Tag Archives: Islamism

Interesting Post: One Victim of the Toulouse Assassin Buried in Morocco

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In a blog post on March 22 Rachid Aadnani points out an element of the terrible story of the “Toulouse Killer” in France that I was not aware of.

The remains of Imad Ben Ziaten, the 31 year old paratrooper who was gunned down by the “Toulouse Killer”  were laid to rest in Morocco this past Tuesday.  His family had requested he be burried in his hometown of Md’iq a short distance from the city of Tetouan in Northern Morocco.

The other alleged victims of the assassin were a rabbi and he three young children.  The murder of children is always shocking.  What could a 3 year old, or even a 7 year old have done to justify being murdered in cold blood.  That is what is so gut-wrenching about the story of Robert Bales, the US soldier who committed the massacres in Afghanistan on March 11.  We want to see our men in uniform as heroes, to the point that we overlook a lot.  But shooting innocents at home, that is only possible when the enemy has been completely dehumanized.

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The Rhetoric of Hate v. Forgiveness

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A short, but respectable analysis of an aspect of conservative media’s responses the tragic bombing and shootings in Norway came across my screen today.  In “Norway’s Sorrow: Why Is It So Hard For The Religious Right To Denounce Evil?,” Kurt Ostrow argues that a certain segment of the media is unable to simply denounce the attacks and leave it there. They condemn the actions of Anders Behring Breivik, who claimed responsibility for the attack, but then go on to ask if there aren’t real causes for concern that set him off. Ostrow points out that is is part of a very real trend, and provides some excellent examples to support his case, both from Europe and the United States.

He then goes on to make an excellent point.

Right-wing politicians and pundits everywhere have decided it politically prudent to conflate Islamic (of or relating to Islam) with Islamist (of or relating to Islamic militancy or fundamentalism). Or worse: they actually believe this misdirected, misinformed hate.

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Egypt Decides! Let’s Stand Back for a While

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Saturday, 12 February 2011, Day 1 Freedom - Victory Tahrir Square, Photo by Darla Hueske, Creative Commons license, Some rights reserved

These are exciting times! The citizens revolution in Tunisia started a tidal wave of pro-democracy protests across the Arab world, and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak form the Presidency in Egypt proves there is no stopping it.

Fortunately, this wave has not caused the death and destruction tidal waves usually do, because it is the people themselves who are the wave, and it is the elite who are being swept away, not in a bloody coup, but through real people power. Final costs have yet to be assessed. People were jailed and others killed, but violence and destruction to property have been minimal. The police were brutal and ruthless and far too many were killed, but protests continued and the police disappeared quickly. After that, the one significant effort of Mubarak loyalist to crack heads, backfired terribly.

Most Americans are excited by this wave of democracy and have an innate tendency to support it. Others got very nervous when the wave hit Egypt. What happens if the Muslim brotherhood takes over? There are even voices who get far to much airplay in the media and too much ink in the press who say that people in the region are incapable of self governance and need strong arm leadership. The most looney voice has to be Glenn Beck who fears Mubarak’s fall will open the door to a Islamist Caliphate that will spread until it meets and joins forces with a Chinese-led “red” wave on a quest for world domination.
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Swiss Minarets, Islamic Feminism and Clash of Civilizations

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Right Wing Posters on the Streets of Switzerland

Right Wing Posters on the Streets of Switzerland

Swiss voters approved a ban on construction of new minarets today, a surprise result certain to embarrass the country’s neutral government.

The Swiss news agency ATS and other media said about 57.5 per cent of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the Right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP).

The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the country’s constitution, freedom of religion and the country’s cherished tradition of tolerance.

The government had said a ban could ‘serve the interests of extremist circles’.
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–via The Daily Mail

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Pakistanis See the US as the Biggest Threat

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The Al Jazeera network has commissioned a public opinion survey in Pakistan that has yielded some disturbing and surprising results.  The poll, conducted by Gallup Pakistan, showed that 59% of Pakistani’s believe that the United States is the biggest threat to Pakistan.

That many Pakistanis see the US as a threat is entirely surprising, but the margins are.  Tensions between India and Pakistan are legendary and longstanding and the Taliban is a brutal militant Islamist regime.   Think about that for a moment.  A major source of the resentment seems to be the drone attacks against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets.

(W)hen asked if they support or oppose the US military’s drone attacks against what Washington claims are Taliban and al-Qaeda targets, only nine per cent of respondents reacted favourably.

A massive 67 per cent say they oppose US military operations on Pakistani soil.

Forty-one per cent of Pakistanis say they support the offensive against the Taliban

“This is a fact that the hatred against the US is growing very quickly, mainly because of these drone attacks,” Makhdoom Babar, the editor-in-chief of Pakistan’s The Daily Mail newspaper, said.

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A senior US official told Al Jazeera he was not surprised by the poll’s findings.

The US has a considerable amount of work to do to make itself better understood to the Muslim world, he said.

And it would take not only educational and economic work to win over the Pakistani people but also a concerted effort to help the Pakistani government deal with “extremist elements” that are trying to disrupt security within Pakistan, he added.

via Al Jazeera English – CENTRAL/S. ASIA – Pakistanis see US as biggest threat.

Complete survey results are at this link.