C L O S E R

Saudi Arabia using clerics, Internet to fight al-Qaida | IndyStar.com

Posted on May 9th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Saudi Arabia using clerics, Internet to fight al-Qaida | IndyStar.com
Saudi Arabia using clerics, Internet to fight al-Qaida
Religious re-education program targets youths viewed as potential recruits for terror group

By David B. Ottaway
The Washington Post
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has mobilized some of its most militant clerics, including one Osama bin Laden sought to recruit as his spiritual guide, in a campaign to combat the appeal of al-Qaida.

The effort has targeted hundreds of young Saudis whom security forces here have arrested as sympathizers or potential recruits. They are then subjected to an intense program of religious re-education by clerics that sometimes lasts for months.
Saudi authorities say that about 500 youths have completed the program and been freed since it began in 2004. They remain under close surveillance.
“None has been found to get reinvolved in terrorism so far,” said Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry. “Their ideology has changed, and they are convinced they were wrong.”
Mohsen al-Awajy, an Islamic lawyer who is known here as a former radical, was skeptical of the effect. “I’m afraid about 85 to 90 percent of those who claim they are changing their minds as a result of this dialogue might not be truthful,” he said.
Al-Turki conceded that Saudi authorities were having great difficulty curbing the appeal of al-Qaida’s ideology among young people, who he said are incited by “the daily killings in Iraq” and a constant barrage of appeals to holy war on Internet sites run by Islamic extremists. Hundreds have crossed into Iraq to join the insurgency there.
Abdel Mohsen al-Obeikan, a former militant cleric now playing a prominent part in the reeducation program, compared the challenge to the war on drugs in the United States. “You cannot stop drugs, either,” he said.
As soon as one terrorist group is eliminated, he said, another pops up that is even more dangerous. “We need a long time. We should be patient.”
Still, Saudi authorities argue they have made real progress in uprooting al-Qaida inside the kingdom, and part of the reason is their efforts with the young people.
But a foiled attack on Feb. 24 against the world’s largest oil terminal at Abqaiq sobered U.S. and Saudi officials.
“Abqaiq shows the problem is not over,” U.S. Ambassador James Oberwetter said in an interview here.
The Internet has become the main battleground against al-Qaida ideology, according to three members of the counseling committee that the Interior Ministry set up to run the re-education program. The body has 22 full-time members, who get help from 100 Islamic clerics and 30 psychiatrists.
Islamic counselors selected by the committee have succeeded in infiltrating a number of extremist Web sites and chat rooms.
Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh al-Asheikh told reporters in February that the government had established dialogue with 800 al-Qaida sympathizers this way and succeeded in changing the thinking of 250.

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Saudi Arabia using clerics, Internet to fight al-Qaida | IndyStar.com

Posted on May 9th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Saudi Arabia using clerics, Internet to fight al-Qaida | IndyStar.com
Saudi Arabia using clerics, Internet to fight al-Qaida
Religious re-education program targets youths viewed as potential recruits for terror group

By David B. Ottaway
The Washington Post
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has mobilized some of its most militant clerics, including one Osama bin Laden sought to recruit as his spiritual guide, in a campaign to combat the appeal of al-Qaida.

The effort has targeted hundreds of young Saudis whom security forces here have arrested as sympathizers or potential recruits. They are then subjected to an intense program of religious re-education by clerics that sometimes lasts for months.
Saudi authorities say that about 500 youths have completed the program and been freed since it began in 2004. They remain under close surveillance.
“None has been found to get reinvolved in terrorism so far,” said Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry. “Their ideology has changed, and they are convinced they were wrong.”
Mohsen al-Awajy, an Islamic lawyer who is known here as a former radical, was skeptical of the effect. “I’m afraid about 85 to 90 percent of those who claim they are changing their minds as a result of this dialogue might not be truthful,” he said.
Al-Turki conceded that Saudi authorities were having great difficulty curbing the appeal of al-Qaida’s ideology among young people, who he said are incited by “the daily killings in Iraq” and a constant barrage of appeals to holy war on Internet sites run by Islamic extremists. Hundreds have crossed into Iraq to join the insurgency there.
Abdel Mohsen al-Obeikan, a former militant cleric now playing a prominent part in the reeducation program, compared the challenge to the war on drugs in the United States. “You cannot stop drugs, either,” he said.
As soon as one terrorist group is eliminated, he said, another pops up that is even more dangerous. “We need a long time. We should be patient.”
Still, Saudi authorities argue they have made real progress in uprooting al-Qaida inside the kingdom, and part of the reason is their efforts with the young people.
But a foiled attack on Feb. 24 against the world’s largest oil terminal at Abqaiq sobered U.S. and Saudi officials.
“Abqaiq shows the problem is not over,” U.S. Ambassador James Oberwetter said in an interview here.
The Internet has become the main battleground against al-Qaida ideology, according to three members of the counseling committee that the Interior Ministry set up to run the re-education program. The body has 22 full-time members, who get help from 100 Islamic clerics and 30 psychiatrists.
Islamic counselors selected by the committee have succeeded in infiltrating a number of extremist Web sites and chat rooms.
Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh al-Asheikh told reporters in February that the government had established dialogue with 800 al-Qaida sympathizers this way and succeeded in changing the thinking of 250.

