) then Bernard Bot is clearly mad and indeed lucky that Putin didn’t go Josef on his ass.
Dalmaster writes:
“So what can be done? For every retaliation there is against terrorism, the more people are prepared to listen to the hate-preachers.”
And:
“What other solutions are there?”
What a good thing it is that you aren’t in charge of UK or US policy, then.
Faced with the scourge of Nazism or Communism, don’t you think the situation seemed equally intractable?
Ideologies can be defeated, but you don’t begin by placating them, which seems to be the favoured policy of many Left-liberal hand-wringers.
You want a positive suggestion? Well how about hammering the rabble-rousers and theocrats hard, while pumping Western materialism and freedom at the young masses. For every bin Laden, there are thousands who will prefer a Western-style life. As the mullahs in Iran are beginning to realise.
We could make a useful start in the UK by rounding-up the likes of Omar Bakri Mohammed, the “spiritual leader” (ha!) of al-Muhajiroun, who is quoted today as saying he would support of hostage-taking at British schools.
Send me the bill for the bullet, someone. I’ll pay. Gladly.
Is there a link we can have to that quote from Omar Bakri Mohammed? If he’s really going around saying stuff like that I’d expect Blunkett to come down on him soon.
mike asks:
“Is there a link we can have to that quote from Omar Bakri Mohammed?”
Sunday Telegraph, interview by Rajeev Syal. Sept 5th, p.7. I have no idea whether it made the online edition.
For your edification, the relevant quote was:
“If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts of terror in Iraq.”
Apparently, the psychopath gave his interview preparatory to a “celebration” conference in London next Saturday to commemorate the third anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
I rest my case.
Sheikh Half Baked on Kidnapping
here’s the link to the lovely Sheikh’s pearls of wisdom.
Check out the ludicrous quote by the idiot’s MP at the end — “This statement insults moderate Muslims.”
Moderate Muslims, hell! What about native non-Muslim British people who have to pay for Half-Baked’s “benefits” (and those of his passel of 7 brats too, I presume) out of their tax dollars while being forced to listen to this piece of excrement exult about offing their kids?
How come no one cares about “insults” to the other 97 percent of Britain’s people?
Susan, Yes indeedy. The other 97% of Britain which Blair and the Blairettes are set upon destroying in the name of making the 3% unassimilated – unto the third generation – Muslims feel at home. (Actually, as uninvited gatecrashers, they have no call upon the real Brits to offer them any hospitality whatsoever.)
Bakri shakes his booty with L2,000 a week gifted by the taxpayers, most of whom wish him expelled. (The mild-mannered ones, that is.) Then, of course, there’s the free health care (I believe he got his hook on the NHS, having turned down a modern prosthesis as not being ostentatious enough for an up front kind of terrorist like himself) and free schooling for his seven illegitimate children – he is not really married as his “wife” committed bigamy by marrying him when she was already married.
Sedition used to be a crime in Britain. But like so many other crimes, under this government, it has morphed into a social problem that demands that normal people become contortionists of conscience to ‘understand’.
Mike,
What Bot said was…oh… shall we say…untimely? And unnecessary in public forum. Kind of like attending a wake and asking the bereaved if his treatment of his wife didn’t hasten her death.
D Anghelone – Precisely. Bot couldn’t wait to get his fat butt onto the international stage by crying ‘Shame!’. Wanted to be first. Call attention to himself and the fact that his unwillingly Islamic little country – it’s been forced on by their Gramscian governments – is just so incredibly broad minded that they can absorb what happened in a very mature way, Yet express lefty-bleating shock and be maturely unjudgemental at the same time. I am not sure how many votes this will win him in Holland, but who cares? The EU structure is way beyond the wishes of an electorate which has been haughtily disenfranchised.
After I read the quote, I think it’s evident that Mynheer Bot has no business being on the public payroll of any civilised country.
