Sunni Muslim jihadists striking against the Alawite regime? Sunnis striking against Shi'ites? Or someone else? Whoever did this, in the Islamic media it will be blamed on the Zionists and Crusaders. "Killer car bomb hits Damascus," by Albert Aji for the Times Online, September 27:
A car bomb killed 17 people and injured 14 others on a crowded residential street in Damascus today, according to Syrian television.It said a car packed with 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of explosives blew up on Mahlak Street, in a southern district of the Syrian capital close to the city’s international airport. . The charred remains of the car was shown by television in the street near a primary school as firefighters stood near a wide crater believed be caused by the blast....
Bassam Abdul-Majid, the Syrian Interior Minister, called the bombing a terrorist act and said all the victims were civilians. But he would not say who might have been responsible. “We cannot accuse any party. There are ongoing investigations that will lead us to those who carried it out.”
Such bombings are rare in Syria, a tightly controlled country where President Bashar Assad's regime has used heavy-handed tactics to crack down on dissent.
But over the last year, the country has witnessed two high-profile assassinations. Several explosions have also been blamed on Sunni Muslim militants opposed to Syria’s secular government.
Today's bombing was by far the largest to hit the capital in recent times. It shattered building and car windows and twisted the roof off one car, according to footage aired on Syrian television.
The explosion occurred at the intersection that leads to Saydah Zeinab, a holy shrine for Shia Muslims frequently visited by Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims about five miles (8km) away. A building used by the intelligence services is also located in the area, but cars are not normally allowed to park nearby....
C h i c k e n s c o m i n g h o m e t o
R o o s t. LOL
The Religion of Pieces strikes again.
A major sponsor of terrorism is hit by terrorists.
Pardon me if I feel no sympathy for any of them.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Alawites, who constitute much of the officer corps and control the government, make up only 12% of the population. They are regarded by true-blue Sunni Arabs (who make up 70% of the population of Syria) as not-real-Muslims, in something like the way that Ahmadis (Qadianis) in Pakistan are regarded. This bodes ill for their future, should their grip ever slip.
The Syrian regime has chosen to rely on an alliance with Shi'a Iran. Iranian muftis issued a ruling a few years ago declaring that Alawites were, indeed, Muslim, but the Sunni Muslims who wiped out an entire graduating class of Alawites from the militray academy, and who threatened the power of Hafez al-Assad until he levelled Hama, with the Alawite-led army instructed to shoot down anyone who shouted "Allahu Akbar" (and in Haleb, or Aleppo, the second city of Syria, corpses were dragged through the streets, and everyone had to come out -- Armenians, Sunni Muslims, everyone -- from their houses, or stand on their balconies, and applaud the spectacle.
Bashir al-Assad has recently ordered that his picture no longer be omnipresent in every window or on every wall, and that's an unusual and possibly good sign. But will it be enough to cause the Sunni Muslims, alarmed by the stories (some no doubt exaggerated) of Shi'a missionaries making great inroads, to be less alarmed? Will the alliance with Iran make the Sunnis less nervous? And what if Mr. Big, Saudi Arabia, together with other Gulf Arab states, decides to really turn on the Alawites, and blare propaganda against them as...Infidels?
And one waits, and waits, for the American government to understand that the Alawites can be threatened -- threatened qua Alawites, told that if they do not back away from Iran, then the Americans will encourage the Sunni Arabs (who fear Iran) to do everything they can to paint the Alawites as Infidels, and if the situation in Syria were to again become as it was in the early 1980s, it is doubtful that Bashir al-Assad will be able to suppress Sunni opponents the way his father did.
And should the Sunnis win, not a single Alawite village will remain unscathed.
It's the Alawite choice: continued support for, and collaboration with, Iran, or enduring what may happen if the Americans do not try to discourage, but rather to encouragem Sunni propaganda to go to work on unsettling the Alawites.
And one waits, and waits, for the American government to understand that the Alawites can be threatened -- threatened qua Alawites, told that if they do not back away from Iran, then the Americans will encourage the Sunni Arabs (who fear Iran) to do everything they can to paint the Alawites as Infidels, and if the situation in Syria were to again become as it was in the early 1980s, it is doubtful that Bashir al-Assad will be able to suppress Sunni opponents the way his father did.
..and this (not the Koran or the inherent badness of Islam) is why we won't win the war against terrorism.
If the Americans are encouraging the genocidal Wahhabi sponsors of 9/11 to do what they do best (slaughtering defenseless civilians), then who is supporting terrorism here?
We're currently helping the genocidal Wahhabi sponsors of 9/11 build a nuclear facility. Hey, that'll really help us deal with Syria. What could go wrong with a brilliant plan like that?
A thread was posted about this attack on a very large forum that's used by thousands of people on any given hour. One user quickly brought up the Crusades to illustrate how Christians are just as bad, and another went on to say that "Christianity has caused far more harm than Islam." A third user proclaimed that Islam must be a religion of peace because one Muslim says it is, and a fourth announced that all religions have the same problem with extremists.
The forum once banned a user for saying that Mohammed was a pedophile (apparently you're "anti-Muslim" if you say that), and banned another for using the term "kaffir" when describing how Jihadists relate to infidels.
Virtually any forum that isn't specifically conservative or right-wing or otherwise opposed to Islam is exactly the same.
Let's see now:
-the Alawites are a separate sect of Islam and have chosen to align themselves with Iran - the leading state sponsor of terrorism.
-the Alawites murdered a Lebanese public official who threatened Syria's hold on Lebanon.
-Sunnis threaten the Alawites.
And why should any American even care?
Isn't this just more of them positioning themselves to force us to choose sides and then both sides going after "the infidel"?
If Iraq is a tar-baby then what makes Syria worthy of notice or its leadership or its people worthy of rescue from the dastardly Sunnis?
What have the Alawites ever done for us?
Muslims blowing up other muslims. So what?
"Bassam Abdul-Majid, the Syrian Interior Minister, called the bombing a terrorist act and said all the victims were civilians."
Just the way the Muslims prefer them...so what if the victims are Muslims...Islam is just a thrill kill machine and loves to see blood and body parts..even those of other Muslims..
that thing in the Qur'an about Muslims being forbidden to kill other Muslims...well..It's a lie...just like every thing else in that insane, evil book..
errata : s/b : it's a lie...just like so many other things in that insane, evil book..
If Iraq is a tar-baby then what makes Syria worthy of notice or its leadership or its people worthy of rescue from the dastardly Sunnis?
What have the Alawites ever done for us?
I have no objections to the idea of attacking Syria, in fact, we should be doing more of that. Israel should have attacked Syria, rather than Lebanon in the summer of 2006, because Syria controls Hezbollah. The Lebanese government does not. Syria is the weakest link in the Iran-Syria-Lebanon axis.
But should we continue to feed and nurture the the Saudi/al Qaeda network in the hopes that they'll help us deal with the Syrians? Should we trust the sponsors of 9/11 to look our for our interests in the Middle East? If you had a rabid pit bull that already ate grandma and the kids, would you trust it to guard the rest of the family?
The Saudis are the terrorism we're supposed to be fighting. Our state department relies on these rabid pit bulls keep our economy going, and they rely on them to keep peace in the middle east. Look at how much good they've done already.
It just the beginning for the Alawites.
For years , the radical islamists in Syria and out of Syria are preparing attacks against the Alawites. It is no secret. Let see what they are going to do when they find the author of the bombing.
For sure , they are not going to put him or them on trial for years and in a jail with Tv and exercise room.
Welcome to Dar Al Suicide Bombing aka Hell.