C L O S E R

Telegraph | Opinion | Listen to the word on the 'Arab street'

Posted on November 25th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism.

Telegraph | Opinion | Listen to the word on the ‘Arab street’

On Friday, the allegedly explosive “Arab street” finally exploded, in the largest demonstration against al-Qa’eda or its affiliates seen in the Middle East. “Zarqawi,” shouted 200,000 Jordanians, “from Amman we say to you, you are a coward!” Also “the enemy of Allah” – which, for a jihadist, isn’t what they call on Broadway a money review.

So, just as things are looking up on the distant, eastern front, they’re wobbling badly on the home front. Anti-Bush Continentals who would welcome a perceived American defeat in Iraq ought to remember the third front in this war: Europe is both a home front and a foreign battleground – as the Dutch have learnt, watching the land of the bicycling Queen transformed into 24-hour armed security for even minor municipal officials. In this war, for Europeans the faraway country of which they know little turns out to be their own. Much as the Guardian and Le Monde would enjoy it, an America that turns its back on the world is the last thing you need.

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Telegraph | Opinion | Listen to the word on the ‘Arab street’

Posted on November 25th, 2005 by .
Categories: International Terrorism.

Telegraph | Opinion | Listen to the word on the ‘Arab street’

On Friday, the allegedly explosive “Arab street” finally exploded, in the largest demonstration against al-Qa’eda or its affiliates seen in the Middle East. “Zarqawi,” shouted 200,000 Jordanians, “from Amman we say to you, you are a coward!” Also “the enemy of Allah” – which, for a jihadist, isn’t what they call on Broadway a money review.

So, just as things are looking up on the distant, eastern front, they’re wobbling badly on the home front. Anti-Bush Continentals who would welcome a perceived American defeat in Iraq ought to remember the third front in this war: Europe is both a home front and a foreign battleground – as the Dutch have learnt, watching the land of the bicycling Queen transformed into 24-hour armed security for even minor municipal officials. In this war, for Europeans the faraway country of which they know little turns out to be their own. Much as the Guardian and Le Monde would enjoy it, an America that turns its back on the world is the last thing you need.

0 comments.

Turkish Torque: The Owner of the Orchard is silent – Turkish Torque

Posted on November 25th, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

The Owner of the Orchard is silent – Turkish Torque

God’s House.

The sacred inner secret of the Divine Heart.

And now… they are blowing up that Divine Heart apart without mercy.

And with it, they are blowing up to smithereens the child in me that used to believe in the possibility of reforming the human soul.

Has the worm eaten its way too deep into the apple?

The Owner of the Orchard is silent.

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Protected: nu.nl/algemeen | Inholland begint imamopleiding

Posted on November 24th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Islam in the Netherlands.

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Protected: nu.nl/algemeen | Inholland begint imamopleiding

Posted on November 24th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Islam in the Netherlands.

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Asia Times Online :: Myths and madrassas

Posted on November 24th, 2005 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Young Muslims.

Asia Times Online :: Myths and madrassas

By William Dalrymple

Earlier published in the NY Review of books.

Since the revelations that three of the four future British Muslim suicide bombers visited Pakistan in the year preceding the July 7 attack, the British media have been quick to follow the US line on madrassas, with the Sunday Telegraph helpfully translating the Arabic word madrassa as terrorist “training school” (it actually means merely “place of education”), while the Daily Mirror confidently asserted over a double-page spread that the three bombers had all enrolled at Pakistani “terror schools”.

In actual fact, it is still uncertain whether the three bombers visited any madrassas while they were in Pakistan: madrassas only entered the debate because the bombers told their families they were going to Pakistan to pursue religious studies, just as they told them they were going to a religious conference when they set off to bomb London.

Just as there are some yeshivas in settlements on the West Bank that have a reputation for violence against Palestinians, and Serbian monasteries that sheltered war criminals following the truce in Bosnia, so it is estimated that as many as 15% of Pakistan’s madrassas preach violent jihad, while a few have been said to provide covert military training. Madrassa students took part in the Afghan and Kashmir jihads, and have been repeatedly implicated in acts of sectarian violence, especially against the Shi’ite minority in Karachi.

Indeed, a number of recent studies have emphasized that there is a fundamental distinction to be made between madrassa graduates – who tend to be pious villagers from impoverished economic backgrounds, possessing little technical sophistication – and the sort of middle-class, politically literate global Salafi jihadis who plan al-Qaeda operations around the world. Most of these turn out to have secular and technical backgrounds. Neither Osama bin Laden nor any of the men who carried out the Islamist assaults on America or Britain were trained in a madrassa or was a qualified alim, or cleric.

