"Do not think this is a defeat for us, but it will create enthusiasm to stand up more for this religion."
"Sunni preachers denounce Quran shooting by sniper," by Hamid Ahmed for the Associated Press, May 23 (thanks to JCB):
BAGHDAD - Sunni preachers on Friday denounced the shooting of a Quran, Islam's holy book, by a U.S. sniper in Iraq following a series of apologies by American commanders and President Bush.The use of Islam's holy book for target practice has triggered an angry response in Iraq and protests in Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces work to maintain their alliance with Sunni Arabs who have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.
"The enemies of Islam have launched their campaign against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and recently against the holy Quran," said Sheik Omar Mohammed during his sermon at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad.
"A bullet that might have shot at an Iraqi believer, was directed toward the holy Quran instead," Mohammed said. "Do not think this is a defeat for us, but it will create enthusiasm to stand up more for this religion."
The U.S. military said Sunday it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used the Quran for target practice May 9. Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled book two days later on the field of a firing range in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad.
Bush apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the incident after several U.S. military officials tried to soothe anger over the shooting, particularly among Sunni Arabs who have become key allies in the fight against insurgents.
A NATO soldier and two civilians were killed Thursday during a violent demonstration in western Afghanistan over the incident. But there has been relatively little protest in Muslim countries despite fears of a repeat of the worldwide violence sparked by similar perceived insults against Islam, including Prophet Muhammad cartoons published in Denmark.
The imam of Abu Hanifa, the main Sunni mosque in Baghdad, also condemned the shooting and criticized the leaders of fellow Muslim states for not speaking out against it.
"We Muslims condemn the act committed by this malicious person and at the same time we express our regret that Muslim leaders all over the world did not condemn this crime ... it indicates their weakness and cowardliness," Sheik Dawood al-Alusi said....
Well, it is Friday, what did we expect?
This is just another example of how paranoia is an integral part of being Muslim. Really, if paranoia could be removed from the Islamic world, this in itself wouldn't sanitize Islam but it would certainly be a step in the right direction. For now, though, the term "paranoid Muslim" remains pretty much a redundancy.
Wow, someone left his sense of humor under the bed.
This is were the trouble started. In an earlier time I believe that these so called military leaders, including their so-called commander-in-chief, would have been arrested, tried, and hanged for treason.
Unfortunately, that was then; this is now.
The net effect has been the imposition of sharia upon US troops and the encouragement of those will eventually enslave us all under the whip of islam.
I believe that George Washington for example, would have had these "generals" and their commader-in-chief, horse whipped before the trial -- the sniper on the other hand would have been sent off to do his job.
But then again, George Washington would not have stationed troops in the islamic cesspool of a nation in the first place.
The question remaining I suppose, is when will "whore-hey al bin bush" require his troops to attend Fridays prayers with their heads bowed in the direction of mecca; and their butt sides raised to the America flag and the US Constitution?
I think if we all got together and held hands and gave them big hugs, and sang Kumbaya, they'd just settle down and leave us alone.
What do you think, Walter?
You had to ask. . .Jeff Dunham's 'Walter'
Okay, no Qur'an shooting.
I assume it's okay to kill Islamist Jihadi Extremist Islamofacist misunderstander Al-Qaeda members.
Bad thought - what if they start strapping the Qur'an to their bodies?
Undaunted said "I think if we all got together and held hands and gave them big hugs, and sang Kumbaya, they'd just settle down and leave us alone. What do you think, Walter?"
Well, your comment is gone, so I suspect that your little snipe above is in reference to the owner of this blog.
Look, not many people who post to this blog has any doubt that there is a threat to world peace coming from the Muslim world, but we tend not to act like savages ourselves in regards to this issue.
And Robert has asked that if we want to wish death and destruction to Islam, that we take our comments somewhere else.
You comment was over the top.
Walter in Golden, Co.
Mirra said ""What do you think, Walter?" - Posted by: undaunted You had to ask. . .Jeff Dunham's 'Walter'"
Miira. Jeff stole that character from me. That is me, and I presently have a lawsuit making it's way through the courts to prove it.
:)/sarcasm
And UNDAUNTED - if you want to further this conversation, then take it up with the moderators of this blog.
Walter in Golden, Co.
The Unholy Trinity: Allah/Muhammad/Quran
I'm proud to be one of Islam's enemies.
In all seriousness, did the news of US military person shoting at a koran deserve to be public knowledge? I have a problem with this soldier's leadership. They should of pulled him aside and said once you get home you can shoot up all the korans you want, and let the damm thing go. Have they not heard about the muslim reaction to the koran yet? How can we win this $#@#$#$ war with such damm stupid leadership!
Instead of a scraping and bowing we should have told Maliki that they better keep a lid on the protests or we'll pull out and take our kabillions of rebuilding/jizya with us. Course that wouldn't be PC.
Nation building with Muslims, is a waste of lives and money. They will not change and do not appreciate anything the West does for them. Let them fend for themseleves. End all aid to Islamic countries.
No, Walter. My snipe was meant for you.
And, why don't you just back off, Jack.
Robert does a fine job of moderating this blog all by himself. I know, he's deleted some of my posts in the past. Two I even asked him to delete.
There are posts here from time to time wherein people suggest violence against Islamists in return for the violence they visit on innocents, or that they threaten.
If Robert, whom I deeply admire, wants to delete any post I ever write here, that's his right.
If you want something I write deleted, create your own freakin' blog, let me comment there and then delete all you want.
Viz para 4 above: those posts can easily seen to be an attempt at humor.
Often there are posts here where the writer uses terms such as "k-bar", ".223", ".308", "5.56", etc. to describe an article whereby punishment may be meted out to some deserving bad guy.
A k-bar is a Marine Corps fighting knife. The numbers indicate calibers of rifle bullet, if you didn't know.
