Snapshots of the Islamic worldview, courtesy of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri.org provides a wonderful service - translating what Arabs are really saying in their media outlets):

There is some interesting soul searching going on, a direct result of the second gulf war:

An article published in the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam, columnist Taufiq Abu Bakr:

"[Lately], an opinion poll by Faisal Al-Qassem on his show on Al-Jazeera television caught my attention… 80% [of respondents] said they preferred [Western] imperialism to nationalist Arab regimes. This is a message to the shouters – the public will no longer be scared by hostile slogans against the other or any other obsolete slogans. I call on these people to go to Iraq's towns and talk to the ordinary people, away from the cameras. The latter will tell them that being rid of a regime that ruined the country, [trampled] its inhabitants, and annihilated its flora and fauna should be considered an enormous achievement that could never have been attained otherwise.”

In an article titled "But Who Will Apologize," Columnist Rajah Al-Khuri wrote this in the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar:

"Over half a century has passed since the Third Reich collapsed, and the German people has still not purged itself of the horrible Nazi crimes committed by Adolf Hitler. A few weeks ago, Saddam Hussein's regime crumbled, and there is still not sign that the Arab regime has grasped the heavy weight of Saddam Hussein's horrifying crime…"

"The facts revealed together with the mass grave of 15,000 victims, like all the other mass graves, are a huge mark of shame, not only on the forehead of the deceased Iraqi regime but also on the foreheads of the entire Arab existence and identity and on any one who says 'I am an Arab'… because contemporary Arabism includes [also] tremendous measures of hatred and barbarism..."

In "Mass Graves Don't Shake Their Consciences," columnist Salem Mashkur wrote this in the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar:

"This is how the defenders of Saddam's dead regime acted, claiming that Saddam was not the only despot in the Arab world. While the late regime slaughtered its own people for decades, all these 'Jihad warriors' and the various Arab 'fighters,' secular and religious, held their tongues. Some even welcomed this slaughter; others justified their silence [by claiming] it was a foreign conspiracy…! All these arguments [reflect] the… official and general Arab discourse: the negligible nothingness of the individual, and disparagement of his liberties, dignity, and even his bones in the mass graves…"

But let’s not let the open-mindedness get out of hand. There’s always time for a little Jew bashing, and this choice bit would be right at home in Mein Kampf:

“The Jews, on the other hand, have succeeded in [winning] world sympathy by playing on the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities. The result has been a world that gradually shifted from disliking Jews to sympathizing with them. The Jews are masters at manipulating the media, money, world organizations and pressure groups.”

The author, Dr. Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, wrote an article titled "Good Cause, Bad Lawyers" which appeared in three Saudi dailies this week. He is a high ranking Saudi official, responsible for economic and social development in both the public and private sectors of Saudi Arabia.

After Dr. (Ha!) Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, this doesn’t bother me much:

“the Saudi daily Okaz warned in an article subtitle that "the exit of Iraq [from OPEC] will cause mortal competition amongst all the producers." Dr. Wadi' Kabli, a professor of international economics at King Abd Al-Aziz University is concerned that if Iraq were to leave OPEC and follow the market mechanism for supply and demand it could cause OPEC to disintegrate and lead to the withdrawal of other countries from the organization, ‘and this will be the end of OPEC.’”

In the same vein, Hamas brags of its latest mass murder:

"16 killed and 75 wounded, several of which are clinically dead, following an operation by the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades against a Zionist bus on Jaffa street in Jerusalem..."

A bus filled with soldiers? No, just a regular city bus, filled with regular people. Hamas and its fellows try kill civilians, and they show no regrets when they do.

These civilians are people like Gal Aizenman. She was 5 years old when a Palestinian suicide bomber murdered her and her grandmother at a bus station in Jerusalem:



(Thanks to Little Green Footballs)

The Israelis try to kill terrorists, and they are trying to protect their homes and loved ones from fanatics like the members of Hamas. Sometimes, they miss and kill civilians. When they do, they regret it and they say so.

This is unfortunate, but not equivalent to what Hamas does.

The suicide bomber who killed this little girl was trying to do exactly what he did.

I read this somewhere, and it seems particularly apt now: The Palestinians would kill every Jew in Israel, but they can’t. The Israelis COULD kill every Palestinian in Gaza and the West Bank, but they won’t.

If they had the weaponry, the Palestinians would replicate the Holocaust.





- posted by total @ 6/12/2003 05:40:00 AM .