Friday, June 22, 2007

Did you say Wahhabi?

from YouTube

After almost 300 posts covering the Saudi/Wahhabi influence on the world, I couldn't resist this one humorous post. At least the chipmunk understands the seriousness of the situation.

Where We Fight

by Cliff May from National Review Online

America is at war with al Qaeda [Al-Qaeda's Saudi Origins by Uriya Shavit from Middle East Quarterly] — on that surely we can agree — and we know that al Qaeda has bases in Pakistan. In fact, it is probable that Osama bin Laden resides at one of those bases. But we can’t fight al Qaeda in Pakistan [Al Qaeda Strikes Back by Bruce Riedel from Foreign Affairs] because Pakistan is an ally, and America does not violate the territorial integrity of its allies. Al Qaeda is active in Gaza ... but we’re not about to invade Gaza in pursuit of al Qaeda. Even Israel, which withdrew from Gaza two years ago, is not eager to return there. In Lebanon, Fatah al-Islam, which is fighting the Lebanese government, is believed to be linked to al Qaeda. There is no way the U.S. is going to send troops into Lebanon again. Groups linked to al Qaeda are in Somalia. But a serious effort by Americans against al Qaeda in Somalia seems unlikely ... Almost a decade ago, Osama bin Laden said that Americans were “unprepared to fight long wars.” Secure in his Pakistani redoubt, he must be pleased that his analysis is proving so uncannily accurate.

Naif Wants Imams to Confront Deviant Ideology

by P.K. Abdul Ghafour from Arab News

“Do you want people in your society who call you, your state and your leaders infidels,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif as asking. He said the Kingdom ran its affairs on the basis of Shariah. “Do you know that your children who go to Iraq are used only for blowing themselves up? Iraqi officials themselves have told me that,” the prince said. “They are brought there in order to put on explosive belts and blow themselves up, causing the deaths of innocents. Are you happy for your children to become instruments of murder?”

An Unprecedented Uproar Over Saudi Religious Police

by Faiza Saleh Ambah from the Washington Post

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is the enforcement arm of Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, which imposes the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, named after its 18th-century founder, Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab. The commission's mandate is based on the Koranic verse, "And from among you there should be a party who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be successful." The commission has about 500 offices across the kingdom and employs about 10,000 people.

Romney Calls for New Strategy on Terror

by Liz Sidoti at Associated Press

Mitt Romney called for the United States to establish a "Special Partnership Force" - made up of Army special forces and intelligence personnel - to work with foreign governments to root out terrorists from their populations. "Their goal is to build national institutions of stability and freedom, and to promote the rule of law and human rights." He proposed holding a summit of nations with the goal of a new type of Marshall Plan, which he dubbed a "Partnership for Prosperity and Progress." The objective: ensuring that "threatened Islamic states had public schools, not Wahhabi madrassas, micro-credit and banking, the rule of law, human rights, basic health care and competitive economic policies," he said.

Fanning the flames

by Mohamed El-Sayed from Al-Ahram Weekly

Nabil Abdel-Fattah, assistant director of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and the editor of the annual State of Religion in Egypt report, sees the growing number of clashes as evidence of a "significant increase in the number of Muslims who embrace the Wahhabi doctrine, be they clerics or ordinary citizens". Many clergymen, he says, have adopted "this anti-Christian doctrine in an attempt to court popularity among Muslims. Sheikhs might go as far as scorning Copts."