| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
In Morocco, I've been told more than once, they don't have jihadists. Islam is different there. It's a long way from Morocco to Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. Yet Morocco too doesn't seem free of jihadist sentiment. "Jihadists in Jails Win Leverage Over Their Keepers," by Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet for the New York Times (thanks to all who sent this in):
CASABLANCA, Morocco — Ahmed Rafiki sprawled on the makeshift couch in his cell, a fresh red henna dye in his long hair and beard.
As Muhammad recommended.
Known to other militants as the father of Moroccan jihadists, he was convicted in 2003 of leading young men to fight Americans in Afghanistan. But here in Oukacha Prison, Mr. Rafiki, an Islamist cleric, is serving the final months of his sentence in style.His kitchen and larder are stocked three times a week by his two wives. His curtained doorway leads to a private garden and bath. He has two radios and a television, a reading stand for his Koran and a wardrobe of crisply ironed Islamic attire.
“In my case,” he said with a smile, “the people treat me well.”
Hardly a scene of harsh interrogation and detention for which Moroccan prisons are known, Mr. Rafiki’s plush prison life is evidence of an awkward balancing act between the crackdown on militants in many countries and the power those militants can hold over the authorities.
Through hunger strikes and protests, Mr. Rafiki and Oukacha’s 65 other militant inmates have won perks — including exclusive use of the conjugal rooms — that make them the envy of the prison’s 7,600 other inmates.
One recent morning, a prisoner advocate handed the warden a long list of inmates not linked to terrorism cases who were demanding equal time with their wives.
“‘Why do they get much more rights than we get here?’” the advocate, Assia El Ouadie, said the other prisoners constantly asked her. “‘Do you want us to become terrorism prisoners, and then we will get those rights?’”
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at December 31, 2007 3:27 PM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
|
"A tiny handful of extremists" who, nonetheless, apparently have so much support that when they are imprisoned in Muslim-dominated lands, the governments treat them with kid-gloves though these same governments are quite capable of another kind of treatment. The luxury, hotel-like accomodations of Mr. Rafiki may be usefully compared with the treatment of the family of Mohammed Oufkir (see "Twnety Years in a Desert Prison" by Mailika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi).
There can be only one explanation for this -- the one that Western leaders are doing everything possible to avoid giving, for its implications, for them, are too painful.
Posted by: Hugh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 31, 2007 3:57 PM
Some Middle Eastern and European countries are using moderate imams in prisons in hopes of quelling the extremist fervor. “You have to fight their ideology with Islam and against their wrong interpretation of Islam,” said a top Syrian security official.
I would pay to see the "correct interpretation" used by Syrian security officials. It's probably in the same secret vault to which only Ibrahim Hooper has the other key.
If it were so easy to fight the Jihadists' wrong interpretation of Islam, this article wouldn't have been written. An obvious implication of this article is exactly what Spencer has written over and over: the Jihadists are not the ones struggling to convince other Muslims that their interpretation of Islam is "correct." Look at these Jihadists, brimming with confidence and pride as they follow their true path. And then look at everyone else--mostly Muslims in this case--scattered, confused, and panicked about what to do about it.
at December 31, 2007 4:40 PM
Reward the criminal, punish the innocent and despise everyone else. Justice, righteousness and love according to Allah. Oh, and Islam is the religion of peace.
If this were satire it would be a perfect fit. SAD ISN'T IT! I know I am preaching to the choir but all infidels better wake-up.
Maybe as a New Years resolution, all here with tongue in cheek ask any who will listen, "Why is Islam called the religion of peace, when we see in the news something different?" Just to get them thinking. Do answer or argue just let it steep and see what happens. Could be quite fruitful. Plant the seed.
Happy New Year
Phl 2:15
... so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world...
الفلبين 2:15
... حتى يتسنى لك ان تثبت ان لانفسكم دون اللوم والابرياء ، ابناء الله فوق الشبهات في خضم ملتويه والمنحرفه جيل ، من بينهم كما يبدو انك أضواء في العالم...
at December 31, 2007 5:28 PM
Yeah, I just put that up here:
Gitmo’s Tasty Halal Burgers & Me
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/12/31/gitmos-tasty-halal-burgers-me/
at December 31, 2007 5:33 PM
Who is they conjugaling with in them there conjugalatin' rooms and how come we aint got any here in the good ole U.S. of A.?
Arent you surprised the Feds havent provided rooms for all our Islamists in our prison system?
Posted by: guide inside at January 2, 2008 4:06 AM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(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.)