Monday, July 2, 2007

Muslim, Italian and Zionist

by Saviona Man from Haaretz

Regarding the question of the Islamization of Europe, Magdi Allam - an Egyptian-born Italian writer and journalist - says, "Europe is already a bastion of Islamic extremism. Just look at attack on Mike's Place in Tel Aviv, which was carried out by British suicide bombers drafted by Hamas; the massacre by Islamists in Madrid and in London; the slitting of director Theo Van Gogh's throat in Amsterdam; and the dozens of Islamic terror attacks that were prevented in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Holland. "This bastion exists thanks to a widespread network of mosques, Koran schools, financial bodies and charitable institutions linked to the Muslim Brotherhood; Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian Salfists; Saudi Wahabis; Al-Qaida jihadis and Pakistani groups. This multicultural Europe, which has trampled its values and betrayed its identity, is satisfied with reacting to the obvious terror, which is only the tip of the iceberg, but is afraid to deal with terror's ideological and organizational roots."

A different plan in Iraq

by Anthony N. Celso from The Washington Times

Mr. Bush's "surge" of U.S. troops has failed to stem sectarian killings, has resulted in more U.S. casualties, has strengthened the current Iranian and Syrian alliance and has weakened us. Pursuing this policy makes no sense and strengthens our adversaries in the region. Does this mean that a wholesale retreat from Iraq is in our national interests? Not at all ... The bloodbath that surely will ensue with a U.S. disengagement will also result in large numbers of dead al Qaeda jihadists who will surely be brutalized by Shi'ite militias in retaliation for their barbaric terrorist campaign. When not dealing with Shi'ite and Kurdish militias, al Qaeda will find its authority eroded in Sunni enclaves as Saudi, Jordanian and Syrian support displaces al Qaeda aid for the oppressed Sunni minority. Such assistance would be contingent on Sunni militias severing links from al Qaeda whose long standing goal is the overthrow of Middle Eastern Sunni regimes. The rebellion of some Sunni militias against al Qaeda, wisely aided and abetted by U.S. forces, offers a bloody, promising and tantalizing presentiment.

When jihadists go online

by Noor Huda Ismail from The Jakarta Post

After his release from prison, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir made some positive comments to his followers. "Don't do bombings here in Indonesia," he told his followers. However, his "fatwa" discouraging violence in Indonesia has not been well received by fringe young and impassioned jihadi recruits. Young jihadis have instead turned to the Internet to download fatwas from mainly Middle Eastern jihadists, including fatwas from the late Jordanian born Zarqawi and a jailed Saudi Arabian cleric, Al Maqdisi. These examples illustrate how effective jihadi websites have become in turning the hearts and minds of young Muslims toward radicalism.

POSTCARD USA: Madrassa time in Washington

by Khalid Hasan from the Daily Times

Those who were taking the group of madrassa overlords and administrators included the Centre for Religion and Diplomacy and the Pakistani-American Leadership Centre, a lobbying group on which the Embassy of Pakistan smiles more than somewhat ... A leaflet distributed at an event organised for the visitors on Capitol Hill — young staffers from a number of congressional offices being the intended audience — credited madrassas with playing an “important role in a country where millions live in poverty and state educational infrastructure is in decay”. To which all one can say is: Welcome to Pakistan. This welcome introduction was followed by a number of questions: What is going on inside these madrassas? Does the Pakistani government have any control over them? Do these madrassas threaten US national security interests?

Where is feminist outrage when women are being killed?

by S. Aravindan Neelakandan from UPI Asia Online

Melapalayam is a town in Thirunelveli district, in south India's Tamil Nadu. Militant Wahabbi outfits almost run a parallel government here. The chief of these is Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhakam, an organization so close to the ruling coalition that police officials seldom can take any real action against its Wahabbi outlandishness. Thirty-five-year-old Mumtaz was a laborer in a local cigar company, where she rolled tobacco in dry leaves to make cigars. In early March, as she was returning after collecting tobacco, a group of youngsters stopped her and told her not to have friendly relations with her tobacco company manager, who was a Hindu. Mumtaz, who is a divorcee, told them to mind their own business. As she finished speaking a stone hit her. She started running, but the stones kept coming. She was stoned in public -- in accordance with Islamic law -- then stabbed to death.

Home-grown jihad threat

by Richard Kerbaj and Martin Chulov from The Australian

A former member of Mr Howard's Islamic advisory board, Mustapha Kara-Ali, yesterday warned that Australia's mainstream community should not take comfort in the fact that a terrorist attack has not yet been carried out on our shores ... "Australia is a prime country for radicalisation," Mr Kara-Ali said. "Because the Muslim community in Australia is still new, there isn't a strong established Islamic order and that means the (fundamentalist) Wahabi movement can penetrate the community further and recruit more at ease than they would be able to do in the Middle East, where there is an establishment - a traditional Islamic order in place - which would resist them."

Living on the edge

by Sudha Ramachandran from the Deccan Herald

Zahid Hussain’s Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam provides a rivetting analysis of how external jihad against the Judeo-Christian world has coalesced with the internal jihad against those who deviate from Sunni/Wahabi teachings. His accounts of Pakistan’s sectarian violence and the military’s battle against al-Qaeda in the tribal belt are particularly interesting. The Musharraf Government might have captured several al-Qaeda operatives and banned militant outfits but its steps to eradicate extremism have been half-hearted and lacked consistency and conviction, argues Hussain. Musharraf has backtracked on several issues. He promised regulation of madrassas, and then went easy on them to appease the Islamist parties. Islamist extremism thrives because the military is reluctant to make a clean break with its longstanding allies—the mullahs.

Barely veiled menace

by Ed Husain from The Australian

My time in Saudi Arabia bolstered my conviction that an austere form of Islam (Wahhabism) married to a politicised Islam (Islamism) is wreaking havoc in the world. This anger-ridden ideology, an ideology I once advocated, is not only a threat to Islam and Muslims, but to the entire civilised world. I vowed, in my own limited way, to fight those who had hijacked my faith, defamed my prophet and killed thousands of my own people: the human race. I was encouraged when Tony Blair announced on August 5, 2005, plans to proscribe an array of Islamist organisations that operated in Britain, foremost among them Hizb.

Livingstone: 'Don't demonise muslims'

from UTV

London's Mayor Ken Livingstone said that individuals who were ready to turn to terrorism represented a tiny minority of Britain`s Muslims, while the community as a whole was more law-abiding than other sections of society. He pointed the finger at Saudi Arabia`s ruling royal family for fuelling Islamist extremism by exporting their intolerant Wahhabist beliefs. And he criticised successive British governments for failing to confront the Saudis over their funding of extremist religious schools and groupings around the world ... "We have got to understand that when we talk about the Wahhabi strand of Islam, which is very intolerant, our major problem in dealing with it is that it flows out of Saudi Arabia," he said.