It is true that there are several examples of radical madrassa graduates who have become involved with al-Qaeda: Maulana Masood Azhar, for example, leader of the jihadi group called Jaish-e-Muhammad and an associate of bin Laden, originally studied in the ultra-militant Binori Town madrassa in Karachi. A madrassa dropout took part in last year’s bombing of Musharraf’s convoy. In Indonesia, the Bali bombings were the work of the Lashkar-i-Jihad group, which partially emerged from a group of Salafi madrassas in Indonesia.

By and large, however, madrassa students simply do not have the technical expertise necessary to carry out the kind of sophisticated attacks we have recently seen led by al-Qaeda. Instead the concerns of most madrassa graduates remain more traditional: the correct fulfillment of rituals, how to wash correctly before prayers, and the proper length to grow a beard. All these matters are part of the curriculum of Koranic studies in the madrassas. The graduates are also interested in opposing what they see as unIslamic practices such as worshiping at saints’ graves or attending the Shi’ite laments called marsiyas, for the death of the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali at the battle of Kerbala.

(more…)

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Dutch debate on Islam replays centuries-old argument

Posted on November 24th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Islam in the Netherlands, Public Islam.

Dutch debate on Islam replays centuries-old argument

Michel Hoebink of Radio Netherlands about the Dutch islamdebate:

The recent commemoration of last year’s murder of the filmmaker and writer Theo van Gogh, has led to a revival of interest in the ongoing Dutch Islam debate. Newspaper columnist Paul Scheffer argued in the NRC Handelsblad that Islam – in order to reconcile itself with a modern democratic order – needs to rethink some of its basic tenets about freedom of religion.

Last week, the authoritative paper published two very interesting reactions to Mr Scheffer’s plea for Islamic reform: one by Somali-born liberal conservative MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali and another by Islam researcher Robbert Woltering.

Unfavourable to women?
According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Scheffer’s belief in the possibility of reforming Islam is naive. Ms Hirsi Ali backs her argument with her widely-publicised conviction that the ‘true doctrine of pure Islam’ – as it can be read in the Koran and the Traditions of the Prophet Mohammed – calls believers to commit violence against unbelievers and is unfavourable to the rights of women.

What Paul Scheffer holds for enlightened liberal Muslims, says Ms Hirsi Ali in her commentary, are in fact not Muslims who have left this pure Islam behind them but who have not yet confronted it. They are non-practising Muslims who sooner or later will reveal their ‘true ’nature’ and turn into practising ones.

Correct interpretation
The MP’s argument provoked an ironic commentary by Robbert Woltering, Islam researcher at the Leiden Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM). Ever since the coming of Islam, Mr Woltering argues, Muslims have been quarrelling about the question as to what is the correct interpretation of Koran and the Prophetic Traditions.

Now, at a time that the answer seems further away than ever, the historical quest has come to an unexpected apotheosis, he writes, in – of all possible places – the Dutch parliament, where Ms Hirsi Ali recently revealed that she herself has discovered the True Doctrine of Pure Islam! Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s discovery, says Mr Woltering, will most probably please Mohammed Bouyeri, the fundamentalist who murdered Theo van Gogh. But it will be a disappointment for all those Muslims who mistakenly thought that Islam respects the rights of women and tells them to live in peace with their non-Muslim neighbours.

Replaying the debates
Woltering’s last remark is significant because it alludes to the fact that the debate between Dutch critics and defenders of Islam is, in many ways, some sort of replay of the ongoing debates between fundamentalists and reformers within the Islamic world. Ayaan Hirsi Ali may be a declared critic of fundamentalist Islam, but in fact she is in full agreement with her opponents about the true nature of Islamic religion. On the other hand, Robbert Wolterings implicit plea, that Islam cannot be reduced to a single literalist essence but can be interpreted in many different ways, is in many respects similar to the views of Muslim modernists.

Differences run deep
The contemporary debate within Islam is not just a debate between those who favour a conservative and those who favour a modern interpretation. The difference goes deeper than that. It is a debate between literalist fundamentalists and modernist reformers about the very legitimacy of interpretation itself. This debate is also as old as Islam; it finds a clear expression, for instance, in the debate between the rationalist Mu’tazilites and literalist Hanbalites in the 9th century. Fundamentalists believe that the text of the Koran should be literally applied in all times and places, without asking for any rational reason, simply because God tells us to do so. Modernists believe that Islam can be interpreted and re-interpreted in many different ways, in order to meet the demands of different places and ages.

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The Guardian's Muslim Youth Forum

Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Young Muslims.

