Thursday, October 13, 2005

Where does terrorism start?

According to Soumaya Ghannoushi, a columnist for Al Jazeera, its our fault.

Ms. Ghannoushi tells the tale of the four bombers that attacked the citizens of London in July. They were just quiet boys who loved cricket and chasing after girls, until we invaded Iraq. They watched the deaths of their fellow Muslims and were outraged.
We must go beyond the evil ideology to the evil reality that spawns and fosters it. Ideology can not be the starting point, but the conclusion to the search for causes and origins.

Take the four bombers who a few months ago created carnage and mayhem in London's tubes and buses.

The striking picture that emerged from the media's scrutiny of every minutia of their menial lives was of four unexceptional men, with calm ordinary lives, no different from any Brit of their age.

Could it be that the four young men were influenced by the pro-terrorist media coverage of the war? Al Jazeera, Al Arabia and to a lesser extent the BBC are anti US 24 hous a day. Maybe these unexceptional men were influenced by the hate filled speeches herd in the mosques, public squares and rallies of London's Muslim neighborhoods?

Nope, Its Bush's fault. He has the audacity to support Israel.
The mere sight of Bush greeting Sharon as a "man of peace" days after the Jenin refugee camp massacre, as though those his bulldozers had buried alive were cockroaches not human beings, would have been enough to turn the moral universe of countless young Muslims upside down and send them on the road to nihilistic perdition.

The evils of reality always metamorphose into evil ideologies. The trail of the bombers' insanity leads back to these insane 'foreign' policies, which are destabilising the world, breaking it into opposite trenches and tearing the fabric of nations, communities and families apart.

Unless they are rectified, there can be little hope of our world emerging out of this monstrous pit of hatred and violence.
I'll tell you where the trail leads Ms.Ghannoushi, look in the mirror. People like you who are myopic when looking at the Arab - Israeli conflict are the ones keeping the fires burning in these monsterous pits.

If your network spent 10% of its air time showing US forces building schools or markets, working to rebuild medical clinics and sewer systems, all the while ducking snipers and IEDs, the Arab world would have a better picture of what is really going on in Iraq. The same goes for CNN and the rest of the American media.

I have another question for Soumaya. What motivated the 19 terrorist murderers on 9/11?
It wasn't the war in Iraq, that is a certainty. Could it be the influence of the Whabists Muslims who teach the Koran in such a way as to twist it into weapon of cold blooded murder?

That has my vote.

8 comments:

Intellectual Insurgent said...

Just curious -- do you believe that building schools, providing medical services and repairing sewers is enough to be a noble force worthy of adulation? If you do, then you must equally applaud Hamas, because that is how it got such a strong hold in the West Bank. They are the first to treat the wounded and repair infrastructure after each Israeli raid. The "pro-terrorist" media never gives Hamas any air time for its charitable works.

So what if the US builds schools if it's bombing the bejesus out of the country?

About the Wahabis, they are primarily in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia is US Ally #1. If the Wahabis are hell-bent on destroying the US, why is George WMD Bush always pictured holding hands with them?

Al Jazeera is just as myopic as Fox News. They are two sides of the same coin.

Intellectual Insurgent said...

Now that I have had the chance to read the article, you have spun it way out of context. The author does not say "It's Bush's fault". Outrage at Bush calling Sharon a man of peace does not mean hatred of America for supporting Israel. Those are some bold logical leaps.

Sharon has been behind many of the massacres of Palestinians, so why are you shocked that an Arab author would suggest that Arabs would find Bush's description of Sharon outrageous? Sharon was a member of the Haganah terrorist organization that committed atrocities against the British and the Palestinians before the State of Israel was born. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haganah
He was behind the massacres of surrendered Egyptian forces, the Jenin massacre, the Deir Yassin tragedy. Read up.

Walt Lucas said...

So let me get this straight, Hamas and the US military are the same because both build schools and sewers? If you think that both are morally equal, go to a US base with a sign saying you are murderous thugs. You may be asked to leave, or even arrested if you start pushing and shoving the MPs. Then try the same thing at a Hamas rally. My guess is that you will be shot in the face within thirty seconds, your body would be torn apart and burned. Not quite the same response is it? When I see the Hamas and Hezbollah rallies, they are not carrying hammers and lumber, they are in ski masks toting RPGs and AKM or AK-47s.

