| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Yes, yes, of course: lone wolf militant Episcopalians, enflamed by their martial ideology, at it again. "'Lone wolf' attackers a security concern," from AP, with thanks to The One Who Must Not Be Named:
NEW YORK (AP) — Slumping in his prison clothes and pallid from a year behind bars, Shahawar Matin Siraj didn't look like much of a threat as he silently endured a routine hearing in federal court this month.But the 23-year-old Pakistani immigrant stands accused of a scheme to attack a busy New York subway station with bombs hidden in backpacks.
As police seek to secure the nation's largest transit system in the wake of the London Underground bombings, they say they are concerned about angry, isolated men like Siraj as much as organized terror networks like al-Qaida.
"One of the department's ongoing concerns is the emergence of 'lone wolves,'" said Paul Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman.
The first known plot against New York's subways was averted in 1997, police said, when officers acting on a tip burst into Palestinian-born Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer's Brooklyn apartment and shot him in the leg as he reached for a toggle switch on a pipe bomb. He was sentenced to life in prison after testifying he wanted to kill Jews riding the subway in Brooklyn.
Despite initial reports of Hamas ties, Mezer was acting with a single alleged accomplice, who was convicted of an immigration violation and deported after three years in prison.
Siraj was working at an Islamic bookstore in Brooklyn when he was approached in 2003 by an Egyptian-born police informant. The informant spent months secretly monitoring Siraj and his co-defendant James Elshafay.
As a result, police say they have recordings of the two men and the informant discussing how attacks on three spots — the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and subway stations at Herald Square near Macy's and next to Bloomingdale's on Manhattan's East Side — could damage the economy as part of a holy war against the United States.
And all that time the guy was working in an Islamic bookstore. Just think of all the opportunities he missed to dip into a few of those books and bone up on Islamic peace and tolerance.
What's that? He could have imbibed his jihad ideology from many of the books in the store? The works of Qutb, Maududi, and other key jihad theorists are readily available in Islamic bookstores in America? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?
Posted by Robert at August 10, 2005 8:31 PM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
IRONY
Its ironic that so many Pakistanis want to attack and kill Westerners. The West, including the United States and Britain, has poured hundreds of millions in development aid into Pakistan and also done much to support Pakistan's Jihad in Kashmir. Pakistanis in the West are also prosperous and live in countries which value freedom, equality and human dignity. But I guess equality is not what the Islamic terrorists want. They want privelage for themselves and subjugation of non-Muslims and Muslim women.
Its not about what they don't have, but about what they don't want others to have.
Barry Kumar
Posted by: barry![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 10, 2005 10:41 PM
Barry please enlighten me on how we have supported Pakistan's jihad in Kashmir. If it's just aid dollars that may be being diverted to their jihad that you are referring to, then hell, I'm sure India is also guilty of supporting the jihad against themselves as they would also give some kind of aid to Pakistan. Now that would be ironic.
Posted by: William The Crusader at August 10, 2005 11:48 PM
William, Your comment "I'm sure India is also guilty of supporting the jihad against themselves as they would also give some kind of aid to Pakistan " - is shocking.
I am an Indian settled in the UK. I have always noted that the US has had a slant towards Pakistan - they have consistently turned a blind eye even when there is overwhelming evidence that its the bastard Pakis who have been arming, training and sending hordes of Jihadis into Kashmir and Punjabis. Its the US who under the pretext of waging a war against the Soviets in Afghanistan armed Zia-ul-Huq. Look at what you are getting in return from the Pakis - home bred terrorists - I would not have extected anything else anyway. Even when India was being overrun by Bangla refugees in 1971 and finally when India decided to take up cudgels, whom did you support ?? Pakis of course.
Indians[ Indian Muslims - I dunno, I am speaking about Indian-Non-Muslims a.k.a Indian-Kaffirs ] on the other hand have been hard working and can say that they are contributing to the society where they live. I want to see a single case against any Indian-Kaffir for bombing or aiding terrorists. We have nothing against the West or for that matter against anyone else. Live and let live is the Indian philosophy - but mind you - our patience is being stretched to the limit - daily killings in Kashmir, Parliament attacked in 2001 .... the list is endless. Still, the US considers the Paki-bastards their best allies .... Huh ???