The Guardian has a Muslim Youth Forum that is connected to their Special Report: Islam, race and British Identity. The last report appeared last Sunday: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Islamic voice of reason speaks out, but the anger remains

Last week the Guardian brought together a diverse group of young Muslims to debate life after the London bombs. Two moods emerged: a desire to address extremism in their midst, and disaffection with British foreign policy

Sunny, one of the participants, has some usefull comments about it.

All us Asians need to move away from a victim mentality because it is de-moralising. Blaming someone else for your problems, or allowing people like Bunting and Lee Jasper to blame others, means you don’t gather the courage to deal with the problem. It is not empowering.

When our parents came to this country they didn’t blame racism and sat around the house doing nothing. They worked twice or four times as hard to get somewhere. To defeat terrorism, racism, bigotry and xenophobia: we all need to work twice as hard too – rather than just blame others.

Also on Harry’s Place:

One of the issues considered by the group was the problem of social exclusion. The main culprit, apparently, is alcohol. As Bunting explains:

Alcohol is probably now one of the most effective and unquestioned forms of exclusion practised in the UK, affecting every kind of social network.

Well to understand that comment, you have to read their blogs…

But you can have your say at the Guardian Newsblog as well:

By Jane Perrone / UK news 10:58am

Last week the Guardian brought together a diverse group of young Muslims to debate life after the London bombs. Two moods emerged: a desire to address extremism in their midst, and disaffection with British foreign policy.

How should Muslims be engaging in the political debate about government policy on terrorism? Is there a tension between Islam and British culture? Does anything need to change in Muslim communities in the wake of the scrutiny, criticism and hostility brought on by the terrorist attacks of July 7? If you attended the forum, or you would like to join in the debate, post your comments below.

And also columnist of the Guardian, Madeleine Bunting, has written some stuff:

These particular Muslim predicaments are underscored by a problem endemic in British political culture – a weak tradition of citizenship. In place of a powerful concept of citizen’s rights and responsibilities, we are still subjects of a hereditary monarchy. We use nationalism not citizenship to generate a sense of belonging and entitlement; that disables an immigrant minority.

And this is where Ramadan’s move to the UK could be so important. Steeped in a French republican tradition of strong citizenship, he is remarkably challenging of his Muslim audiences. Who else can talk about the passivity and victim mentality of the Muslim community, as he did in the forum last week, and still get spontaneous applause? Who else challenges the community to stop complaining about not being consulted by the government, but organise themselves so effectively that the government has no choice but to listen? Who else argues that if Muslims want British-trained imams, they’ll have to pay for them instead of donating to international solidarity campaigns? You can best help the oppressed around the world by being a good citizen here, he stoutly commented.

This is tough love, and it is to the considerable credit of his audience that they want it. The question is whether it prompts the kind of energetic, critically engaged citizenship Ramadan calls for, or whether – a danger he well knows – it makes no headway against the satisfactions of complaint.

Notwithstanding all the comments made, it is a very interesting special report. I wonder if the Dutch newspapers could do something like that.

0 comments.

The Guardian’s Muslim Youth Forum

Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by .
Categories: Young Muslims.

The Guardian has a Muslim Youth Forum that is connected to their Special Report: Islam, race and British Identity. The last report appeared last Sunday: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Islamic voice of reason speaks out, but the anger remains

Last week the Guardian brought together a diverse group of young Muslims to debate life after the London bombs. Two moods emerged: a desire to address extremism in their midst, and disaffection with British foreign policy

Sunny, one of the participants, has some usefull comments about it.

All us Asians need to move away from a victim mentality because it is de-moralising. Blaming someone else for your problems, or allowing people like Bunting and Lee Jasper to blame others, means you don’t gather the courage to deal with the problem. It is not empowering.

When our parents came to this country they didn’t blame racism and sat around the house doing nothing. They worked twice or four times as hard to get somewhere. To defeat terrorism, racism, bigotry and xenophobia: we all need to work twice as hard too – rather than just blame others.

Also on Harry’s Place:

One of the issues considered by the group was the problem of social exclusion. The main culprit, apparently, is alcohol. As Bunting explains:

Alcohol is probably now one of the most effective and unquestioned forms of exclusion practised in the UK, affecting every kind of social network.

Well to understand that comment, you have to read their blogs…

But you can have your say at the Guardian Newsblog as well:

By Jane Perrone / UK news 10:58am

Last week the Guardian brought together a diverse group of young Muslims to debate life after the London bombs. Two moods emerged: a desire to address extremism in their midst, and disaffection with British foreign policy.