For whatever reason, these comments are not deleted by the Boss. I suspect it's because he sees they're not serious, actionable threats but mostly expressions of humor. Sort of like Moe rapping Curly on the noggin and sayin', "Why, I oughtta flatten you…"
My comment proffered earlier this morning, which Walter asked to be deleted because it was so egregiously offensive in his view, was meant humorously, not as a call to battle. Calls to battle are over at my blog.
I sometimes link from my blog to JW because I want my readers to see the many intelligent and articulate posts here. And the silly, irreverent humor that flows here so much of the time. I love you guys. Well, most of you anyway. And, I'll submit to edit by Robert and Hugh and their designees. With no complaint. But if I now have to answer to Walter, I'm gone.
Walter, you just really put me off what was a great day.
All; enjoy the holiday.
T.G.I.F. Relates also to the next story about the mall bombing in Exeter.
They are always more upset about one of their KKKorags being mistreated than they are about RELLY innocent people being killed by their Co-Religion-of-Peacers.
Speaks volumes, doesn't it?
Word, Ummah Gummah.
Clever handle, btw.
Looks like a good place for this:
The Truth About Muhammad: Quran is a Fraud!
"The enemies of Islam have launched their campaign against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and recently against the holy Quran," - JW
I think a real sensible thing the Muslims could ever do is to 'Launch' a campaign/jihad against Quran. It is going to happen, not before millions are dead. It is an absolute lunacy that any great fiction writer could never have imagined.
I am not a song writer, but a song along the lines of "72 virgins in the paradise" could make an interesting title. Do the mu slims have copy rights to "72 virgins"?
Ever since the story broke, I've been of two minds. My first sense is that this is a natural development. The soldier in question knows who the enemy is and this is good. He knows the environment in which he is placed and the significance of the book he was using in target practice. His testimony to friends and family, his community at large, when he comes home may help raise consciousness regarding the problem of Islam: more of a psychosis than a religion. And when he gets home, let him use the Qur'an for skeet shooting for all I care. It's visually more engaging and psychologically more effective: "Pull!....Ka-BLAM!" And the leaves come fluttering down...but on his time and in his name as a matter of free speech and expression as exercised by a private citizen.
He must have been aware of the ramifications of such an act, should it be discovered: The inevitable frothing hysteria of Moslems whipped into a fury by even more rabid and implacable clergy. That he might be presenting his superiors with a lose-lose situation: Either ignore the rantings and the inevitable rabble-rousing with the hope that it will go away or suppress their collective gag-reflex and apologize in an effort to manage the situation with a minimum of upset. This soldier's action was a breach of discipline, a move that others, his comrades, may have to pay for. I'm assuming that this soldier is no dummy and he may have been at some level aware of all of this. So the real story might be of dropping morale, of frustration in the Iraq mission and the futility of pretending that a society infused with Islam can evolve with a few well-meaning platitudes and programs. Unh uh. Not gonna happen.
Iraq was a mistake. It was the wrong next step for the West to take. Saddam was just the type of self-serving SOB that was required to bung up that society and should have been exploited in that capacity. So what if the coalition beat the Iraqi army? President Bush was right on one thing: this war is like no other. It is long-term and has been pointed out on this site, involves non-military as well as military assets. The enemy is seeking to destroy the West with a minimum of cost to himself. 9/11 cost the US economy billions of dollars yet cost the perpetrators some hundreds of thousands. Now that's a return on investment. And maybe snipers like the soldier in this story, used in the right location and given the right signals are just the right, cost-effective response to this enemy htat likes to blend into crowds. But the sniper has to be smart.
We all have to be smart, from the front-line grunt to the brass to the president to the Congress to every eligible voter. And determined. This isn't going away soon.
Connie,
Thanks for posting the link to Pat Robertson's interview of Robert Spencer! I used to watch the 700 Club all the time, and even met Ben Kinchlow at a FGBMFI meeting. I tried to give him some Marian literature, but he politely declined the gift, and mentioned something about the Ashtoreth/Queen of Heaven reference in the OT. Anyway, it's a good thing that the CBN crowd has been introduced to Mr. Spencer and his written work.
Saudis Shred Bibles, Rights Campaigners Claim
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200505/FOR20050519a.html
"As a matter of official policy, the [Saudi]government either incinerates or dumps Bibles, crosses and other Christian paraphernalia," the Saudi Institute said in an article posted on its website.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006315.php
The double standards and hypocrisy of the Islamic world is breathtaking.
We should all, each of us kafirs, take a page from that book. The poor tactless bastard who shot it up probably went right out and fried up some pork chops for supper, too. He might even have a dog and an undraped girlfriend. If nothing else is true we know he's got a good healthy sense of the absurd. I'm drinking to him tonight. I say let the Mohametans stew in they're own damn juices til the moon comes. Skol.
up.
From post above: He might even have a dog and an undraped girlfriend.
Thats called 'uncovered meat', in some Islamic circles...
Once again, for the 10 thousandth time -- Mo is not a Prophet and the Koran is not holy.
Can you hear me now? (cell-phone reference, lol)
"The use of Islam's holy book for target practice..."
So much for journalistic ethics. This part of the sentence makes it sound like soldiers train by using the Qur'an for target practice, every day.
I doubt the soldier was using the Qur'an for target practice. He was deliberately shooting a Qur'an.
The teacher who used to edit my high school newspaper wouldn't allow such a sloppy, biased, irresponsible turn of phrase as this one.
The implication in this sentence fragment is just the kind of thing that gets Muslims all amped-up and "offended". Now, I don't care about offended Muslims, but I do care about giving them excuses for their extreme reactions, when it's carelessness, rather than calculation.
Mo-toons = good
Sloppy press = bad