I have little patience with the arguments that center on, finding a few examples of bad behavior in the US military and the comparing them with the few examples of good behavior of terrorists.

When I look at an issue, I look at both sides. If you read my blog, you know I do not tow the party line, I think for myself. The difference is when I look at an issue like the Arab – Israeli conflict, I see it both sides, and then I look at what the ultimate goals for each side is. The Arab/Palestinian forces, such as Hamas and Hezbollah want to drive the Nation of Israel into the sea. They want every Jew dead, not just driven out of the ‘occupied lands’ they want them dead, every man woman and child. They have stated this many times. The Israelis want to live and co exist with peaceful Arabs. They give Palestinians the right to vote in their elections. The Israeli economy depends on the Palestinian workforce to survive.

The Israeli army responds to suicide bombers and rocket attacks by targeting safe houses or tearing down the houses of suicide bombers. Sometimes they kill innocent Palestinians and that is tragic, but when your enemy deliberately hides among school children and Mosques, there are going to be innocents killed.

You also state that George ‘WMD’ Bush meets with the Saudis all the time, are you saying that the King Abdullah is a Wahabists? Are you saying that all Saudis are Wahabist terrorists? It sure sounds like it. The Saudis are coming to grips with terrorists slowly but surely. When the royal family of Saudi Arabia numbers in thousands, you are going to have dozens, if not a hundred spoiled rich kids that grow up looking for meaning, some find it in Wahabiism. They have vast amounts of cash to spread their extremist beliefs and they need to be grabbed up by the short hairs and thrown in prison.

Fox and Al Jazeera are the same? OK what ever. That comparison is just silly.

As far as your link to Haganah, did you read the page? Is the Massacre you describe the Qibya raid? You may want to revisit that event.

Ariel Sharon later wrote in his diary that he received orders to inflict heavy damage on the inhabitants of Qibya. "The orders were utterly clear: Qibya was to be an example for everyone". Sharon said that he thought the houses were empty and that the unit checked all houses before detonating the explosives. In his autobiography Warrior (1987) he wrote:
I couldn't believe my ears. As I went back over each step of the operation, I began to understand what must have happened. For years Israeli reprisal raids had never succeeded in doing more than blowing up a few outlying buildings, if that. Expecting the same, some Arab families must have stayed in their houses rather than running away. In those big stone houses… some could easily have hidden in the cellars and back rooms, keeping quiet when the paratroopers went in to check and yell out a warning. The result was this tragedy that had happened.


If you happened to stay in your house, you would have been killed. Similar to the way we surrounded Fallujah and told everyone that were going to find and destroy the terrorists, if you wanted to be safe, get out.

I am sure that over the years the Israelis have carried out many operations that would not hold up to a thorough investigation as defensive. The Jews are people, and people are flawed and make terrible decisions same times. Just like the United States, the Abu Grab prison scandal was discovered by the military, and dealt with swiftly.
I could go on, but I have to go to a high school football game.

Ayatollah Mugsy said...

You make some excellent points, Yolo Cowboy. On my blog, I teach a peaceful brand of canine Islam. Do any of your dogs attend a mosque?

Intellectual Insurgent said...

One more thing - yes, I am saying that King Abdallah is a Wahhabi. Not necessarily a terrorist, but definitely a Wahhabi. Ibn al Wahhab was an Islamic scholar way back who was so extreme and literal that most Muslims rejected his juridical approach to Islam. That is, everyone but the Saudi Royal Family. They adopted Wahhabi jurisprudence on Islam as their own.

Bush said that we have to fight the "ideology" to fight the terrorists. Well, there it is. The Saudi Royal family endorses the Wahhabi ideology and militantly imposes it upon the people (public beheadings every Friday - be sure to get a front row seat). Essentially, the Saudis are saying to their people, be extremist toward women, Jews, criminals, but don't be extremist toward us or our American business partners. They must be frustrated that the distinction is lost on some of the population.

Walt Lucas said...

Answer my question about going to a Hamas rally with a sign calling them murderous thugs.
Answer my question about the 9/11 terrorists.

Walt Lucas said...

My Blog, my rules.
Answer my questions.

Ayatollah Mugsy said...

Oh, we only eat halaal food. And I preach the virtues of chewing only halaal rawhide. (PetsMart has a large selection.)