Its great to see the moderate Muslim backlash. I hope it becomes much more powerful. The Muslims I know are generally peaceful and think violent terrorism is wrong.
Muslims on the terrorism margin are much more likely to listen to moderate Muslims than anyone else, hence an anti-terrorist Muslim movement is much more likely to actually influence people than anything non-Muslims say.
The idea that this is too little too late is correct only if the only thing that matters is completely fixing the problem. But that’s absurd. Every little bit helps, and every potential terrorist who chooses peace makes the world a little bit safer.
Yes, introspection and reflection on the part of muslims would be welcomed but I wonder if they have both the intellectual and institutional capacity to do so. From what I gather muslims are forcefed aggression and victimhood from breakfast till supper. Whether they can shake this off, and whether the institutions that provide these viewpoints can accept alternative views will be key. I suppose the intervention by Al Rashid could be seen as a step in the right direction. I doubt much will happen though. The conservative constituency appears dominant.
In my own mind, muslims are now synonymous with terrorism. I know this isn’t correct really, but having boarded a flight destined for Pakistan (I had a stopover elsewhere) I was paranoid throughout that one of the surrounding muslims was going to explode. Terrorism affects us all and more muslims should be aware of how their religion is now tainted.
“the moderate Muslim backlash”? One voice? Against a billion? Aren’t you a little easy to please?
The words of Abdel Rahman al-Rashed are nothing more than window dressing designed placicate and insulate the West from the brutality that is known as Islam.
And yet the hand-wringing continues over the Islamic atrocities that are taking place from the west coast of Africa to South East Asia.
Good grief……
In my own mind, muslims are now synonymous with terrorism. I know this isn’t correct really, but…
Almost all mass murderers and serial killers are men. Would it then be reasonable for someone to believe that men are synonymous with mass murder?
There is clearly a link, and a strong link, between muslims and terrorism (and between men and murder). But it is still true that terrorists are a miniscule minority of Muslims, as murderers are a minority of men.
One voice? Against a billion? Aren’t you a little easy to please?
I haven’t seen a billion muslims say they approve of terrorism. In fact, I’m quite skeptical that that many pro-terrorist muslims even exist, let alone have publicly stated their views. Your numbers need some work.
Patri
Nice little feminist dig there. Are you not aware of the ‘Black Widows’ that have been doing their best to kill Russian civilians for some years now? Are you not aware of the growing numbers of Palestinian women willing to detonate bombs on Israeli busses?
This situation did, of course, take some time to develop: across much of Arab (and therefore Islamic) culture women are treated as nothing more than a chattel and the mass murder of children is a man’s task.
I haven’t seen a billion muslims say they approve of terrorism. Me neither, but I haven’t seen even a handful disaprove of it.
In fact, I’m quite skeptical that that many pro-terrorist muslims even exist. I prefer to believe the British muslim who once stated that behind closed doors there are no moderate muslims.
Your numbers need some work.
Dalmaster: and where exactly has appeasing evil ever worked out? Obviously as a proponent of this course of action you have evidence to back up the success of this line of policy.
GCooper :
Non-rhetorical questions mixed in with mere observations. I am not involved in the situation enough to instruct world leaders on how they should behave. There seems to be a lot of “these fanatics need to be stopped” but no realistic solutions.
Funny that Nazism should be mentioned, since it is an ideology that only rose to power as the result of a mobilised civilian population, a population gone from relative success to rising poverty. A large number whose livelihoods were blown away with the economy, who’ll listen to the closest crackpot wail out conspiracy theories about who is to blame for their predicament and how they need to be destroyed.
So if by “hammering” you mean bomb them into submission, you’re actually giving all those neo-Hitlers out there an audience.
Dalmaster writes:
“So if by “hammering” you mean bomb them into submission, you’re actually giving all those neo-Hitlers out there an audience.”
Clearly you either did not read or were unable to understand what I wrote. So here it is again:
‘You want a positive suggestion? Well how about hammering the rabble-rousers and theocrats hard, while pumping Western materialism and freedom at the young masses.’
