They can do this sort of thing with impunity, because one thing they can be sure of is that the Europeans will never stop giving the aid. "Al-Qaeda 'took French and Spanish hostages in Africa,'" from the BBC, December 8 (thanks to Twostellas):
An offshoot of the al-Qaeda network has reportedly said its members kidnapped three Spanish aid workers in Mauritania and a Frenchman in Mali last month.A spokesman for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb made the claim in an audio recording to the al-Jazeera TV station.
There has been no sighting of the four Europeans since the kidnappings, which took place within days of each other.
The same group is believed to be behind the murder of British hostage Edwin Dyer in June.
Pierre Camatte, 61, was taken from his hotel by gunmen in Menaka in Mali on 25 November, while Albert Vilalta, 35, Roque Pascual, 50, and Alicia Gamez, 35, were snatched from an aid convey near Mauritania's northern city of Nouadhibou on 29 November....
In the audio recording, al-Qaeda spokesman Saleh Abu Mohammad said his organisation had "managed to kidnap four Europeans in two distinct operations".
He added that the group would contact France and Spain at a later date with its demands, but gave no further details about what these were, AFP reported....
The UK recently warned its nationals not to visit northern Mali because of the threat of attack by the North African branch of al-Qaeda.
There goes my spring vacation.
In June this year an American teacher was killed in Mauritania, with al-Qaeda later claiming it had killed him for spreading Christianity in the Islamic state.
"They can do this sort of thing with impunity, because one thing they can be sure of is that the Europeans will never stop giving the aid."
Unfortunately, just another absurd JW comment. When, Mr. Spencer, are you going to budget those Logic 101 classes for the staff?
Even if the Europeans 'never stop giving aid', that, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that criminal activity can or does occur with impunity. And while the providing of aid to others lends itself to a host prudential, discretionary considerations, that doesn't mean that Westerners should automatically end efforts of assistance to others, including those in the Islamic world.
And perhaps, Mr. Spencer, you should consider Mali for spring break. I know folks who have visited the country and have enjoyed it. And I myself, have visited Yemen this year, Saudi Arabia last year, and Sudan and Jordan the year before. If JW is willing to provide the funding, I am willing to try to arrange my work vacation time to travel to Mali this spring and bring back a full report for everyone.
Overall, I must give my hosts credit in these countries for they actually have taken meaningful measures to try to ensure the safety of their guests. Perhaps JW could actually give some recognition to this as well.
Those Infidels who come only to help find that this does not save them. They are the objects of Muslim suspiciion and hatred. In Algeria, French priests who pwere killed at Tibourine, and the Italian monks who, sleeping peacefully on a ship off-shore (Muslim killers crept on board and slit their throats while they slept), were there not to spread the Gospel but only to practice the vocation of charity. Priests and nuns have been killed everywhere, and so have Protestant aid-workers, from North Africa to the Philippines. The only deliberate attacks on U.N. aid workers have been, always and everywhere, by Muslims, and those who continue to offer aid are endangered -- see Afghanistan, see Somalia, see Yemen, see see see see. Draw some conclusions.
The Western elites exhibit a deficient sense of danger. It is not only this or that aid group or aid-workers, the victims of Muslim hatred for Infidels. It is also exhibited in the failure of Western countries to help othe non-Muslims, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, who are victims of Muslim aggression, as with the Christians of Nigeria who were abandoned by the West (save for Israel) during the Biafran War, and who are now being endangered by the power of Libyan and Saudi money, that pays for mosques, madrasas, sound-systems (see Lome, in Togo, for what Libyan money has done in this regard), and by Muslim diplomatic protection of, support for, Muslim mass-murdering of Christians in the southern Sudan. Black African Christians deserve support, including where necessary military support, from the West, and they wait, and they hope, but that military support -- especially in the southern Sudan, where a few thousand American or NATO troops could rescue millions, and draw a line against the Jihad in black Africa, and hearten and embolden black Africans to no longer be submissive to the Arabs, as they have been since 1967 (when Arab bribes cut off black African ties to Israel, and ended the latter's aid program that had been so helpful, because so carefully crafted to meet the agricultural and other needs of the recipients).
But the Western world seems dead-set on not making sense of the killings by Muslims of aid-workers, or of local non-Muslims, or of anyone else who stands in the way of, or is thought to stand in the way of...Islam.
fairuzfan...that doesn't mean that Westerners should automatically end efforts of assistance to others, including those in the Islamic world.
Maybe not to you, since you are probably a recipient. As a US taxpayer, I don't want one nickle going to the 'Islamic' world...