How should Muslims be engaging in the political debate about government policy on terrorism? Is there a tension between Islam and British culture? Does anything need to change in Muslim communities in the wake of the scrutiny, criticism and hostility brought on by the terrorist attacks of July 7? If you attended the forum, or you would like to join in the debate, post your comments below.

And also columnist of the Guardian, Madeleine Bunting, has written some stuff:

These particular Muslim predicaments are underscored by a problem endemic in British political culture – a weak tradition of citizenship. In place of a powerful concept of citizen’s rights and responsibilities, we are still subjects of a hereditary monarchy. We use nationalism not citizenship to generate a sense of belonging and entitlement; that disables an immigrant minority.

And this is where Ramadan’s move to the UK could be so important. Steeped in a French republican tradition of strong citizenship, he is remarkably challenging of his Muslim audiences. Who else can talk about the passivity and victim mentality of the Muslim community, as he did in the forum last week, and still get spontaneous applause? Who else challenges the community to stop complaining about not being consulted by the government, but organise themselves so effectively that the government has no choice but to listen? Who else argues that if Muslims want British-trained imams, they’ll have to pay for them instead of donating to international solidarity campaigns? You can best help the oppressed around the world by being a good citizen here, he stoutly commented.

This is tough love, and it is to the considerable credit of his audience that they want it. The question is whether it prompts the kind of energetic, critically engaged citizenship Ramadan calls for, or whether – a danger he well knows – it makes no headway against the satisfactions of complaint.

Notwithstanding all the comments made, it is a very interesting special report. I wonder if the Dutch newspapers could do something like that.

0 comments.

Protected: NRC – ‘Ik ben jihad-strijder op het podium’

Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Protected: NRC – Geloven en politiek bedrijven gaan heel goed samen

Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Religion Other.

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Protected: AD.nl – ’Terrorist’ winkelt bij het leger

Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Protected: Amsterdammers voelen zich vaker gediscrimineerd – telegraaf.nl [Binnenland]

Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Islam in the Netherlands, Multiculti Issues.

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C L O S E R » Ethno-barometer

Posted on November 22nd, 2005 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

C L O S E R » Ethno-barometer

Ethnobarometer: Europe’s Muslim Communities – Security and Integration post-11 September

The Ethnobarometer Programme is a programme of social scientists providing independent and research-based reports on levels of racism, xenophobia and ethnic conflict in selected countries of Europe. It aims to monitor events, highlight areas of tension and identify relevant topics for further research and inquiry. The Programme serves as a tool for generating scientific information on inter-ethnic relations where these are taken to encompass both territorial minorities and communities of recent migrant origin.
(Source: http://www.ethnobarometer.org)

The latest Ethnobarometer project is called Europe’s Muslim Communities – Security and Integration post-11 September. The project is operational in six countries: Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. ISIM is the Dutch partner for this project.

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Regering.nl – 'Door slechte opvoeding meer crimineel gedrag'

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Regering.nl – ‘Door slechte opvoeding meer crimineel gedrag’

Nederlanders vinden dat ouders meer aandacht moeten besteden aan de opvoeding en vorming van hun kinderen. Een betere opvoeding helpt volgens hen in de strijd tegen criminaliteit. Dat blijkt uit de vijfde Belevingsmonitor.

Het is natuurlijk altijd de vraag waarom men in een persbericht voor een bepaalde insteek kiest. Voor mijn blog richt ik me vooral even op het aspect van immigratie en integratie.

Na de criminaliteitsbestrijding stuit het integratiebeleid voorjaar 2005 op de meeste weerstand van het publiek. Vijf aspecten zijn nader onderzocht: eisen die aan immigranten gesteld worden (de Nederlandse taal beheersen en de Nederlandse samenleving kennen), terugsturen van uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers (vreemdelingen die definitief te horen hebben gekregen dat ze moeten terugkeren naar hun thuisland), het ontstaan van immigrantenwijken, de positie van allochtone moslimvrouwen en regels voor het trouwen met een partner uit het buitenland.
Wat hoort er volgens het publiek op de agenda? Doet de regering het goed op deze punten? Wat zien mensen als hun eigen verantwoordelijkheid? Hoe komt integratie en immigratie in het nieuws? En waarop is de publieke opinie gebaseerd?

Welke positie neemt integratie en immigratie in ten opzichte van andere regeringsissues?
– staat nog steeds heel laag op de persoonlijke (elfde plaats) en maatschappelijke agenda (tiende plaats);
– is ook van relatief weinig politiek belang volgens de bevolking (negende plaats);
– scoort net onder het midden (zevende positie, was zes) als het gaat om beleidstevredenheid.

