Murder First, Premeditate Later
Good piece in The New York Times by Irshad Manji about the phony baloney reasons given for Islamic terror:
LAST week, the luminaries of the British Muslim mainstream — lobbyists, lords and members of Parliament — published an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, telling him that the “debacle” of both Iraq and Lebanon provides “ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.” In increasingly antiwar America, a similar argument is gaining traction: The United States brutalizes Muslims, which in turn foments Islamist terror.But violent jihadists have rarely needed foreign policy grievances to justify their hot heads. There was no equivalent to the Iraq debacle in 1993, when Islamists first tried to blow up the World Trade Center, or in 2000, when they attacked the American destroyer Cole. Indeed, that assault took place after United States-led military intervention saved thousands of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.
If Islamists cared about changing Iraq policy, they would not have bothered to abduct two journalists from France — probably the most antiwar, anti-Bush nation in the West. Even overt solidarity with Iraqi suffering did not prevent Margaret Hassan, who ran a world-renowned relief agency in Baghdad, from being executed by insurgents.
Meanwhile, at least as many Muslims are dying at the hands of other Muslims as under the boots of any foreign imperial power. In Sudan, black Muslims are starved, raped, enslaved and slaughtered by Arab militias, with the consent of an Islamic government. Where is the “official” Muslim fury against that genocide? Do Muslim lives count only when snuffed out by non-Muslims? If not, then here is an idea for Muslim representatives in the West: Go ahead and lecture the politicians that their foreign policies give succor to radicals. At the same time, however, challenge the educated and angry young Muslims to hold their own accountable, too.
This means reminding them that in Pakistan, Sunnis hunt down Shiites every day; that in northern Israel, Katuysha rockets launched by Hezbollah have ripped through the homes of Arab Muslims as well as Jews; that in Egypt, the riot police of President Hosni Mubarak routinely club, rape, torture and murder Muslim activists promoting democracy; and, above all, that civil wars have become hallmarks of the Islamic world.
Muslim figureheads will not dare be so honest. They would sooner replicate the very sins for which they castigate the Bush and Blair governments — namely, switching rationales and pretending integrity.
There are the occasional terrorists who aren't Muslim -- Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, the Baader Meinhof Gang -- but why are so many Muslims?
And just when you thought it couldn't get any sicker, there's this, from a New York Post story by Andy Soltis:
Twisted young British parents planned to sacrifice their precious baby in the evil cause of jihad by mass murder.Fanatical terror suspect Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his wife, Cossor, 23, are among those being interrogated by police as suspects in the massive plot to attack trans-Atlantic flights in midair.
What the outwardly normal couple had secretly plotted is almost too horrifying to consider, cops said.
The Alis planned to use 6-month-old son Zain's baby bottle as a liquid bomb, blowing themselves and their child up, along with hundreds of others aboard the flight.
Cossar was allowed to bring Zain to a police station house so she could breast-feed him there. The baby was later turned over to her grandparents.
To their stunned friends and neighbors in a housing project in north London, the Alis were known as quiet, struggling parents and observant Muslims who showed no signs of terror ties.
"Cossor was not someone I had an argument with, never any problems," said a shocked Bronwene Hammond, who attended London's Walthamstow School for Girls with her.
"She would wear the full Muslim outfit because of her parents, but she was never preaching," Hammond told The Mail on Sunday. "There were a lot more religious people at school."
But British security experts suspect that Cossor Ali is an example of a chilling phenomenon that is growing in popularity among the terror set - a woman willing to use her innocent appearance to allay suspicions and carry out a suicide bombing. At least 20 Muslim women have blown themselves up in such attacks.
Particularly disturbing was Cossor Ali's apparent intent to conceal the liquid trigger for a bomb in Zain's baby bottle when the family boarded a jetliner.
"It may be beyond belief, but we are convinced that there are now women in Britain who are prepared to die with their babies for their twisted cause," a security adviser to the British government told The Times of London.
"They are ruthless, single-minded and totally committed."
I've been looking for information as to whether the "ruthless, single-minded and totally committed" religious Muslim women actually have a choice in what they plan to/have done. From everything I've read their only choice is how they will die: If they refuse to join in the plot, at the hands of their fanatical husband or family; or, as unmarriageable widows without job prospects, they can watch their children live and die in poverty; or by their own hand, encouraged by those closest to them (usually men who don't want the economic burden of their relatives). I hope I don't sound like an apologist for those (probably few) female Islamic fanatics who gleefully participate. Hate war. Been a pacifist since I was old enough to think. I conclude these sadly oppressed Muslim women have absolutely no choice in the matter. Anyone have any information to change my mind?
Mimi at August 17, 2006 7:09 AM
Mimi-
I understand what you are saying, but this woman was not living under sharia law in some middle eastern country. She was living in the UK where there is freedom and laws against spouse abuse, and programs for battered or controlled women to help them out of situations like that. I might buy your argument if she were living in a totally repressed society, but the UK is far from that.
If she didn't want to blow herself up and her baby up, there are ways and means to get out of that situation in the UK.
Starfox5253 at August 17, 2006 7:20 AM
"On the dole" beats dead any day. Women can be bloodthirsty fanatics, just like men. Of course, it helps if you have irrational belief in god, and think you're going to heaven to get a head pat from Allah.
Amy Alkon at August 17, 2006 7:31 AM
I understand what everyone is *saying.* I'm still hoping to find data that helps *me* understand why. I'll keep looking for articles or books.
To answer one comment: Maybe this woman was living under sharia law imposed by her husband, who, basically, owned her. (In a fundamentalist religious family, the husband's word is law.) Where in England could she have gone where she would not be recognized eventually?
The English woman may not have been allowed to leave her home without a male escort. How then, could she have escaped?
Yes, religion is at fault. Most try to convince women they are worthless.
In the big midwestern city where I live (my email says California, but I moved recently), one young arab woman was murdered after insulting her fiance by breaking the engagement. She worked, went to college, wore modest clothing, but had the nerve to not want to marry her cousin. Her family isn't saying what really happened. So, is the U.S. a totally repressed society? Could she have utilized an available "program."
And yes, "this" English Muslim may be a ruthless, single-minded, and totally committed murderer. Or she may have been a battered, brain-washed, slave whose life was so bad, she believed it didn't matter whether she lived or died. I'd like to know the circumstances. All women are not "good." All men are not "bad." All situations are not black or white.
I could go on and on, but it would all be opinion, not facts. And I'm lookin' for facts. So I'm off to try and find the statistics on services for non-English speaking battered and oppressed women in England, to bgin with.
Mimi at August 17, 2006 5:42 PM
Dying for the cause ... can anyone explain what exactly is the cause?
norman at August 18, 2006 1:26 AM
Good site. Thanks!
thelma and louise at September 3, 2006 11:16 AM
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