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Computerworld | Report: Growing use of Internet to spread terror, hate

Posted on May 9th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Computerworld | Report: Growing use of Internet to spread terror, hate
Report: Growing use of Internet to spread terror, hate

Cara Garretson, Network World (US online)

08/05/2006 08:11:17

Terrorists and extremists more and more are turning to the Internet to spread their views and incite readers to take action, according to a report issued this week by a Jewish human rights group.

Called “Digital Terrorism and Hate 2006,” the report was issued by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and is available as an interactive CD, according to the group’s officials. The report focuses on more than 6,000 Web sites that raise money for terrorist groups and teach related skills, such as bomb building.

In particular, the report details Middle Eastern-run Internet forums that encourage attacks on Christians and Jews with tips on, for example, how to use a cell phone as a bomb detonator. It also highlights European online news groups used by sports fanatics to incite racial activity at sporting events. There’s also a trans-national Internet network used by North American, European, and Middle Eastern extremists to share ideas, the report says.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, established in 1977 and based in Los Angeles, is in contact with government officials and community activists regarding what its report reveals, officials say.

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Computerworld | Report: Growing use of Internet to spread terror, hate

Posted on May 9th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Computerworld | Report: Growing use of Internet to spread terror, hate
Report: Growing use of Internet to spread terror, hate

Cara Garretson, Network World (US online)

08/05/2006 08:11:17

Terrorists and extremists more and more are turning to the Internet to spread their views and incite readers to take action, according to a report issued this week by a Jewish human rights group.

Called “Digital Terrorism and Hate 2006,” the report was issued by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and is available as an interactive CD, according to the group’s officials. The report focuses on more than 6,000 Web sites that raise money for terrorist groups and teach related skills, such as bomb building.

In particular, the report details Middle Eastern-run Internet forums that encourage attacks on Christians and Jews with tips on, for example, how to use a cell phone as a bomb detonator. It also highlights European online news groups used by sports fanatics to incite racial activity at sporting events. There’s also a trans-national Internet network used by North American, European, and Middle Eastern extremists to share ideas, the report says.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, established in 1977 and based in Los Angeles, is in contact with government officials and community activists regarding what its report reveals, officials say.

0 comments.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 05/07/2006 | Muslim extremists target moderates

Posted on May 8th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 05/07/2006 | Muslim extremists target moderates
Muslim extremists target moderates
Threats and violence spark debate over who can call whom ‘apostate’
BY OMAR SACIRBEY
Religion News Service

Khaled Abou El Fadl had argued that nothing in democracy violates Shariah or Islamic law, but the conservative commentator whom he was debating on an Egyptian talk show in March equated that view with support for America’s invasion of Iraq.

To some Muslims, that position is a betrayal of faith and punishable by death. And sure enough, the phone at El Fadl’s father’s home in Cairo, where the Islamic law scholar from UCLA was staying, started ringing with death threats.

“In the ’60s, an accusation like that could be made on TV, but you wouldn’t get death threats,” El Fadl said. But following the invasion of Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and other events deemed crimes against Muslims, “we’ve reached a point where emotions are so charged and things are so volatile that people hear these accusations, and they immediately start making threats.”

Muslim-on-Muslim violence has existed since Islam’s Prophet Muhammad died in 632. Violence in modern times has involved national clashes like those between Pakistan and Bangladesh or Iraq and Iran, as well as religious attacks, such as those against Shiite and Sufi Muslims or other groups viewed by extremists as heretical sects.

Now, some observers say, Islamic extremists are expanding their campaign of violence to include moderate Muslims whom they view as obstacles to the establishment of Islamic rule. At the same time, extremists are also expanding the criteria by which one can be considered an apostate, blasphemer or heretic, and thus fair game for punishment or death. The violence has sparked debate across the Muslim world over who has the authority to judge someone an apostate, and pushed extremist groups to come up with new justifications to spill the blood of fellow Muslims.

In early April, for example, a group calling itself Supporters of God’s Messenger issued a hit list of 32 Muslim academics, writers and other figures, including eight from the United States and Canada. The group accused those on the list of denying “prophetic tradition,” supporting Israel against the Palestinians, working with Christians “and demanding for them the right of ruling over our Muslim lands.”

The letter sparked long debates on Arabic news Web sites.