Wat is er veranderd ten opzichte van herfst 2004?
– meer mensen dan een half jaar geleden vinden dat de regering prioriteit moet geven aan het terug-sturen van uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers;
– er is minder bijval voor het uitgangspunt dat strengere regels voor huwelijken met buitenlandse partners de integratie bevorderen;
– meer mensen dan vorige keer vinden dat de overheid zich niet met de emancipatie van allochtone moslimvrouwen hoeft te bemoeien (hoewel het nog steeds een kleine groep blijft die dit vindt).

(more…)

0 comments.

Regering.nl – ‘Door slechte opvoeding meer crimineel gedrag’

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Regering.nl – ‘Door slechte opvoeding meer crimineel gedrag’

Nederlanders vinden dat ouders meer aandacht moeten besteden aan de opvoeding en vorming van hun kinderen. Een betere opvoeding helpt volgens hen in de strijd tegen criminaliteit. Dat blijkt uit de vijfde Belevingsmonitor.

Het is natuurlijk altijd de vraag waarom men in een persbericht voor een bepaalde insteek kiest. Voor mijn blog richt ik me vooral even op het aspect van immigratie en integratie.

Na de criminaliteitsbestrijding stuit het integratiebeleid voorjaar 2005 op de meeste weerstand van het publiek. Vijf aspecten zijn nader onderzocht: eisen die aan immigranten gesteld worden (de Nederlandse taal beheersen en de Nederlandse samenleving kennen), terugsturen van uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers (vreemdelingen die definitief te horen hebben gekregen dat ze moeten terugkeren naar hun thuisland), het ontstaan van immigrantenwijken, de positie van allochtone moslimvrouwen en regels voor het trouwen met een partner uit het buitenland.
Wat hoort er volgens het publiek op de agenda? Doet de regering het goed op deze punten? Wat zien mensen als hun eigen verantwoordelijkheid? Hoe komt integratie en immigratie in het nieuws? En waarop is de publieke opinie gebaseerd?

Welke positie neemt integratie en immigratie in ten opzichte van andere regeringsissues?
– staat nog steeds heel laag op de persoonlijke (elfde plaats) en maatschappelijke agenda (tiende plaats);
– is ook van relatief weinig politiek belang volgens de bevolking (negende plaats);
– scoort net onder het midden (zevende positie, was zes) als het gaat om beleidstevredenheid.

Wat is er veranderd ten opzichte van herfst 2004?
– meer mensen dan een half jaar geleden vinden dat de regering prioriteit moet geven aan het terug-sturen van uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers;
– er is minder bijval voor het uitgangspunt dat strengere regels voor huwelijken met buitenlandse partners de integratie bevorderen;
– meer mensen dan vorige keer vinden dat de overheid zich niet met de emancipatie van allochtone moslimvrouwen hoeft te bemoeien (hoewel het nog steeds een kleine groep blijft die dit vindt).

(more…)

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Protected: Kijken naar de pers: Ayaan Hirsi Ali en de

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Islam in the Netherlands.

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Hight School Teacher Muhammad al-Harbi's Case

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Just discovered: Hight School Teacher Muhammad al-Harbi’s Case

After the Saudi authorities captured the terrorists who perpetrated the may 11, 2003 tragic terror bombing in a residential area in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Muhammad al-Harbi made a public announcement to his school’s students praising the Saudi police and supporting anti terrorism actions waged by the Saudi government. He explained that that terror acts are against Islam and do not represent the faith nor its followers. This announcement was not received well by some of the other teachers in the school who adopted some extremist views and conservative ideologies that did not agree with Mohammed’s thoughts. They started plotting against Mohammed for his sincere efforts in spreading the message of tolerance and support for anti terror acts.

Thanks to the Religious Policeman who states:

Now I see. Unlike the 2004 explosions in a Riyadh compound, where mostly Arab Muslims died, and everyone got upset, Al Hamra housed mostly Westerners. Now I know from “small A” experience that some teachers encouraged class cheering after that event, just like after 9/11. So it’s no wonder that Al Harbi’s humanity is going to become a bit of a problem for him.

Apparently Al-Harbi’s actions and comments against terrorism upset a number of Islamic studies teachers known for their fundamentalist beliefs. After the Al-Hamra blast in Riyadh, Al-Harbi copied an article, “Cavemen Go to Hell” written by Saudi columnist Hammad Al-Salmi in Al-Jazirah newspaper, attacking terrorists and extremists. Al-Harbi posted the article on the school bulletin board but it was ripped off and torn to pieces.

One of the Islamic studies teachers stopped Al-Harbi in a morning school assembly from speaking against Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, identified by the Saudi government as a terrorist and who was on the government’s list of wanted terrorists. The teacher told Al-Harbi that Al-Muqrin was a Muslim and that no matter what he had done, no one should speak against him.