What part of this involves bombing people into submission?
v. ham·mered, ham·mer·ing, ham·mers
v. tr.
1. To hit, especially repeatedly, with or as if with a hammer; pound.
2. To beat into a shape with or as if with a hammer: hammered out the dents in the fender; hammered out a contract acceptable to both sides.
3. To put together, fasten, or seal, particularly with nails, by hammering.
4. To force upon by constant repetition: hammered the information into the students’ heads.
5.
1. To defeat soundly.
2. To inflict a heavy loss or damage on.
1 entry found for hammering.
Entry: knock
Function: noun
Definition: pushing
Synonyms: beating, blow, box, clip, conk, cuff, hammering, hit, injury, lick, rap, slap, smack, striking, swat, swipe, thump, whack
Euphemisic, deliberate ambiguity, or using an entirely different dictionary? Material freedom sounds like an interesting final solution to the question, perhaps you should tell us more.
I see two approaches being advocated, which I will simplistically reduce to carrot or stick. Sadly, I see neither being actively pursued by the European community. Pinning your hopes on one lone voice seems rather suicidal to me. Yes, I know, there have been many other similar observations made by muslims over the last three years – but to what effect ? Unfortunately, in the coming years, I foresee Europe suffering numerous, bloody Islamo-Fascist attacks, all the while dithering in her self denial.
Every “little” bit helps. I’m sure that’s the consolation some would hold today for those few Jews that were hidden from the Nazis’ clutches if Hitler had won.
Thank you for quoting a dictionary at us, Dalmaster. I’m sure we’re all both grateful and deeply impressed.
Of course, you entirely missed the point. The use of the word ‘hammer’ was quite intentional. What you do not seem able to understand is that I specifically applied it to (and I quote again): ‘the rabble rousers and theocrats’.
What would you suggest as an alternative? Handing out sweeties and signed photographs of Cherie Blair?
Surely, given the nomme de guerre, everyone guessed that Dalmaster was a little smartass, ex Dungeons and Dragons maybe. I am one of those lacking in awe of his ability to look a word up in a dictionary and key it onto a blogsite. Triteness has its rewards, viz Toneboy Blair, but not here. Don’t know why the manifestations of god at Samizdata thought it worth posting one of his gnomic petites pensees.
G Cooper, you normally have more clarity than to start answering a little squish like this little mashed-bananas-for-brains.
Re a signed photograph of Cherie Blair – oh, god! – while she’s signing, do you thinks she gurns? I’m just so frightened of seeing that mouth twisted into any new positions, and I fear that if I see those tonsils one more time, I may puke.
Not one sigh, dear audience. For the awesome spectacle that is Dalmaster’s dictionary.com quotation is not the only one this night.
Behold Verity the Rabid, a fiend with an obsessive compulsion to bark baiting insults to every object it is not familiar with, and obviously lower on the pecking-order! Behold the bulging repertoire of plagurised wordplay and/or thesaurus usage for every other word!
Then walk away from the show, relived, knowing that it only ever gives out such rude personal attacks when hidden safely behind the glass screen of a computer monitor, to faceless names.
—
gcooper: No, I don’t understand the connection between ‘the rabble rousers and theocrats’ and ‘hammer’, I assumed it was simply another gung-ho/gangsta euphemism. You are still welcome to answer the question, presuming the previous lark hasn’t put you off.
Dalmaster – I seldom have recourse to a thesaurus and if you would let me know whose “word play” I have unintentionally plagiarised, I will gladly acknowledge those people publicly. When I am quoting someone else’s witticism, I always quote the source.
BTW, you would have more credence were you to be able to spell the misdemeanours you charge people with. Plagiarise is spelled thusly – or plagiarize if you’re American.
“Plagiarise is spelled thusly – or plagiarize if you’re American.”
Awesome.