“These illiterate fanatics take Quranic verses out of context. The way to combat these noisy few is by allowing freedom of expression, and political parties,” wrote one reader at Alarabiya.net, site of the Arabic satellite news network. A second reader wrote that the letter-writers should be in prison, while another said those named on the list all belong in hell.

Many observers suspect extremist Muslims were responsible for an April 11 suicide attack in Pakistan that killed 57 people at a prayer festival celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. The festival was organized by moderate Sunni Muslim groups, and influential leaders were among the dead.

Motives for the attack, observers said, included a simple desire to cause terror among moderate Muslims, but also to protest the celebration of the prophet’s birthday, something extremists would consider tantamount to idol worship.

Threats have also been leveled against moderate Muslims in the United States. Last year, for example, the organizers of a woman-led prayer had to change its location when the original host, a New York art gallery, balked after receiving bomb threats.

Islamic clerics cite Quranic verses and other teachings they say prohibit Muslims from taking other Muslim lives, but extremists have just as easily reasoned that the importance of their mission overrides the imperative of not harming fellow Muslims. Indeed, some extremists drawing from the puritanical Wahhabi school of thought in Saudi Arabia argue killing moderate Muslims is called for.

“Extremists feel the moderates are the problem,” said Qamar-ul Huda, who works on religion and peacemaking issues at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington. “The moderates get in the way of creating a pure Islamic society. So they become not just moderate Muslims, but the infidel. They are the ones who are seen as corrupt, as cooperating with the West, as instigating the decay in society.”

0 comments.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 05/07/2006 | Muslim extremists target moderates

Posted on May 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 05/07/2006 | Muslim extremists target moderates
Muslim extremists target moderates
Threats and violence spark debate over who can call whom ‘apostate’
BY OMAR SACIRBEY
Religion News Service

Khaled Abou El Fadl had argued that nothing in democracy violates Shariah or Islamic law, but the conservative commentator whom he was debating on an Egyptian talk show in March equated that view with support for America’s invasion of Iraq.

To some Muslims, that position is a betrayal of faith and punishable by death. And sure enough, the phone at El Fadl’s father’s home in Cairo, where the Islamic law scholar from UCLA was staying, started ringing with death threats.

“In the ’60s, an accusation like that could be made on TV, but you wouldn’t get death threats,” El Fadl said. But following the invasion of Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and other events deemed crimes against Muslims, “we’ve reached a point where emotions are so charged and things are so volatile that people hear these accusations, and they immediately start making threats.”

Muslim-on-Muslim violence has existed since Islam’s Prophet Muhammad died in 632. Violence in modern times has involved national clashes like those between Pakistan and Bangladesh or Iraq and Iran, as well as religious attacks, such as those against Shiite and Sufi Muslims or other groups viewed by extremists as heretical sects.

Now, some observers say, Islamic extremists are expanding their campaign of violence to include moderate Muslims whom they view as obstacles to the establishment of Islamic rule. At the same time, extremists are also expanding the criteria by which one can be considered an apostate, blasphemer or heretic, and thus fair game for punishment or death. The violence has sparked debate across the Muslim world over who has the authority to judge someone an apostate, and pushed extremist groups to come up with new justifications to spill the blood of fellow Muslims.

In early April, for example, a group calling itself Supporters of God’s Messenger issued a hit list of 32 Muslim academics, writers and other figures, including eight from the United States and Canada. The group accused those on the list of denying “prophetic tradition,” supporting Israel against the Palestinians, working with Christians “and demanding for them the right of ruling over our Muslim lands.”

The letter sparked long debates on Arabic news Web sites.

“These illiterate fanatics take Quranic verses out of context. The way to combat these noisy few is by allowing freedom of expression, and political parties,” wrote one reader at Alarabiya.net, site of the Arabic satellite news network. A second reader wrote that the letter-writers should be in prison, while another said those named on the list all belong in hell.

Many observers suspect extremist Muslims were responsible for an April 11 suicide attack in Pakistan that killed 57 people at a prayer festival celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. The festival was organized by moderate Sunni Muslim groups, and influential leaders were among the dead.

Motives for the attack, observers said, included a simple desire to cause terror among moderate Muslims, but also to protest the celebration of the prophet’s birthday, something extremists would consider tantamount to idol worship.

Threats have also been leveled against moderate Muslims in the United States. Last year, for example, the organizers of a woman-led prayer had to change its location when the original host, a New York art gallery, balked after receiving bomb threats.

Islamic clerics cite Quranic verses and other teachings they say prohibit Muslims from taking other Muslim lives, but extremists have just as easily reasoned that the importance of their mission overrides the imperative of not harming fellow Muslims. Indeed, some extremists drawing from the puritanical Wahhabi school of thought in Saudi Arabia argue killing moderate Muslims is called for.

