From the insightful and estimable Walid Phares in Frontpage:
With one sentence, Newsweek triggered a series of violent intifadas in countries as remote as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and beyond. That's at least how mainstream media, government officials, and most of the public see it. The truth is more complicated: Islamists had been planning these riots long before this story ever made it into print.True, the short piece by Michael Isikoff and John Barry, which attempted to unveil a new scandal, became the trigger for mass violence led by Islamists across the world. But the jihadists had mobilized for a counteroffensive against the "infidels" long ago. Ironically, these two developments have something in common: both undermine the credibility of the U.S-supported democracy movements in the Arab world.
The violent marches in Pakistan and Afghanistan were not an abrupt and sudden reaction to the weekly magazine's sentence accusing U.S. personnel of desecrating a copy of the Muslim holy book. Since the fall of Tora Bora in December of 2001, al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants were waiting for this moment: they call it "al awda," meaning the "return." Patiently, the leaders of the jihadists, including Thawahiri, Mullah Umar, and the various Islamists of Jamiet Islami and Hizbu Tahrir, were working on mounting the major counteroffensive against the democratically elected government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. Day after day, from Kabul to Kandahar, the Afghan society was moving away from the mental and political grip of the Taliban. And year after year, more and more al-Qaeda leaders were being eliminated and arrested, two over the past few weeks alone.
The more lethal danger facing the jihadi ideology is the success of democracy in the region. Afghani women voted by the millions; Iraq's 8.5 million voters braved Zarqawi's killers; a million marchers challenged Syria's military in Beirut, and just this week, Kuwaiti women forced parliament to give them the right to vote. By jihadi standards, the war of ideas is being lost. The Newsweek story gave them the ability to counterattack and try to gain ground in their terror war.Preparing their "come back," the Salafists understood that demonstrations are their best weapons for the time being. Suicide bombings and beheadings made them look as evil as they are, even in the eyes of most Arabs and Muslims. They saw how popular expressions from Kabul to Beirut, from Tehran to Baghdad, captured the imagination of younger and younger Muslims, but also the attention of public opinion in the West. Back in the early winter, Ayman al Thawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two, called on his followers to "take back the country and reduce Karzai to his palace." That was the mission order: to find a way to re-conquer the street and, from there, the entire Arab world. On Al Ansar websites, on al Jazeera and on Hezbollah's al Manar TV, a global propaganda campaign has been waged since 2002, increasing sharply since the fall of Saddam. In the chat rooms I visit, the dominant motif is: America has made war on Islam as a whole, as a religion...
Read it all.
Mr Spencer is correct, and I apologize to him and all the fine people who populate this important and informative web site.
One of the Guilty. Very Guilty.
If they weren't so violent and oppressive, you could almost feel sorry for such people who spend their whole life looking for the next excuse to go bezerk!
And lets not forget the expected appearance of Al-Mahdi. I read somewhere that when he appears he will gather a vast muslim army in Afghanistan and launch a world wide conquest...That would make Afghanistan a valuable piece or real estate for these purposes.
Maybe, thats why there's so much focus on that area by muslims and the west. According to muslims who seem to know about these things, Mahdi is not yet here in physical form, but he's hanging around invisible. Soon he will manifest himself into physical form and start his program.
Do I believe any of this??? Absolutly not...do muslims believe this...probably.
I was watching Mosaic this morning. News from the Mideast (including Israel) on Link TV.
The Muslims have come up with another tactic.
The violence in Iraq is almost all iniated by Ba'athists and Sunni/Wahhabi's against the Shi'a.
They are blowing up Shi'a Mosques, attacking Shi'a political and religous authorities, attacking the police and national guard (whom I suspect are mostly Shi'a).
One Sunni Muslim cleric was killed the day before yesterday, probably by Mogtada al Sadrs people or by mistake.
Anyway the Sunni's (who took themselves out of politics by boycotting the election, thus enabling them to claim persecution because they aren't represented and also blaming the new government for all of their troubles, and accusing them of collaboration with the Amriki), have now whined persecution by Shi'a.
One dead Sunni (at presumably Shi'a hands) versus hundreds or thousands of dead Shi'a at Sunni hands.
Iraq is inthe throes of a sectarian civil war (the Arab media calls it ethnic, they refuse to acknowledge that it is religious Muslim against Muslim).
As a Kaffir I don't support either side, as a kaffir I know that the only possible outcome is an Islamic Republic, the question is will it be the polytheistic and centralized Shi'a or the decentralized Sunni, but both are Shari'a, and there versions of Shari'a differ not.
A Shi'a Islamic Republic inevitably will result in rule by Ayatollah, A Sunni Islamic Republic (since it is decentralized and quasi anarchial with local governance by local clerics like in Pakistan) will result in the return of the strong man, more than likely secular.
