Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Gaza Won't Satisfy Hamas

by Cal Thomas from Tribune Media Services

Whatever their names -- groups such as Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida, or states such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran -- their objectives are identical: the annihilation of the democratic Jewish state and the elimination of all Jews, either by death or displacement, from the land. It is to be in extreme denial to argue otherwise, and to continue believing the fiction that "infidel" diplomats from the State Department or European Union can magically transform people commanded to hate Jews and Israel based on a twisted mandate from their corrupt notion of God.

Democracy’s Twilight Zone?

by Victor Sharpe from Israel Hasbara Committee

America’s so-called Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, itself threatened by Iran and the jihadists, continues meanwhile to send billions of dollars to spread wahhabism (another extreme version of Islam) among the Arab masses while funding the construction of mosques throughout the Moslem and non-Moslem world. Many of these mosques, especially in the West, spread radical Islam through extremist Imams. The West, reluctant as ever to confront the Saudis for fear of disrupting the flow of oil to their economies, allows the insidious spread of radical Islam within their borders. But appeasement sows evil seeds.

Somalia's Mujahideen Youth Movement

by Andrew Black from The Jamestown Foundation

On June 2 the U.S. military struck positions in northern Somalia (South African Broadcasting Corporation, June 3). U.S. military spokespersons have yet to identify the targets of the attack; however, a statement released by Mujahideen Youth Movement (MYM) via the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF)—an information medium strongly identified with the core elements of the Global Salafi-Jihad—claimed that none of the group's members had been killed or injured in the strikes. Although it is nearly impossible to determine whether there is a direct link between al-Libi's statement and the emergence of MYM, the near concurrence of these events at least suggests a causal relationship.

Iraqi/Arab Papers Wednesday: Shrine Politics

by Amer Moshen from IraqSlogger

Extremist Wahhabi groups may have religious reasons to attack Iraqi shrines, aside from their general anti-Shi'ism, and al-Qa'ida’s political motives (in terms of mobilizing and radicalizing Iraqi Sunnis by inciting sectarian strife). Wahhabism is one of the fiercest Salafi sects in its opposition to icons of all kinds. The building of shrines to commemorate dead religious figures is seen as akin to idolatry by the Wahhabi faith. Many of the homes and graves of the Muslim prophet and his companions were carelessly torn down in Mecca and Medina ... The departing kings of Wahhabi-dominated Saudi Arabia are traditionally buried unceremoniously in unmarked graves.

Iraq: A Problematic Partitioning

by Stephen Schwartz from the Weekly Standard

The division in Iraq is primarily a consequence of a long period of domination by Arab Sunnis. As exemplified by the Iraqi Kurds, nationalist and religious-identity movements can establish stability on the territories they inhabit when the community is homogeneous, its demands are perceived as largely resolved, and the community feels itself to be "masters in its own house." It is for this reason that in Iraqi Kurdistan, as noted in the Etzioni document, "according to Major General Benjamin Mixon . . . because Kurdish areas are patrolled by Kurdish troops, 'there's no need' for an American presence in Kurdistan." I would add that Saudi-financed Wahhabi terror in Kurdistan, led by the so-called Ansar al-Islam, was handily defeated by the Kurds.