“Extremists feel the moderates are the problem,” said Qamar-ul Huda, who works on religion and peacemaking issues at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington. “The moderates get in the way of creating a pure Islamic society. So they become not just moderate Muslims, but the infidel. They are the ones who are seen as corrupt, as cooperating with the West, as instigating the decay in society.”

0 comments.

Sargasso – Wie komt er op voor Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

Posted on May 7th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Op Sargasso de volgende vraag: Wie komt er op voor Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali moet van de rechter uit haar beveiligde woning omdat de buren klagen over overlast.
Zij zit daar omdat we onze democratisch gekozen kamerleden willen beschermen tegen elementen met een nogal extreme interpretatie van hun religie.
Wie denkt u dat het voor haar opneemt?
Haar eigen partij, de VVD? Welnee, die melden het niet eens op hun site.
De heer Wilders dan die in dezelfde positie zit? Ach kom, die is druk met interviews geven aan Penthouse, die leest immers iedereen.

Nee hoor, het is Femke Halsema van GroenLinks die voor haar opkomt. Zij stelt in ieder geval kamervragen en vraagt om maatregelen.

Kennelijk is de VVD er meer bij gediend dat deze zaak fout loopt. Dan kunnen ze tenminste bij de volgende verkiezingen weer op hun grote angsttrommel slaan. Who needs enemies with friends like that?

En ik ga weer over tot de orde van de dag.

Nogal uit de lucht gegrepen insinuaties over de VVD en Wilders (ook al is hun zwijgen opvallend). Het punt is: Ik snap de buren wel, maar zo hoef je natuurlijk nooit iemand meer te beveiligen.

1 comment.

Hirsi Ali's American Tour

Posted on May 7th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

PEN has invited Hirsi Ali to discuss her new book, The Caged Virgin, and her experiences in Africa and as a Dutch MP. That was last week, and it has caught considerable attention on the web. Atlas Shrugs quotes an entire NY SUN article:

Like an increasing number of immigrants in the West who refuse to have a “victim” label pinned to their lapels, the Dutch-Somalian actress, author, and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali represents something of a problem for liberal intellectuals. A short film she cowrote, “Submission,” was shown on Dutch television in August 2004. Its subject was the mistreatment of Muslim women at the hands of Muslim men.

Deliberately provocative, the film projected words from the Koran onto exposed female flesh. Just over two months later, the director, Theo van Gogh, was savagely murdered by a Muslim fundamentalist.Ever since, Ms. Ali, who is a member of the Dutch Parliament and the author of a new book, “The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam”, has had to live under the protection of armed guards. On Sunday, Ms.Ali was interviewed by the Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch at the New York Public Library as part of PEN World Voices: The New York Festival of International Literature.[/quote]

Also Winds of Change has picked it up:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in my backyard this week, and would to the gods I had been able to get away and see her. She’s been making the rounds of East Coast America’s establishment, including NPR and PEN, where Ron Chernow confirmed my bad opinion of him, carried over from his puzzlingly popular Alexander Hamilton book, by giving her an introduction that was more an apology than an endorsement.

It would be enormously enjoyable to see her visit places like Atlanta and Birmingham on her American tour, where she’d shake up minds and hearts in a different fashion and no doubt get a warm and heroic reception. But she is going deliberately into the fetid dragon’s dens of modern leftism, with a message meant to unsettle sleeping reptiles and prod them into thought.

And on Kesher Talk a LGF-fan posts:

I’m honestly thrilled that I was able to go hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali speak. As I remarked to my mother, this was the first time I’ve heard a speaker with whom I agreed on every point. I think she’s incredibly inspiring and I wish more people had the opportunity to hear what she has to say. Surprisingly, hardly anyone in the elitist-NYC-liberal circle I go to school with every day knows about her–I told my U.S. Government teacher I went to hear her speak, and not only did he not know who she was, he’d never heard about Theo van Gogh! I think that’s all pretty appalling.

Together these blogs give a nice impression of (some of the) reactions on the side of the Atlantic and on the ‘islam-critics” websites. And well, you can have your own opinions about Hirsi Ali, but you have to admit that she is very good in building her own constituency and setting the agenda for debate. Therefore I don’t agree with people who say she is a bad politician but a good activist. She is both, and very good in both.

0 comments.

Hirsi Ali’s American Tour

Posted on May 7th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

PEN has invited Hirsi Ali to discuss her new book, The Caged Virgin, and her experiences in Africa and as a Dutch MP. That was last week, and it has caught considerable attention on the web. Atlas Shrugs quotes an entire NY SUN article:

Like an increasing number of immigrants in the West who refuse to have a “victim” label pinned to their lapels, the Dutch-Somalian actress, author, and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali represents something of a problem for liberal intellectuals. A short film she cowrote, “Submission,” was shown on Dutch television in August 2004. Its subject was the mistreatment of Muslim women at the hands of Muslim men.

