From the Stop the Presses Department. Udugov is declaring jihad only now? What have they been fighting all this time? The fact that he would declare this now, when there is abundant evidence that it has already been raging, is another indication of how jihadists use current events as pretexts to justify what they are doing, portray themselves as merely reacting to grievous provocations from the enemies of Islam, and thereby gain recruits and sway public opinion.
By fulminating in this way about international law, Udugov hopes to obscure the fact that Maskhadov was killed because of Beslan, thus diverting attention from the blood on the jihadists’ hands. This is a small example of a tactic that is used to great effect in reference to Israel, Iraq, etc. The next time you hear someone invoking Abu Ghraib as the reason why they are fighting, remember this: they were fighting before Abu Ghraib, and before the Iraqi enterprise altogether, and before the founding of Israel, and even before the independence of the U.S. that they now identify as the Great Satan and the cause of all their woes. From UPI, with thanks to Nicolei:
[World News]: GROZNY, Russia, March 10 : A Muslim holy war has been pledged against Russia by Chechen rebels angry with the death of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“By killing Maskhadov, the Kremlin has killed the last illusion of those Chechens who, despite everything, still believed in so-called `international law’ and a civilized form of dealing with the current terrorist regime in Moscow,” said a statement by guerrilla spokesman Movladi Udugov on a rebel Web site.”We ask God to accept the holy war of …Aslan Maskhadov!” Maskhadov, 53, was killed Tuesday in a special military operation in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt, 12 miles north of Grozny, the Chechen capital.