Duh Swami, I didn't specify that aid should be from public funding. It actually shouldn't. But I'm a 'recipient'? Of what, exactly? Quite presumptuous, aren't you, with no basis for such inanities. Would you like to compare financial records as to which of us has funded and given more of their personal resources this year to charitable aid and the breadth and depth of the nature of the recipients?
fairuzfan...Duh Swami, I didn't specify that aid should be from public funding...
No? Where do you suppose it will come from? The Saudi's?
F...Would you like to compare financial records...?
That's a joke...right?
Your one generous fellow...rich too apparently, just what 'charities' do you financially support?...Maybe your not on the dole, but if you live in almost any country except the US, especially Islamic countries, you are a beneficiary of some kind of US aid, even if you don't know it, and even if you don't want it...
Such is the hatred Muslims have for Infidels that they willingly kill those Infidels that volunteer to help the Muslims and Non Muslims equally to fight disease, to improve agriculture methods to better feed the poor, and in many ways improve their standards of life...The Muslims bring only violence and death....not much else....oh wait a minute...they bring Islam....
"No? Where do you suppose it will come from? The Saudi's?"
bwahahahahahahahaa...
or maybe the government of Yemen,Iran, Somalia, Maldives, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Qatar, Iraq, or Syria?......
bwhahahahahahaha...
If aid of any kind is to be given to Muslim countries or peoples, it should come from the fabulously rich Arabs of the Gulf, with their unmerited trillions. Put the concept of sharing, within the Umma, to the test. After all, didn't the Arabs claim that the oil bonanza was a sign of special favor shone by Allah? And don't all of Allah's people, the best of peoples, the Arabs and, to a much lesser extent, the Muslims, all deserve to share in that wealth? Fine. Go ahead. Share away. Leave the Infidels out of it.
Four more aid workers taken hostage!
Yawn.
Your point is valid in part, Mr. Fitzgerald. It certainly doesn't seem that the oil-flush Gulf Arabs have done enough of what they could to aid improverished Islamic lands, from Sudan to Pakistan. When one has funds to build palm islands and world islands, but not enough to provide robust aid in needy areas, priorities need to be seriously reviewed.
But this doesn't establish some supposed basis for Westerners to withhold all aid. People in genuine need are people in genuine need. Having had the opportunity to meet Abdul Edhi and learn more and see what he does in Karachi alone, not to mention the rest of Pakistan, I have seen true human generosity of spirit at work. And human need on an immense scale.
These matters all lend themselves to appropriate prudential judgments. But Christianity has no place for anti-Islam animosity red-lining of those in need.
Why would the rich Arab states bother with charitable aid when the dhimmi stooge western countries are tripping all over themselves to supply it. The Arabs know this, and choose to spend their money on the spread of their vile, despicable, fascist, totalitarian, death cult, ideology.
fairuzfan at this thread:
"But Christianity has no place for anti-Islam animosity red-lining of those in need. "
fairuzfan at a thread just above (under my article on the Afghanistan folly), however, signalling that he is a far-right coughlinite-lefebvrite (but possibly with a sharing-and-caring "liberation theology" mixed in -- hard to tell), mentions with pride such victories of Catholic Europe over the Muslims as "Tours, Lepanto, and Vienna." I corrected him about the significance of Lepanto in the thread above, and won't repeat the simple history lesson here.
'
But the idea that we in the imperilled West, who have to spend hundreds of billions more on security because of the threat of Islam, and of adherents of Islam both within and without, should help Muslims anywhere, when Muslim states have received more than twelve trillion dollars -- for doing nothing but sitting on oil and gas deposits-- since 1973 alone, is absurd.
If we have any aid money left, it should go to only two kinds of recipients: those on the front line of fighting the Jihad, or who are the greatest and most immediate victims of Jihad. Israel, and the Christians of the southern Sudan, come to mind. I know exactly what fairuzfan thinks of that suggestion.
"But this doesn't establish some supposed basis for Westerners to withhold all aid."
You'd better believe it does. When we see the largest skyscraper/hotel in the world and palm islands and gold plated Rolls Royces and incredibly opulent palaces and smug smirks and decadent attitudes,not to mention complete intolerance to other faiths,(take this exit now or else before Mecca), pre-pubescent wives and all the rest of it,perhaps more donations and aid would be justified along with Saudi supposed "brothers" contributions.Brothers my ass.