Don’t criticize terrorists, if they are Muslims. The Theology of the brain-dead.

But this guy was really making waves. No wonder his colleagues just needed an excuse to “get him”. All it needed was some disgruntled students, some students who had…

….failed the monthly chemistry test. “They asked me to give them the exam again and when I refused, they went to the principal to complain but he upheld my decision,” he explained.

So the Principal backed him, but the I.S. teachers saw their opportunity.

The students’ actions were triggered by some Islamic studies teachers who used the students’ anger at Al-Harbi and convinced them to file the lawsuit.

Lawsuit? What lawsuit?

He was accused of mocking Islam, favoring Jews and Christians, preventing students from performing ablutions.

Note that there is no Police involvement here. Just a group of concerned citizens, upset about supposed attacks on their religion. But what if they can’t make those charges stick?

He was also charged with studying witchcraft.

Nice one! Works every time! It wasn’t just an old-fashioned Salem thing, you only have to read “Harry Potter” to realize the present-day threat from wizards and witches.

1 comment.

Hight School Teacher Muhammad al-Harbi’s Case

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Just discovered: Hight School Teacher Muhammad al-Harbi’s Case

After the Saudi authorities captured the terrorists who perpetrated the may 11, 2003 tragic terror bombing in a residential area in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Muhammad al-Harbi made a public announcement to his school’s students praising the Saudi police and supporting anti terrorism actions waged by the Saudi government. He explained that that terror acts are against Islam and do not represent the faith nor its followers. This announcement was not received well by some of the other teachers in the school who adopted some extremist views and conservative ideologies that did not agree with Mohammed’s thoughts. They started plotting against Mohammed for his sincere efforts in spreading the message of tolerance and support for anti terror acts.

Thanks to the Religious Policeman who states:

Now I see. Unlike the 2004 explosions in a Riyadh compound, where mostly Arab Muslims died, and everyone got upset, Al Hamra housed mostly Westerners. Now I know from “small A” experience that some teachers encouraged class cheering after that event, just like after 9/11. So it’s no wonder that Al Harbi’s humanity is going to become a bit of a problem for him.

Apparently Al-Harbi’s actions and comments against terrorism upset a number of Islamic studies teachers known for their fundamentalist beliefs. After the Al-Hamra blast in Riyadh, Al-Harbi copied an article, “Cavemen Go to Hell” written by Saudi columnist Hammad Al-Salmi in Al-Jazirah newspaper, attacking terrorists and extremists. Al-Harbi posted the article on the school bulletin board but it was ripped off and torn to pieces.

One of the Islamic studies teachers stopped Al-Harbi in a morning school assembly from speaking against Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, identified by the Saudi government as a terrorist and who was on the government’s list of wanted terrorists. The teacher told Al-Harbi that Al-Muqrin was a Muslim and that no matter what he had done, no one should speak against him.

Don’t criticize terrorists, if they are Muslims. The Theology of the brain-dead.

But this guy was really making waves. No wonder his colleagues just needed an excuse to “get him”. All it needed was some disgruntled students, some students who had…

….failed the monthly chemistry test. “They asked me to give them the exam again and when I refused, they went to the principal to complain but he upheld my decision,” he explained.

So the Principal backed him, but the I.S. teachers saw their opportunity.

The students’ actions were triggered by some Islamic studies teachers who used the students’ anger at Al-Harbi and convinced them to file the lawsuit.

Lawsuit? What lawsuit?

He was accused of mocking Islam, favoring Jews and Christians, preventing students from performing ablutions.

Note that there is no Police involvement here. Just a group of concerned citizens, upset about supposed attacks on their religion. But what if they can’t make those charges stick?

He was also charged with studying witchcraft.

Nice one! Works every time! It wasn’t just an old-fashioned Salem thing, you only have to read “Harry Potter” to realize the present-day threat from wizards and witches.

1 comment.

MediaMonitors.net – Zarqawi's message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism.

Home / Headlines / Zarqawi’s message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

by Ray Hanania

Everyone in the Arab World is denouncing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his attacks against the people of Jordan these days.

It’s politically correct, even though suicide bombings happen elsewhere and no one says a word, especially when the victims are civilians in Israel.

The truth is Zarqawi has a fundamental core base of support in the Arab World, despite the harsh attacks, the strong words of denunciation, and the tragedy Zarqawi brought on his own people – he’s Jordanian and most of the victims of the triple suicide bombings were Arab and Muslim.

And, if we want to win the “War on Terrorism,” we had better wake-up.