Deliberately provocative, the film projected words from the Koran onto exposed female flesh. Just over two months later, the director, Theo van Gogh, was savagely murdered by a Muslim fundamentalist.Ever since, Ms. Ali, who is a member of the Dutch Parliament and the author of a new book, “The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam”, has had to live under the protection of armed guards. On Sunday, Ms.Ali was interviewed by the Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch at the New York Public Library as part of PEN World Voices: The New York Festival of International Literature.[/quote]

Also Winds of Change has picked it up:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in my backyard this week, and would to the gods I had been able to get away and see her. She’s been making the rounds of East Coast America’s establishment, including NPR and PEN, where Ron Chernow confirmed my bad opinion of him, carried over from his puzzlingly popular Alexander Hamilton book, by giving her an introduction that was more an apology than an endorsement.

It would be enormously enjoyable to see her visit places like Atlanta and Birmingham on her American tour, where she’d shake up minds and hearts in a different fashion and no doubt get a warm and heroic reception. But she is going deliberately into the fetid dragon’s dens of modern leftism, with a message meant to unsettle sleeping reptiles and prod them into thought.

And on Kesher Talk a LGF-fan posts:

I’m honestly thrilled that I was able to go hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali speak. As I remarked to my mother, this was the first time I’ve heard a speaker with whom I agreed on every point. I think she’s incredibly inspiring and I wish more people had the opportunity to hear what she has to say. Surprisingly, hardly anyone in the elitist-NYC-liberal circle I go to school with every day knows about her–I told my U.S. Government teacher I went to hear her speak, and not only did he not know who she was, he’d never heard about Theo van Gogh! I think that’s all pretty appalling.

Together these blogs give a nice impression of (some of the) reactions on the side of the Atlantic and on the ‘islam-critics” websites. And well, you can have your own opinions about Hirsi Ali, but you have to admit that she is very good in building her own constituency and setting the agenda for debate. Therefore I don’t agree with people who say she is a bad politician but a good activist. She is both, and very good in both.

0 comments.

C L O S E R – Annual Meeting of Muslims in France

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, Young Muslims.

This weekend the annual meeting of Muslims in France, takes place in Bourges. See the program (*.pdf) or watch LIVE.

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SITE Institute: SITE Publications – The Echo of Jihad – A Period Magazine Featuring General Mujahideen News

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

SITE Institute: SITE Publications – The Echo of Jihad – A Period Magazine Featuring General Mujahideen News
The Echo of Jihad – A Period Magazine Featuring General Mujahideen News
By SITE Institute

May 4, 2006

Sada al-Jihad, “The Echo of Jihad,” a periodic publication electronically distributed via the Internet and featuring articles concerning general mujahideen news from several regions, was recently issued in its April 2006 release. Within the 45-page magazine, authors discuss the relative importance of Islamic scholars versus mujahideen, the danger of jihadist groups joining government, the importance of security for these groups’ survival, and recent operations and media happenings of mujahideen in Chechnya, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In addition, an article relating prisoner stories from Guantanamo Bay and another discussing the importance of jihad are prominently featured in this issue.

The magazine opens with a short editorial written by Abu Hajer al-Lubnani, which caustically tells of those the lies spread by “simpletons” that Usama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri are guilty of killing Abdullah Azzam, citing American and Jewish television channels as sources. Anyone who places faith in these channels, according to Abu Hajer, is guilty of helping the “Crusaders”.

Other articles, such as: “Though Ye Make Mock of Us, Yet We Mock at You,” by Abu Fahr, and “Our Flesh is Heard,” contain inspirational rhetoric for the mujahideen in particular and jihad in general. The latter article describes the merits of Islamic scholars and the importance of education, compared to the necessity of jihad: “Scholars usually sit [passively] and do not fulfill the duty of Jihad for the sake of Allah and of protecting the sanctum of religion as Allah has commanded them; and there are Mujahideen who wage Jihad without knowledge, and they spoil more than they correct, and do more damage than good”. However, the situation today is such that jihad is an individual duty, rather than education, and thusly, gives the mujahid greater importance.

The article, “Circumstances Enabling Survival of Jihadi Organizations,” written by al-Mu’taz Billah, emphasizes the critical importance of a security cover for a jihadi organization to prevent infiltration by spies of a “hostile country” or a different group. Al-Mu’taz states: “The downfall of the majority of jihadi organizations was due only to this issue”. He also quotes Saif al-Adl, an al-Qaeda chief, in this regard. Likewise, the piece titled: “The Security Principles and Guidelines of the Muslim Mujahid,” provides 26 qualities a mujahid should maintain, besides how he should act. These include: “pure intention,” knowledge in the field, stealth, capability of expressing thought clearly, and critical thinking.

