I think we need to look at the root causes here. Obviously these aid workers have been oppressing these holy men.

Posted by: DrunkenBlogger at December 23, 2005 9:56 AM

The first question that comes to mind is - what the hell were they doing in Somalia in the first place. If any place on earth deserves a wide berth, it's this hellhole (Somaliland is the northernmost part of Somalia).

Posted by: johnb at December 23, 2005 10:36 AM

“Det Chief Insp Jill Bailey told the hearing that last month four men,…had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death by firing squad. The TERRORISTS shouted "Allah Akbar" (God is Great) after being sentenced and are still awaiting execution.”

Props to Auslan Cramb for actually calling a spade “a spade” (i.e. terrorists)

"Miss Bailey said the men were part of a terrorist cell called El Itihad which had killed an Italian nun a week earlier. She also said that Essa's brother-in-law, Adan Ayro, who owned the house in which Essa was captured, could have had links to al-Qa'eda. A plan to blow up an Ethiopian airliner and bomb-making manuals were uncovered during the investigations.
"The defendants did not recognise their actions as crimes," Miss Bailey said. "They felt justified in murdering infidels who they believed were offending Muslim fundamentalism."

The hard truth is that according to the Qur’an, they WERE justified in what they did. What passages in the Qur’an would a “moderate” Muslim use to convince a fundamentalist murderer that his actions are diametrically opposed to a Mohammedan lifestyle?...crickets chirp…

Now, what passages in the Bible would a Christian use to convince a similar offender that his actions were not Christ-like? Try every scripture referring to Jesus in the NT for starters.

There is no comparison between these two faiths. No more than there is light with darkness.

Posted by: XRDC at December 23, 2005 10:39 AM

Humm ... "They felt justified in murdering infidels who they believed were offending Muslim fundamentalism."

I AM (AND YOU SHOULD BE) TOTALLY F@#*&ING OFFENDED BY THIS "LOGIC."

Posted by: What_the at December 23, 2005 12:44 PM

A similar murder, of Annalena Tonelli, Italian woman who had lived in Somalia for decades in order to help the local population, took place within the last year.

Here is a story about that murder. For more simply google "Annalena Tonelli":

"Beloved aid worker shot in Somalia: Italian woman had devoted half her life to the needy in a violent and chaotic African nation

Osman Hassan
Associated Press
7 October 2003
Vancouver Sun

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- An Italian aid worker who dedicated 33 years of her life to helping Somalis was shot and killed outside the hospital she founded to treat tuberculosis patients, a Somali official said Monday. Annalena Tonelli, 60, was shot about 8 p.m. Sunday by a man who had been hiding in the shadow of a tree, waiting for her to emerge from the hospital in Borama, the official said. "The man fired two rounds from a pistol at her forehead," said Abdulkadir Suleman Ali, who spoke by telephone from the town in northwestern Somalia. The motive for the killing was not known. The gunman escaped and no suspects have been detained, Ali said. Colleagues and residents expressed shock at the brutal slaying of a figure beloved for her dedication and closeness to her adopted home. Tonelli's work was all the more remarkable because she was independent, raising her own money and running her own programs. Most aid workers in Africa represent established organizations. Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said his agency was devastated by Tonelli's death, which came just months after he presented her with the Nansen Refugee Award, worth $134,000 Cdn, in recognition of her work. A small crowd gathered around Tonelli's hospital as news of her death spread. She was supposed to have inaugurated a new wing on Monday, Ali said. "Everybody in Borama liked her for her Somaliness," said Abdisalan Jama Gahayr, a doctor at the hospital. "I worked with her for seven years and her temper never changed, even during the difficult times." Tonelli had worked with Somalis in Somalia and neighboring Kenya setting up clinics to fight tuberculosis and creating awareness about AIDS as well as about the harmful effects of female circumcision. A lawyer by training, she saw to it that she had the right education for her mission, earning degrees in tropical medicine, community medicine and disease control, the UN refugee agency said. She was fluent in Somali. Tonelli had been in Borama since 1996, using donations from friends and family to set up the 200-bed hospital for tuberculosis patients. The town, 935 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu, is in the breakaway region of Somaliland. Somalia, a Muslim country on the Horn of Africa, has been beset by chaos and violence, with no central government since longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. Tonelli was well aware of the dangers of working in the country; she'd been kidnapped once and been subjected to beatings, banditry and death threats in the past, the UN refugee agency said. Simone Wolken, UNHCR's representative for Somalia and Tonelli's friend, said she worked and lived with Somalis because she wanted to help those "most underprivileged."

The killing of Western Infidels proceeds not only in Somalia, but all over those parts of Africa that are now a war zone -- that is, a war that is being fought by Muslims against all those whom they take to be promoters of Christianity and, therefore, obstacles to the Jihad to spread Islam all over sub-Saharan Africa.

Posted by: Hugh at December 23, 2005 1:25 PM

I am appalled, but I am not surprised. The Koran teaches such acts of violence.

Posted by: WatchfulEye at December 23, 2005 5:14 PM

This is similar to the people who visit the chaotic Gaza strip and end up getting killed or kidnapped by the very "underprivlaged" people they're trying to help. I feel sorry for the innocent people who have to starve and suffer in the Third-World but they must realize that Islam is their biggest scource of poverty. Untill then all the aid in the world won't matter.