Yet, deep down, most Arabs and Muslims will forgive Zarqawi, mainly because his attacks are striking home.

For example, many Arabs are wondering out loud why Jordan’s King Abdullah, who claims to be the voice of freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, continues to remain silent as Israel reeks havoc on the Palestinian civilian population.

Israel’s continued abuses of Palestinian rights are outrageous. Yes, Israel has a right to fight the terrorists, but they have no right to destroy the lives of innocent family members who are related to suicide bombers.

And it’s not just in Palestine.

What about in Iraq, where more and more we learn about torture and violations of human rights?

The alleged purpose of the war in Iraq was to free the Iraqi people. They’re not free. They’re living in a Hell, imprisoned under a new dictatorship that is different only from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny by the fact that the Americans are better are “spinning” their actions.

How else can you explain the outrageous decision by the United States to avoid applying the fundamental basic rights of the Fourth Geneva Conventions to Arab prisoners?

Americans should remember that how we mistreat our prisoners will be exactly how other will mistreat our soldiers when they become prisoners.

Why isn’t King Abdullah talking about all this?

Why isn’t that other “Democratic” leader, Egypt’s President Husni Mubarak also denouncing American atrocities in Iraq or Israel’s continued violation of Palestinian rights in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Eact Jerusalem?

The Arab and Muslim “street” recognizes that Zarqawi is the only person who is championing the rights of the downtrodden. He is the only one who is speaking out against the injustices. He is the only one doing something to fight back.

They know that war is about violence and death, and they are learning from Israeli and the American policies that innocent people are killed and brushed aside all the time without anyone complaining.

So while they are outraged at the death of innocent Arabs and civilians in Amman, Jordan, they also are asking themselves quietly why they should be outraged when the American and Israeli publics are not outraged at all by their own governments’ abuses?

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MediaMonitors.net – Zarqawi’s message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism.

Home / Headlines / Zarqawi’s message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

by Ray Hanania

Everyone in the Arab World is denouncing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his attacks against the people of Jordan these days.

It’s politically correct, even though suicide bombings happen elsewhere and no one says a word, especially when the victims are civilians in Israel.

The truth is Zarqawi has a fundamental core base of support in the Arab World, despite the harsh attacks, the strong words of denunciation, and the tragedy Zarqawi brought on his own people – he’s Jordanian and most of the victims of the triple suicide bombings were Arab and Muslim.

And, if we want to win the “War on Terrorism,” we had better wake-up.

Yet, deep down, most Arabs and Muslims will forgive Zarqawi, mainly because his attacks are striking home.

For example, many Arabs are wondering out loud why Jordan’s King Abdullah, who claims to be the voice of freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, continues to remain silent as Israel reeks havoc on the Palestinian civilian population.

Israel’s continued abuses of Palestinian rights are outrageous. Yes, Israel has a right to fight the terrorists, but they have no right to destroy the lives of innocent family members who are related to suicide bombers.

And it’s not just in Palestine.

What about in Iraq, where more and more we learn about torture and violations of human rights?

The alleged purpose of the war in Iraq was to free the Iraqi people. They’re not free. They’re living in a Hell, imprisoned under a new dictatorship that is different only from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny by the fact that the Americans are better are “spinning” their actions.

How else can you explain the outrageous decision by the United States to avoid applying the fundamental basic rights of the Fourth Geneva Conventions to Arab prisoners?

Americans should remember that how we mistreat our prisoners will be exactly how other will mistreat our soldiers when they become prisoners.

Why isn’t King Abdullah talking about all this?

Why isn’t that other “Democratic” leader, Egypt’s President Husni Mubarak also denouncing American atrocities in Iraq or Israel’s continued violation of Palestinian rights in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Eact Jerusalem?

The Arab and Muslim “street” recognizes that Zarqawi is the only person who is championing the rights of the downtrodden. He is the only one who is speaking out against the injustices. He is the only one doing something to fight back.

They know that war is about violence and death, and they are learning from Israeli and the American policies that innocent people are killed and brushed aside all the time without anyone complaining.

So while they are outraged at the death of innocent Arabs and civilians in Amman, Jordan, they also are asking themselves quietly why they should be outraged when the American and Israeli publics are not outraged at all by their own governments’ abuses?

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Taipei Times – Bin Laden in his own words

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by .
Categories: International Terrorism.

Bin Laden in his own words

`Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden’ give us a clearer idea of the man behind the image and al-Qaeda

There he (probably) squats, the most wanted man in the world. His world is a cave in the Hindu Kush or the badlands of Baluchistan. His life is constant flight. Maybe, because we’ve heard nothing from him for nearly a year now, he is wounded, cornered or dead. Maybe his famously loose network is unravel-ling faster than we think. Osama bin Laden, after all, is a turbaned crackpot, a mad mullah, an evil monster. Isn’t he?