It was American know-how that helped them get the oil out of the ground and yes they are to be commended for their efforts in supplying the world with their commodity,but don't use it at the expense of trying to spread a self-defeating ideology around the world and negating their much poorer (again brothers!)and leaving it to the supposedly rich west to take care of them. It's not the west anymore.We're done.Over-taxed and over generous for as much as could be done,without getting threatened or killed for it.
It's the Chinese and Saudis that hold the cards now. We in the west have played our hand.Took three cards (play poker F?) and ended up with a pair of deuces. The next deck will be calligraphic and beautifully inscribed,but don't look sideways at the dealer,he'll make sure you get a raw deal with a smile.
Did you not see that enormous military exposition recently in China? Jihad me at Shanghai! Ask China and the Saudis for handouts,not US. But of course we'll keep on giving,suckers for punishment that we are,just in the hope that these impoverished people will see that we really are not all that bad after all,and to try to make their hateful children untwist their minds, to not the Islamic truth as so professed,but a paradigm shift truth that makes them see that we're not the "enemy". We're trying to help! Evidently to no avail,because your religion denies you of respecting this help.(me when I was 32,funny?laugh on me F) Hence the conflict with others and amongst yourselves. So go ahead keep trying,the way it is.It won't matter after the Chinese take over the helm.
In the meantime,learn mandarin,I'm too old to bother.cheers F,lower case c for you because,you're still the enemy.You don't acknowledge the Chinese war machine,(perhaps you do,let's hear it,and no Allahs will bs)which is supposedly next on your agenda,and you don't acknowledge thankfully, enough, the aid that has gone from good HARD WORKING AMERICANS. Good f'n luck to you and yours,all 1.2 to 3 billion of you.Won't matter in a hundred years. The Chinese won't be so nice.Look at the Uighurs.More Saudi "brothers". Stifled.Again.Death sentences.The only justice Islam knows.They're right! They'll do the same to Islam. They already are! Just as Islam is killing Christians.
Where's the jihad in China? Oh yeah,one step at a time.You are facing the same dilemma we are vis-a-vis Chinese population vs Muslim population vs Indian population. (Boy Asians can fuck can't they?). The more jihadis wait the harder it will be to take over.Better hurry!
Question for ya F: How do Muslims propose to confront the Chinese?
Nuke the whole of China? Convert then kill?Kill then convert then kill what's left? Then kill Japan and Australia then be one big fucked up happy dysfunctional jihad family?
I'm quite curious to know the answer to that F.,but don't bother answering, the western infidel kuffar invented net will do..for now..China don't like the net,get used to it.
I dont know about aid workers fromother countries, but i can tell you that those from my country, Spain - sorry catalans, but you are spanish like it or not-, are all deep into this PC- anti west self guilt how bad we were then how bad the us and israel are now. So, like if we and everybody else had not enough need for charity at home.But no, they are so worried about what is going on a million miles away.And many of these aid workers belong to the caviar-left.ENJOY IT.
I think some of your last comments are dubious, Mr. Fitzgerald, and I certainly stand by what I said. While all of this lends itself to prudential judgments, there is nothing wrong, and quite a bit commendable, in helping needy people, including those who have Islamic affiliations. I'm fairly certain the pope would agree with my view, not yours.
You say you know what I think about such aid to Israel and south Sudan? Exactly what would that be? I will say that assuming we're talking about material, charitable aid, which is what I've been talking about, I certainly have no problems with such aid and have been a donor to a number of Israeli Jewish charitable relief organizations as well as the Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund. And other Catholic organizations that I presume are involved in Sudan and other Christian areas.
One last point. If 'far right' is somehow meant to be some kind of pejorative adjective, I would say you are rather off base. While Catholic Tradition has had its hits in the past several decades, it is alive and well. And actually doing better than ever in the post Second Vatican Council era, if the fruits of Summorum Pontficum are any indication.
Wasn't it Renan who said that the best and kindest thing anyone could do for a Muslim was to liberate him (the Muslim) from his religion (Islam)?
So: for maximum bang per buck, in these days of scrimping and saving, everybody could donate to support the cult deprogramming work of Fr Zakaria Botros; or the Christian radio station in Monte Carlo that broadcasts gospel radio into North Africa; or the Far East Broadcasting Commission in Manila, which broadcasts into Indonesia and Malaysia (in their case, they also pour Alternative Life Programming into communist Vietnam and into China - liberating minds from a different kind of totalitarianism).
Atheists and agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus and Jews, if they really can't come at supporting explicitly Christian projects, can support Mr Ali Sina's Faithfreedom website.