Posted by: JadeDragoness at December 23, 2005 5:40 PM

To "WatchfulEye", Have you ever bothered to read the Bible? You know, "eye for an eye", and all the stuff that the Spanish Inquistion was based on? People fail to realize that America's experiment in Democracy is over 200 years old. These people are coming out of dictatorships, fuedal systems (things America never suffered from) and all sorts of other madness. Most of these people are very illiterate and have to be told what the Quran says. Imagine if the slaves could read the new testament. Do you think they would have been put up with the stuff they were told that God said they were supposed to be slaves? Ever wonder why they weren't taught to read? America is OLD compared to other democracies or governments. We expect younger governments to behave like we do. Even still, here in our great land, blacks were just given their share of the American pie less than 40 years ago. When was the last time you expected a 4 year old to know the difference between right and wrong? When was the last time you ran across an illiterate adult who was born and raised here? I'm not condoning the killings, just telling you that what you see isn't the religion. It is a distortion of the religion to suit someone's purpose. All religion can be distorted. Don't belive me? Tell me why the Spanish Inquistion was allowed to happen? Why was Joan of Arc burned at the stake? How about the Salem Witch Trials? Doesn't the bible tell you not to allow a witch to live? For every Al-Qaeda terrorist who claims to be a Muslim, I can show you a hundred moderate, law abiding, tax paying muslims who hate those bastards more than you do. Just my 2 cents.

Posted by: Luq07 at December 23, 2005 7:01 PM

Looky-there^^^ straw-men dancing!

Posted by: kentim at December 23, 2005 8:10 PM

Luq07,
Please spare us your islamic propaganda, it only makes us throw up.
We are not scared when we fly in a plane with jews or Christians.

We only feel threatened by MUSLIMS.

Understand?

If islam would have a nit of honor in it and if you would have as a Muslim a bit of virtue and manliness, you would at least be able to acknowledge your own errors instead of pointing the finger at others when confronted with hard and repeated evidence against islam.
But Islam is so despicabkle that it teaches you muslims to say "it wasn't me!" like a stupid child at school when caught red-handed in mischief.

Be a man! Leave islam!

Posted by: rocky at December 23, 2005 9:55 PM

http://members.mountain.net/theanalyticpapers/
Robert L. Kocher-
"One of these factors is the level of denial on the part of any particular Muslim who desperately wishes to convince himself, or others, that Islam and Mohammed mean peace. To disregard the long history and direct messages of Islam requires enormous denial of reality. However, the human mind is more than capable of meeting the challenge. There are Islamic people who probably sincerely believe it is a peaceful religion unfairly blemished by the actions of a tiny proportion of radicals.
They undoubtedly want to believe they are not involved in something as terrible, corrupt, warped, and precarious as they are. In this, they are much like the hundreds of cult-residents of Jonestown and believers in the Reverend Jim Jones in the late '70s or early '80s who refused to see the truth of what they were involved in right through the time they drank the cyanide Kool-Aid in an act of mass suicide. The reality of Islam is, after all, so terrible that the human mind has difficulty in believing its nature..."

"Denial-Ridden Believers"

"Islam also has its share of denial-ridden believers. Those Islamic believers are not necessarily suicidal or destructive in the complete sense described above, but they believe. They believe in the goodness of Islam despite any evidence of evil. There is a suicidal pattern seen in the jihadist suicide bombers that is more one of blind fanatic warlike dedication than of bland masochistic submission. The denial-ridden try to believe. They blind themselves to evil realities in those attempts. They don't know any better or they have presentation of no alternative. The craziness and crazies of the Muslim world crouch down and hide behind the deluded with their sweet hopeful sincerity while the crazies work beneath the surface and in the underground to gain power and await their day to exert Allah's idealistic retribution.

The oblivious pleasant true believers are the outside skin of a poisoned apple. Their misrepresentation of Islam makes them more dangerous than that which they misrepresent. If you are sucked into their denials, wishs and fantasies about their own religion, the reality is likely to kill you. Every area where Islam exists has suffered accordingly or has had to fight against suffering accordingly...."

Posted by: kentim at December 23, 2005 9:56 PM

Luqo7,

You tell me why the Spanish Inquistion was
"allowed to happen", as you put it.

Do you know anything at all about the Spanish Inquisition?

C'mon big man, tell all.

Posted by: Anthony at December 24, 2005 7:36 AM

. Trials? Doesn't the bible tell you not to allow a witch to live? For every Al-Qaeda terrorist who claims to be a Muslim, I can show you a hundred moderate, law abiding, tax paying muslims who hate those bastards more than you do. Just my 2 cents.
Posted by: Luq07 [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 23, 2005 07:01 PM

Luq07, just read the rest of your Koran, and if you can liberate yourself, you will leave the cult of death you call "Islam". yes many so called moderate tax paying muslims dont like murder, it still does not change the wording of the koran. leave it while you can! that is if you are living in a western country where the immans can't get you!

Posted by: Lulu at December 25, 2005 1:01 PM