Another article, “The Mujahideen in the Peninsula – Pain and Hope,” laments the absence of Saudi mujahideen media, be it video, audio or written word, believing that such is an important issue for every mujahid group or organization. It states that media bears “crucial importance in allowing people to know the Mujahideen, in explaining to them the path that they follow and in rejecting slander, accusations and lies”. The author urges for the resumption of Saudi jihadist publications, and advises to separate those specializing in media from participating in military operations due to security concerns.

A piece about three stories from prisoners in Guantanamo Bay alleges that American guards at the detention facility have been demonstrating respect for Usama bin Laden, converting to Islam, and being threatened with deployment to Iraq for this conversion. Also, another article, “What Benefit?,” openly questions what good can come of Hamas as a government administration, and for Islamic parties joining government, in general. It states: “Throughout the history of Islam, there were many sects, groups, men and peoples whose aim was to help religion, and they might have been devout to Allah almighty in this desire… Yet they did not achieve what they sought because the path that they followed does not help religion”.

0 comments.

RNW: Is the current criticism of Islam comparable to anti-Semitism in the 1930s?

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, Multiculti Issues.

RNW: Is the current criticism of Islam comparable to anti-Semitism in the 1930s?
Is the current criticism of Islam comparable to anti-Semitism in the 1930s?
Transmission date: Sunday 14 May 2006

Andy Clark

05-05-2006

Can the present anti-Islam rhetoric really be compared to European and especially German anti-Semitism in the 1930s?Muslim human rights activist Abdullahi An-Na’im thinks the current anti-Islam rhetoric in the Netherlands – repeated worldwide by its leading proponents – is indeed similar to the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the 1930s.

Professor an-Na’im made his comments in a speech at Utrecht University during a commemoration day ceremony for the Second World War.

He says anti-Semitism in those days had its unique characteristics, which can never be repeated.

But, he argues, that does not deny the existence of a basic similarity, the similarity being the definition of the one community as essentially different from – and superior to – others.

“The principle is to first reduce a people to a stereotype and then say that therefore they are bad people. In that way, defining superior Dutchness as opposed to Islam is in fact comparable to anti-Semitism,” he said.

Professor an-Na’im says he fled the tyranny of Sudanese Islamists, but now he sees the same type of thinking in the anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric in Europe. Ironically, he says, the critics in Europe of Islam and the fundamentalists themselves both advocate the same claim – that human rights are incompatible with Islam.

What do you think? Is there a witch-hunt against Islam comparable to 1930s anti-Semitism?

The panellists:

Professor Abdullahi an-Na’im is an internationally known Muslim reformer and human rights activist. Originally a law professor at Khartoum University, he fled Sudan after his mentor and friend, the Sudanese Muslim reformer Mahmoud Taha, was executed as a heretic in 1985. At present, professor an-Na’im is a guest lecturer at Utrecht University.

“The Dutch people have to be on their guard not to turn the Netherlands into a Dutch fortress,” he said.

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| overigeartikelen – Generatie Lonsdale / Vol hormonen en niet lekker in hun vel

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| overigeartikelen – Generatie Lonsdale / Vol hormonen en niet lekker in hun vel

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| nederland – ’Lonsdale-jongeren zijn vooral bang’

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| nederland – ’Lonsdale-jongeren zijn vooral bang’

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – Naema Tahir

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – Naema Tahir

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

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NPR : 'The Caged Virgin': A Call for Change in Islam

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

NPR : ‘The Caged Virgin’: A Call for Change in Islam
‘The Caged Virgin’: A Call for Change in Islam

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Steffen Kugler

Dutch author and politician Ayaan Hirsi, pictured here talking to reporters in February 2006, scolded European leaders for appeasing radical Muslims rather than demanding greater equality for women.
Day to Day, May 4, 2006 · Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a native of Somalia who emigrated to The Netherlands in the early 1990s, is no stranger to controversy among her fellow Muslims. Living in the West, she felt free to publicly criticize Islam’s treatment of women.But that freedom came at a price. In 2004, a short film Ali scripted called Submission was shown on Dutch television. In the film, naked women veiled with see-through shrouds painted with verses of the Quran kneel in prayer, telling their stories as if they are speaking to Allah.

The film’s co-writer and director Theo Van Gogh was later stabbed to death by a Muslim radical. A letter pinned to the body with a dagger threatened Ali’s life. Since then, she has been under the constant protection of body guards.

The danger hasn’t stopped her from remaining outspoken about her beliefs. Ali calls her new collection of essays, The Caged Virgin, an “Emancipation Proclamation” for women and Islam.