The only faction I support are the Kurds, because the Kurds, though Muslim, do not want an Islamic Republic, the Shi'a and Sunni do.
This item is posted to give insight into Islamic thinking and their method of propaganda to whine and turn the tables.
The Arabs also call the seperating wall in Jeruslam an "apartheid wall" and demand that it be tore down,so that suicide bombers and attack squads can travel more freely of course, and they whine about Israel "violence" when the IDF attacks a terrorist, The assumption of course is that Israel is not allowed or suppose to defend itself, and any act of self defense is aggression.
These constant propaganda assaults, and physical assaults like the Quran toilet riots, should be met hand on, and not by defensive measures, but exposure and denouncement of the logical fallacies and use or propaganda for which it is.
If Muslims are polytheists and worship the Quran as they do, then their hypocrisy of being monotheists should be exposed and ridiculed, as well as their infantile and duplicitious mentality.
There is nothing to apologize for, the problem is theirs, and if they continue to escalate, and I can't help but hope that they do, sooner or later George W. Bush is going to have to severe his ties with the Saudis and Muslims, and the west is going to have to confront the insanity called Islam.
That's Shi'a Islam Swami, but the mission of Osama was to create a synthesis of Shi'a Islam and Wahhabiyyah.. he succeeded it is called The Taliban(followers of Ali ibn Abu TALIB, or Ali son of the father of the Student, Ali was THE student of Muhammad and his cousin and the husband of Muhammads daughter Fatima, and the first Shi'a Caliph).
The llth Imam or successor of Ali, a blood descendant died without a male heir. The Shi'a ideology would have collapsed, so they clerics created one, saying he must have had a male heir, and they call him Muhammad al Muntazar, and claimed that he went into hiding in the caves of Samara (Iraq) and will stay in hiding until he returns at the end times. This is the Twelver sect of Shi'a (this hidden or occulated Imam) is the 12th Imam of Shi'a Islam, there are also other sects (minorities) such as Fivers and Seveners who worship the Fifth and SEventh Imams.
The Sunni concept of Mahdi is completely different, there is no legacy about who he is, except that he will appear at the end times, when Jesus returns as his herald, and from there they borrowed from Revelations with it's attended war of gog and magog (which are now extinct tribes that once lived to the south of the Caspian sea).
GLAD FOR WALLY to WRITE AN ART. HE WAS ON FOX AND HAD GREAT POINTS ABOUT WHY DIDN'T THEY ROIT OVER THE MOSQUE BOMBINGS IN PAKISTAN OR IN IRAQ??
NO THIS WAS JusT SOMETHING THEY WERE WAITING FOR AND NEWSWEEK GAVE IT TO THEM ON A SLIVER PLATER??
Now what is newsweeks adgenda?? is it to Hurt America make us look bad don't they understand it is their butt too???
I don't know it by heart but it is not the press who gives you Freedom of the press but the Soldier!!
It is not the goverment who gives you the right to free speach but the Soldier!!
it is not the goverment who gives you Freedom but the Soldier willing to Fight for Freedom!!
JUST LIKE THE STORY CAYLRON2 FROM YAHOO LAST NIGHT??
THE WOMAN WHO BOUGHT A USED QURAN THAT WAS MARKED UP??
KIND OF LIKE THE FINGER AT WINDYS??
I MEAN WHY WOULD A MULSUM BUY A USED QURAN??
WHEN CAIR GIVES THEM AWAY FREE???
Then there is all the Anti Semic Gretfity in Queens with the Date of July 14 well that is when hitler declared Jews to be rounded up??
HOPE THE SPACEING HELPS MRSKIN!!!
part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her give them Strength, Wisdom, Sight, and Courage to stay the course to Destroy ALL Islamic Terrorist and ALL who Support them Let Not the World be Decieved by them Amen
PS
wish I could type as fast as I think and Talk!!
The U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan is flawed by having too few troops to complete the defeat of the Taliban and the result will be an Islamic Republic waiting to fall into radical hands ("the worst are full of passionate intensity while the best lack all conviction" to quote Yeats' "The Second Coming"). Then we get a revived, better-armed, more cunning terror state.
The same foolish tactic was applied to Iraq. Not enough troop strength to solidify the easy early gains. And it, too, will be a weak Islamic Republic waiting for a strongman to steer it into another terror state.
This is the price of weak minds and fluctuating wills at the helm of power.
The West will only fight seriously after Isalmic jihadists kill many more people.
9/11 should have been Pearl Harbor.
Instead, it has dissolved to Minnie Pearl.
I sadly await the re-installation of our spine by an undeniable massacre in some U.S. city.
Meanwhile, the dithering class at the political controls chose to ignore the danger and busy themselves with closing military bases during a 'war', fixating on minutia of 'judicial fillibusters', and all the while the jihadists are learning, growing stronger, and laughing at the suicidal stupidity of the West.
The big sleep goes on...