William, do you still say that India is responsible for her plight ??? If possible, I would love to play god and swap the geographical places of US and India. You will know how it is to live in a sea surrounded by hatred filled Muzziez and an uncaring world.
at August 11, 2005 2:36 AM
Slumping in his prison clothes and pallid from a year behind bars, Shahawar Matin Siraj didn't look like much of a threatAP,
You forgot to say he was "quiet" "liked" "intelligent" and "devout" by the few who'd met him - before he began to plan dozens of deaths. Serial killers and jihadis, if not fully-overlapping categories already, sure do sound very much the same in their news coverage.
Robert,
What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?
I suffer from Islamonausea. I'd never seen a behading, snuff film of any kind, or someone drawn and quartered by small cars before.
Thanks, ISLAM! Now I'm almost completely desensitized to violence and gore. I'm sure that's healthy.
P.S. Sorry about the comments. I'll miss Hugh's missives.
Any chance I'll ever see some of your earler books on Questia (paid, online, research service)?
Just one would be great. Sorry, I've done no research in determining whether it's a good deal for the author, or even have the first clue how Questia gets books online.
Posted by: Beagle at August 11, 2005 3:29 AM
Lone wolf? This is so naive. They can only discover one accomplice, so they call him a lone wolf. Are they familiar with the notion of "cells"? Compartmentalization so catching one terrorist doesn't bring them all down?
Posted by: AbbaGav at August 11, 2005 4:17 AM
Robert,
Anything which says "Understanding Islam" needs your attention, IMO. I sent you an e-mail which converted this link into unusability on its own.
Not my fault!
Posted by: Beagle at August 11, 2005 6:24 AM
Cracking article Beagle, full of terrific insights :)
"Indeed, the concept of democracy is central to Islam...Iran, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia"
I'm glad he put us straight on that one. Unfortunately, the staging of elections is only a necessary, not a sufficient condition, for democracy. Perhaps Dr Tahir Abbas also still subscribes to the view that the former Soviet Union (very regular elections), East Germany (after all, the German Democratic Republic), The Peoples Republic of China (regular elections) and so on, were/are also thriving democracies?
I think we should be told...
Posted by: thomas ato at August 11, 2005 6:49 AM
Here are a number of comments addressed to the various threads:
Beagle: The link you sent is a masterful example of Taqiya (loosely translated as deceit) in Islam. Dr. Tahir Abbas is simply brilliant at deflecting serious questions about Islam. It would be useful for us to collect such serious questions about Islam and provide good rebuttals of our own to the masterfully 'sanitized' answers that Dr. Abbas provides.
TheHindu: As a Kashmiri Hindu, driven out of Kashmir by Pakistani jehadists I understand (and share) your frustration at the USA's continued support of Pakistan as an 'ally' in their 'war on terrorism'. I'm told that this is purely tactical and that USA is merely using Pakistan. I can't help wondering if its the other way around; i.e. that it is Pakistan which is using the USA. I had rather liked Bush's clear-cut statement "either you are with us or against us in this war on (Islamic) terrorism". I just wish he would apply his own principle in choosing his allies. As long as we continue to have Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are our 'allies' in this war, I don't see how we can ever win!
Williams: You do have a point with regard to the need to share blame. We have politicians in India making the insane proposition that 'a strong Pakistan is good in the long term interests of India' and that India should, therefore, provide Pakistan with economic aid. Such statements, and the general appeasement policies of India towards muslims, are all signs of a Dhimmi nation.
To sum up, I think each country tends to view the 'problem' of Islamic terrorism through a very narrow prism. I believe that all countries affected by Islamic terrorism need to get their act together and work jointedly. A big first step towards this is dispelling the myths about Islam; and for that I can't thank Mr. Robert Spenser enough.
at August 11, 2005 11:51 AM
The only problem is, they aren't really "lone wolves." They are Muslims. Whether they belong to a formal cell or base or umbrella group means nothing.
We need to take out two of their targets for every one of ours. For every dollar they cost us, we seize ten of theirs. Can't you see the sign now:
"This mosque has been seized by the U.S. Government on behalf of its people. It will be stripped of its valuables, raised and the land and scrap sold, the profits of which will be distributed among those who lost money in the attack of (date and place here). They will be compensated 10 to 1."
Posted by: chaplain at August 11, 2005 2:56 PM
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)