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NPR : ‘The Caged Virgin’: A Call for Change in Islam

Posted on May 6th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

NPR : ‘The Caged Virgin’: A Call for Change in Islam
‘The Caged Virgin’: A Call for Change in Islam

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Steffen Kugler

Dutch author and politician Ayaan Hirsi, pictured here talking to reporters in February 2006, scolded European leaders for appeasing radical Muslims rather than demanding greater equality for women.
Day to Day, May 4, 2006 · Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a native of Somalia who emigrated to The Netherlands in the early 1990s, is no stranger to controversy among her fellow Muslims. Living in the West, she felt free to publicly criticize Islam’s treatment of women.But that freedom came at a price. In 2004, a short film Ali scripted called Submission was shown on Dutch television. In the film, naked women veiled with see-through shrouds painted with verses of the Quran kneel in prayer, telling their stories as if they are speaking to Allah.

The film’s co-writer and director Theo Van Gogh was later stabbed to death by a Muslim radical. A letter pinned to the body with a dagger threatened Ali’s life. Since then, she has been under the constant protection of body guards.

The danger hasn’t stopped her from remaining outspoken about her beliefs. Ali calls her new collection of essays, The Caged Virgin, an “Emancipation Proclamation” for women and Islam.

0 comments.

C L O S E R – Racist!

Posted on May 5th, 2006 by .
Categories: Some personal considerations.

Via Lagonda:

Ik wist het niet, maar wij, rijke blanke westerlingen, hebben met ons misselijkmakende racisme deze onschuldige lammeren de toegang tot gedegen scholing en ontwikkeling ontzegd. Wij hebben deze parels van beschaving aan de haren ons land in gesleept, en vervolgens weggestopt in zorgvuldig door ons geconstrueerde achterstandswijken, gewoon, omdat we rijk en blank en westers zijn. Wij hebben vanuit ons misplaatste superioriteitsgevoel deze modelburgers het gevoel gegeven dat ze niks waard zijn door zomaar onze auto’s voor hun neus neer te zetten. Wij hebben het zelfs gewaagd vraagtekens te zetten bij hun prachtige religie; niet omdat wij ons zorgen maakten of de Wil van Allah zich wel laat verenigen met de grondbeginselen van onze democratische staat, of omdat moslims nogal eens spontaan ontploffen, welnee! We hebben al die kritiek alleen maar gegeven om ze te pesten, omdat we vuile racisten zijn. “KRITIEK OP EEN RELIGIEUZE CULTUUR HEEFT GEEN REET MET RACISME TE MAKEN!!!”, brul ik naar het scherm. Niet dat dat helpt, overigens.

Via Anja Meulenbelt:

De “moslimbashers” zien zichzelf zelden als racisten. Een echte racist gaat tenslotte af op huidskleur, een biologisch gegeven, en plakt daar allerlei negatieve eigenschappen aan vast. Maar de “nieuwe racist” denkt van zichzelf dat hij alleen kritiek heeft op een cultuur of een religie. Ondertussen zijn ze daarbij vaak net zo “essentialistisch” als de klassieke racisten. Cultuur en religie worden gezien als statische gegevens, aangeboren, onontkoombaar, met een aantal inherente negatieve trekken die scherp afgezet worden tegen de eigen superieur geachte cultuur. Die negatieve trekken komen neer op dogmatisme, intolerantie, vrouwvijandigheid, weigering om te integreren, gewelddadigheid.

In combinatie met nationalisme, “wij” worden bedreigd, “zij” moeten het land uit, kan de combinatie dodelijk worden. Vooral wanneer het geloof aangehangen wordt dat moslims per definitie tegen de democratie zijn en waarden aanhangen die evenzeer per definitie niet verenigbaar zijn met westerse waarden. Anti-islamisme, opgeteld bij nationalisme uit zich vervolgens in de gedachte dat de moslims een gevaar opleveren voor de westerse samenleving. Modood noemt het nieuwe racisme liever “inherentistisch” dan “essentialistisch”, waarmee hij bedoelt dat de cultuur gezien wordt als inherent aan de islam, en dus neerkomt op inherente eigenschappen van elk lid van die groep.

Een reden dat dit nieuwe racisme nog slecht als zodanig wordt herkend (het is opvallend dat in Nederland bij de nieuwe, nog kleine anti-racisme beweging wel degelijk een directe link wordt gezien tussen discriminatie en islamofobie) is dat de progressieve bewegingen weinig aandacht hadden – of nog hebben – voor religie als deel van de identiteit van grote groepen migranten. Een andere reden is dat veel van de nieuwe racisten zichzelf niet als racist zien, omdat ze niets hebben tegen “zwarten”. Feitelijk is het klassieke racisme, op grond van huidskleur, op zijn retour, en wordt nu deels vervangen en wat kwaadaardigheid betreft ingehaald door anti-islamisme, zegt Modood.

De vraag is dus of en zo ja, wanneer, islamkritiek gezien kan worden als racistisch. (more…)

1 comment.

The Daily Star – Arts & Culture – 'Paradise Now,' what's next?

