I’ve been getting more emails than usual lately asking me to cut out the snark and just report on events.
Request noted. Answer: no.
Why? Because the purpose of posting a news article like the one below is twofold. One is to inform you that Sunni jihadists murdered 26 Shi’ites in a series of car bombings in Iraq. But the other is to show — yet again — the bankruptcy of the mainstream narrative about what is happening in the world. We just saw at the UN a steady drumbeat from Muslim leaders worldwide: the West must criminalize “Islamophobia.” “Islamophobia” is a crime against humanity. Do any of those leaders, or any of the Western media dhimmis who made the same call, say a word about Sunni-on-Shi’ite, or the Islamic beliefs that inspire it? No. Will any of them they say a word about the bombing of Sunday school children in Kenya, or the Islamic beliefs that inspired that? No. Will they weigh in on the ongoing murders of NATO troops by their putative Afghan allies, and the Islamic beliefs that inspire those murders? No. Will they have even a single word to say about the burning of Buddhist temples and homes in Bangladesh by Muslims enraged over a photo of a burnt Qur’an, and the Islamic beliefs that led to that?
No. Instead, they will say that Islam is a Religion of Peace, and that “Islamophobia” is the real problem, and that to oppose jihad savagery and Islamic supremacism is “hate.” The daily headlines, day in and day out for eleven years of Jihad Watch now, prove this to be so howlingly absurd as to be beneath rational refutation. They know that, too, which is why they are pushing for “hate speech” laws that will silence opponents of jihad: they know they cannot refute us, so they have to forcibly shut us up.
And they may well succeed in doing that. But in the meantime, I am going to continue to ridicule the absurd, nonsensical positions that they are trying to force everyone hold — on pain of charges of “racism” and “hate.”
“Bombs target Shiite areas, security forces in multiple cities across Iraq, killing 26,” by Sinan Salaheddin for The Associated Press, September 30 (thanks to Kenneth):
BAGHDAD – Bombs striking Shiite neighbourhoods, security forces and other targets across Iraq killed at least 26 people Sunday, officials said. It was the latest instance in which insurgents launched co-ordinate attacks in multiple cities across the country in a single day, apparently intending to rekindle widespread sectarian conflict and undermine public confidence in the beleaguered government.
The deadliest attack came in the town of Taji, a former al-Qaida stronghold just north of Baghdad, where three explosive-rigged cars went off within minutes of each other. Police said eight people died and 28 were injured in the back-to-back blasts that began around 7:15 a.m.
In all, at least 94 people were wounded in the wave of attacks that stretched from the restive but oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq’s north to the southern Shiite town of Kut.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, but car bombs are a hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq. The Sunni militant network has vowed to take back areas of the country, like Taji, from which it was pushed before U.S. troops withdrew last December.
Shortly after the Taji attacks, police said a suicide bomber set off his explosives-packed car in the Shiite neighbourhood of Shula in northwest Baghdad. One person was killed and seven wounded. Police could not immediately identify the target.
“So many people were hurt. A leg of a person was amputated,” lamented Shula resident Naeem Frieh. “What have those innocent people done to deserve this?”
And in Baghdad’s bustling Karrada neighbourhood, a parked car laden with explosives went off next to a police patrol, killing a police officer and a civilian, other officials said. Eight other people were injured. The blast was followed minutes later by another parked car bomb as people gathered, killing three civilians and injuring 12 others, they added. Secondary bomb blasts targeting those coming to help the wounded are a common insurgent tactic.
Elsewhere in the country, another suicide bomber drove a minibus into a security checkpoint in Kut, located 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Three police officers were killed and five wounded, Maj. Gen. Hussein Abdul-Hadi Mahbob said.
And in Iraq’s north, another policeman was killed when security forces were trying to defuse a car bomb parked on the main highway between the cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato, said Kirkuk police chief Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir. A second policeman was wounded in the blast, Qadir said. Kirkuk is about 290 kilometres (180 miles) north of Baghdad.
In mid-morning, another parked car bomb went off next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in the town of Madain, killing three Iraqis and injuring 11 others included seven Iranians, another police officer and health official said. Madain is a mainly Sunni area located 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Baghdad….
Senior central government officials were not available for comment.
What could they possibly say?