Alas for such simplicities. If you read the texts of what he’s said and justified over the last decade, if you put aside soundbites and White House mantras, then any persuasive answer emerges cloaked in complexity.

Here, with a shrewd, scholarly introduction from Bruce Lawrence, is the complete bin Laden reader, from his early days when the House of Saud was enemy number one to his final advice to US President George W. Bush, John Kerry and America’s voters on the right way to win an election. It is full of brusque, slightly surprising judgments: “Saddam Hussein is a thief and an apostate.” He can sometimes turn a neat, almost humorous phrase. Bush has declared, a “Crusade attack” and the odd thing about this is that he has “taken the words right out of our mouth.” Most strikingly, it deals in facts and assertions that can’t easily be brushed aside.

Bin Laden, guerrilla warrior against the Russians in Afghanistan, campaigner against Riyadh sleaze, fulminating opponent of American influence in his region and implacable foe of Ariel Sharon (if he “is a man of peace in the eyes of Bush, then we are also men of peace”), is not some random icon to the backstreets of Baghdad and Damascus.

He is formidable, an image, a force. If you’re looking for a British parallel, though their policies have nothing in common, the politician he most reminds me of is radical former Labour minister Tony Benn, convincing as always about a golden past that has been betrayed, unveiling statistical amazements and historical myths with equal facility, always seeming safe within a cocoon of certitude.

Could bin Laden, like so many terrorists before him, be drawn into some kind of deal?

It’s impossible, not because the man himself couldn’t wheel and deal (if you chart his varying degrees of denial over 9/11 or Dar or Nairobi, you see a trimmer in a jam, a negotiator in search of a bargain), but because he has nothing to offer his foes.

You might just construct a “peace plan” where the Riyadh regime changed, Israel was pinned back to its earliest borders and the US army went home, but nobody who matters would be interested. This is a fight to the end, Osama’s end. The only real question is how his legend will live.

The problem, as Lawrence says, is that bin Laden has no vision of the society he would wish to create, apart from a few thin riffs on Mullah Omar’s Afghanistan.

He merely wants to blow the house down or up. His is a “narrow, limited creed.” The lads who flock to his banner would soon grow restless if they had to live in Osamaland on “scriptural dictates, poetic transports and binary prescriptions.”

0 comments.

C L O S E R – Discriminatie!

Posted on November 20th, 2005 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Some personal considerations.

Er zijn tal van sites die zich bezighouden met zogenaamde ‘islamkritiek’. Velen daarvan zijn nationalistisch en pakken hun racistische ondertoon in in een mooi religie en cultuurkritisch surprisepakje. Waardoor ze natuurlijk immuun zijn voor de kritiek dat ze racistisch zijn, want islam en moslims vormen immers geen ras. Anderen zijn wat gematigder, maar allen hebben ze enkele dingen gemeen. Ze zien zichzelf als de virtuele voorhoede van een bedreigde veste (Nederlandse cultuur), grijpen terug op een verleden toen alles beter was (toen ‘kut’ en ‘Marokkanen’ nog twee woorden waren) en zijn in staat om zelfs de kleinste scheet van een moslimbaby te verklaren vanuit de Koran. (Trekt u de parallelen maar met de moslimradicalen).

Gelukkig zijn er ook kritische sites die wel de moeite waard zijn om te lezen en waar je geen hoofdpijn en depressies krijgt van alle cirkelredeneringen. Twee daarvan zijn Frontaal Naakt (Peter Breedveld) en Lagonda. Op beide websites nu een item dat verband houdt met discriminatie.
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17 comments.

spiked-online – Burning Banlieus: What was that all about?

Posted on November 19th, 2005 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

spiked-politics | Article | Letter from a burning banlieue

As the dust settles over Aulnay-sous-Bois, an Oxford student asks the rioters what all that was about.
by Patrick Belton

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, PARIS – Before I came to fisticuffs with the young rioters I was interviewing, before they relieved me of my camera, we spoke. It was nightfall; we were solidly on their turf, their project in the Aulnay neighbourhood of Rose des Vents. The Franco-Algerian adolescent who gave me his name as Kabir The Gun, one of my two subsequent boxing partners from their group of seven, was quick to point out to me his neighbourhood was ‘ghetto’, ‘Bronx’, with an exaggerated bravado and pride in the toughness of his tract which lingered for me after.

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Protected: Schoonmoeder Samir A. zamelde geld in

Posted on November 19th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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