Posted on May 4th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

The Daily Star – Arts & Culture – ‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?
‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?
Hany Abu-Assad discusses making art that is full of politics but free of rage

By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff
Thursday, May 04, 2006

‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?

Interview

BEIRUT: “My aim is to make art that lasts, not a piece of analysis. There are political scientists to do that.”Hany Abu-Assad is talking about his next project. This is an exotic turn for the Netherlands-based Palestinian filmmaker who has been doing variations of the same interview for the last year and a half – all in support of his last project, “Paradise Now.”

That film won a plethora of awards, including the Blue Angel for Best European Film at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, the Amnesty International Award and the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film. It was Palestine’s official entry for best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

Awards and critical praise were balanced by controversy.

“Paradise Now” tells the story of Khaled (Ali Suliman) and Said (Kais Nashef), childhood friends from the West Bank town of Nablus who’ve been selected to carry out a suicide operation in Tel Aviv.

Both men, and their dead-end working class existence, could be transplanted anywhere in the world – were it not for the Israeli occupation and the ambient humiliation it causes.

Khaled is so lumbered with inchoate rage that he can’t hold down a job. Said’s father was executed as a collaborator, leaving him weighed down by an ambivalent mix of shame and hatred for the occupation that made his father a traitor.

When the resistance calls on them to sacrifice themselves, they accept.

Said’s foil, in more ways than one, is Suha (Lubna Azabal), the daughter of a slain resistance leader returned from overseas. She works with a human rights NGO and opposes any militancy that gives Israeli soldiers an excuse to kill more Palestinians.

The film begins shortly before Khaled and Said are given their mission and follows them as they prepare but then find it impossible to carry out the operation as planned. This gives both men an opportunity to re-evaluate.

As Abu-Assad has pointed out in previous interviews, “Paradise Now” is a thriller – a genre to which contemporary Palestine is particularly well suited. It’s an unusually well-devised thriller, leading the audience through an uncharacteristically human depiction of what can be wrought from humiliation and rage.

It does so without being unremittingly bleak. There are several moments of dark humor here.

“Life is neither exclusively comic nor tragic,” the writer-director says. “And when you move from comedy to tragedy … it’s the shift in direction that makes you feel.” (more…)

0 comments.

The Daily Star – Arts & Culture – ‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?

Posted on May 4th, 2006 by .
Categories: Arts & culture.

The Daily Star – Arts & Culture – ‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?
‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?
Hany Abu-Assad discusses making art that is full of politics but free of rage

By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff
Thursday, May 04, 2006

‘Paradise Now,’ what’s next?

Interview

BEIRUT: “My aim is to make art that lasts, not a piece of analysis. There are political scientists to do that.”Hany Abu-Assad is talking about his next project. This is an exotic turn for the Netherlands-based Palestinian filmmaker who has been doing variations of the same interview for the last year and a half – all in support of his last project, “Paradise Now.”

That film won a plethora of awards, including the Blue Angel for Best European Film at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, the Amnesty International Award and the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film. It was Palestine’s official entry for best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

Awards and critical praise were balanced by controversy.

“Paradise Now” tells the story of Khaled (Ali Suliman) and Said (Kais Nashef), childhood friends from the West Bank town of Nablus who’ve been selected to carry out a suicide operation in Tel Aviv.

Both men, and their dead-end working class existence, could be transplanted anywhere in the world – were it not for the Israeli occupation and the ambient humiliation it causes.

Khaled is so lumbered with inchoate rage that he can’t hold down a job. Said’s father was executed as a collaborator, leaving him weighed down by an ambivalent mix of shame and hatred for the occupation that made his father a traitor.

When the resistance calls on them to sacrifice themselves, they accept.

Said’s foil, in more ways than one, is Suha (Lubna Azabal), the daughter of a slain resistance leader returned from overseas. She works with a human rights NGO and opposes any militancy that gives Israeli soldiers an excuse to kill more Palestinians.

The film begins shortly before Khaled and Said are given their mission and follows them as they prepare but then find it impossible to carry out the operation as planned. This gives both men an opportunity to re-evaluate.

As Abu-Assad has pointed out in previous interviews, “Paradise Now” is a thriller – a genre to which contemporary Palestine is particularly well suited. It’s an unusually well-devised thriller, leading the audience through an uncharacteristically human depiction of what can be wrought from humiliation and rage.

It does so without being unremittingly bleak. There are several moments of dark humor here.

“Life is neither exclusively comic nor tragic,” the writer-director says. “And when you move from comedy to tragedy … it’s the shift in direction that makes you feel.” (more…)

0 comments.

Protected: AD.nl – Extreemrechts, net als hun ouders

Posted on May 4th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

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Protected: AD.nl – ’Elk weekeinde rassenrellen’

Posted on May 4th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

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