Tiny minority of extremists update: The ideology that inspired these two as yet unidentified Malaysians to travel to the Middle East intending to commit murder is of course undisclosed and unexamined in the following Malaysian media piece. The words ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslim’ are in fact not stated anywhere in the article, but the word ‘jihadist’ is indeed mentioned in paragraph seven. Of course everyone knows that jihad is a purely peaceful internal spiritual struggle, and that Islam is actually moderate, tolerant, peaceful, pure and noble. So how these wayward Malaysians decided to commit murder in the name of an ideology that shall not be named is no doubt fated to remain a mystery. From “Lebanon arrests two Malaysian suspected suicide bombers,” The Star, 28 October 2012:
KUALA LUMPUR: The Lebanese authorities have arrested two Malaysians believed to be suicide bombers and suspected to be linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.
The two, aged 21 and 28, were nabbed at Beirut International Airport.
Malaysian ambassador to Lebanon Ilango Karuppannan confirmed that the duo were picked up several days ago.
“They will be brought to court on Monday (tomorrow) and we will ask them whether they require counsel,” he told Bernama.
On Thursday, Lebanon’s Al-Joumhouria newspaper,
quoting security sources, said the Malaysians were detained by army intelligence on charges of being al-Qaeda members.Investigations revealed they were recruited into al-Qaeda by another Malaysian before being taken to Yemen where they met other members of the organisation.
Al-Joumhouria said that about two months ago, the two Malaysians had tried to enter Syria via Turkey on a jihadist mission to carry out suicide attacks.
Their planned attacks were coordinated by a man who was said to be responsible for the entry of all jihadists into Syria.
When the two Malaysians failed to enter Syria, they decided to head to Lebanon to carry out terrorist attacks but their activities caught the
eye of the army intelligence.Meanwhile, YVONNE LIM reports that the families of the suspects had been notified.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said that Wisma Putra [the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs] was closely monitoring the matter.
“We have been in touch with the authorities in Lebanon and we are also investigating the matter.
“The families of the suspects have been notified.
“We will reveal the details when more information is confirmed,” he said.
We shall see about that.